Browning is a town in Taylor County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 910 at the 2020 census. The unincorporated community of Gad is located in the town.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 36.5 square miles (94.6 km<sup>2</sup>), of which 36.5 square miles (94.5 km<sup>2</sup>) is land and 0.03% is water. The east and west branches of the Little Black River flow through the town. The soil of most of Browning is called Merrill till.
History
The south and east edges of the six by six mile square that would become Browning were first surveyed in 1851 by crews working for the U.S. government. In the fall of 1861 a different crew of surveyors marked all the section corners in the township, walking through the woods and swamps, measuring with chain and compass. When done, the deputy surveyor filed this general description:
<blockquote>The Surface of this Township is generally level or gently rolling. Soil is principally 2nd Rate Timber Hemlock Birch Sugar White Pine Spruce and Fir and it is well watered by numerous Small Streams of pure water.</blockquote>
Around 1873, the Wisconsin Central Railroad built its line up through the forest just west of what would become Deer Creek, through Medford heading for Ashland. This opened up the nearby lands to settlers. To finance this undertaking, the railroad was granted half the land for eighteen miles on either side of the track laid - generally the odd-numbered sections.
An 1880 map of this area shows early roads spanning the six-miles square that would become Browning. One follows the course of modern Highway 64 from west to east.
When Taylor County was formed in 1875, the six-mile square that would become Browning was part of a larger Town of Medford, which spanned the county east to west. In 1895 the town of Browning was split out on its own.
A map from around 1900 shows settlers' homesteads dotted along the road that would become highway 64, along another road following the course of the future County O that spanned the south edge of the town, and along some roads that connected the two. The north half of the town had no roads except for 2.5 miles around what is now Frey Lane. On that Frey Lane corner, a sawmill, a rural school, and "Lynch P.O." were marked. On the road that would become 64 were a church, another rural school, and a sawmill where the road crossed the east fork of the Black. Another rural school was on what would become Hall Drive. Large chunks of the town were still unsettled, with the Wisconsin Central still holding large parts of some odd-numbered sections. Other large land-holders are Davis & Starr (the mill at Little Black), P.A. Merino, F.J. Witten, and E.F. Browning. One logging dam impounded the west branch of the Black and another the east.
The 1911 plat map shows the roads extended, with more settlers along them. By then a road followed the course of modern Grahl Road through the center of Browning, with a sawmill and a rural school added at the center of the township. A town hall was added where modern Hall Drive crosses highway 64. Some large parcels still remained in the north and east, with Stouton L.I. Co., Medford Manufacturing Co, H & L Keifer, and Rib River Land Co. some of the largest landholders.
Demographics
As of the census