Bonduel, WI

Bonduel is a Shawano County village whose name was settled by a post-office application in 1864. The community had been called Hartland Corners in early reports, but “Hartland” was already taken elsewhere in Wisconsin, so the applicant turned to a surveyor’s map and found the name of Father Florimond Bonduel near the Shioc River. The village incorporated in 1916, after years under the surrounding Town of Hartland. Bonduel’s other local legend follows the priest too: two bears are said to have defended him from an attacker, and the village still uses the bear story as part of its local shorthand. Bonduel is a Wisconsin village with a postal-office naming problem, a missionary’s name, and two very persistent bears.