Gibbsville, WI

Gibbsville is a census-designated community in the Town of Lima, Sheboygan County, near Oostburg. The Gibbs brothers settled here in 1836, making the place one of Lima's earliest permanent settlements; the town's post office followed in 1846. Lima's early economy ran on fertile farmland and a network of churches and cheese factories, and the wider town once had 17 cheese factories. Gibbsville's name also once described a larger township before Lima became the organized town in 1850.

Today Gibbsville remains an unincorporated village inside Lima, so town government and regional services shape the civic map. The former Lima Center School now serves as Town Hall, while the old post-office settlement sits within rolling farmland and the cheese-making history of southeastern Sheboygan County. The Town of Lima's boards and meetings handle local governance for Gibbsville and Hingham, the two unincorporated villages inside the town. Gibbsville's local clue is the name's reversal: a village gave its name to an earlier township, then became one of Lima's two communities.