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The Polish experience in Wisconsin was different than other in other communities in the U.S.: most came before 1890 and almost all were from areas ruled by Germany. The first sizable Polish settlement in Wisconsin was Polonia in Portage County in the 1850s.
In 1900, 80 percent of Wisconsin's Poles came from Germany while nationally, German Poles constituted only 39 percent of the population. Milwaukee was the center of Polish urban life in Wisconsin and had 30,000 Polish residents in 1890; by 1915, that number had increased to 100,000. Later migrations of Poles, from the 1890s on, were dominated by Austrian and Russian Poles who followed the path already established by the German Poles.
Wisconsin's Cultural Resources Study Unit, Wisconsin Historical Society
Source: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=1347
POLONIA, WISCONSIN
"The oldest Polish parish and settlement, not only in Wisconsin but also in the entire northwestern part of America, is Polonia, initially called Poland Corner. The beginning of this settlement dates back to the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1855, six Polish families came from Canada to the northeastern part of Portage County, about eight miles east of Stevens Point, and two miles from the Plover RIver. They settled there on land purchased from the Fox River Company, which was uncultivated and wildly overgrown. The Fox River Company had been granted a large portion of land , overgrown with virgin forest, from the government as compensation for digging a canal joining Fox River with Lake Michigan. After cutting out the woods, the company sold this land most inexpensively to the colonists....
The first permanent settlers in this area were Poles. They were not frightened by the huge amount of work, but with the obstinacy, patience and diligence that is innate to us, they set to work and from the wild, uncultivated region, they created the foundation of the current prosperity that is enjoyed not only by the Poles, but by all of the Portage County."
Quote from: Waclaw Kruszka, "A History of the Poles in America to 1908, Part IV."
The first families in Polonia, Wisconsin were: Krystian Dzwonkowski, Jakob Werechowski, Michal Kozyczkowski, Adam Klesmit, Jozef Szulfer, Jozef Daczyk and Jan Zynda.
Helpful sites:
https://uwm.edu/mkepolonia/introduction/
According to "Poles in Wisconsin" by Susan Gibson Mikos, the counties in Wisconsin with 27,000 of Polish immigrants are: Douglas, Clark, Marathon, Portage, Marinette, Oconto, and Milwaukee. For further study I encourage the interested to view the map which is included under photos.