A FEW SECRETS IN AND ABOUT WALWORTH COUNTY

By Ginny Hall

How the county was formed

Walworth County originally was part of the Northwest Territories, then part of Milwaukee County. In October, 1836 at the 1st Belmont session of the territorial legislature it was part of Racine County.

At the 2nd session it was removed as a separate entity. That session was held in Burlington, Iowa in January, 1838. In December of that year, in Madison Elkhorn was established as the “seat of justice.” By 1842 the five townships became nine ... Richmond and Whitewater had been taken from Elkhorn; Darien and Walworth (the latter included what is now Sharon), from Delavan.

In 1846, the towns were Bloomfield, Darien, Delavan, East Troy, Elkhorn, Geneva, Hudson (later to be called Lyons), LaFayette, LaGrange, Linn, Richmond, Sharon, Spring Prairie, Sugar Creek, Troy, Walworth and Whitewater. The Town of Elkhorn was the center of the county with Section 31 from the SW corner of the Town of Lafayette, Section 36 of the Town of Sugar Creek, Section 1of the Town of Delavan and the Section 6 of the Town of Geneva. (See p. 32 of County Board Proceedings 1839-1962)

This book also indicates that at various times villages in the county included Spring Prairie and Allens Grove.

The house on Christie Road, Town of Darien

The house is not parallel to the current road ... it was, however, to a very early road which had been an Indian trail.

Four governors have association with Walworth County

The white frame house at "128 Plain Street in the village of Sharon was the- birthplace of Governor WALTER S. GOODLAND born December 22, 1862. Goodland was governor of Wisconsin from January 4, 1943 until his death, March 12, 1947. Goodland was the son of Judge John Goodland. Judge Goodland moved from Sharon to Appleton where he served until he was 85; he died at age 87.

Gov. Goodland studied at Lawrence College in Appleton, preparing for a teaching career. After five years he decided to study law and was admitted to the bar in 1886. He practiced law in Michigan and soon his interests turned to journalism. In 1898 he returned to Wisconsin and became part owner and publisher of the Beloit Daily News. In 1900 he moved to Racine to become editor and publisher of the Racine Times. He served as mayor of Racine for four years. In 1926 he became a state senator, in 1938, 1940, and 1942 he was elected lieutenant governor. Upon the death of Gov. Walter Loomis he took over the position and was re-elected in 1944 and 1946. In this later campaign he was 84 years old, the oldest man to run for the office of governor in the history of our state. He died a year later and Oscar Rennebohm became governor.

That is why Sharon has a park named Goodland. It is also interesting to note that prior to this being the village park, it was a cemetery. This brings me to another secret.

Did you know that there used to be a brick sidewalk extending from the village of Sharon to the north along County C and then to the west along Cemetery Road to the Oakwood Cemetery?

The first cemetery was within the village. When it was re-established here, a cemented walk, four feet in width, extended from the village to the cemetery. Names of soldiers who served in the Civil War or families who made donations toward the walk were on bricks which were part of the sidewalk. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, ladies of the village raised the money for this sidewalk through many different events. The sidewalk would enable them to walk from the village to the cemetery more easily. Most of the sidewalk has been destroyed since the building of the highway. The small stretch of sidewalk which remains has no names on it. It is becoming grass-grown.

Back to the other three Governors. EMERSON LOG CABIN. On Young Road. It was part of the early Skoponong Settlement of Norwegian immigrants who came to this area in the spring of 1847. One of those early settlers was Barne Emerson; his name originally was Bjorne Amundson. He came with his new bride Susan (originally Seneva) Oleson and built this house of tamarack logs. They raised four sons. Their farm stayed in the family for 100 years. Barne fought in the Civil War in Company D of the 28th Wisconsin Infantry. He died in 1864 at Pine Bluff, Arkansas. In 1885 Susan sold the farm to her son, Amund and moved to South Dakota to be with her other son, John. She died in 1907.

In 1942 the log cabin was moved to a location to the east of here. On June 2, 2002 it was moved back to this site and restored. This house along with the Oleson home is two official, original buildings from the Skoponong Pioneer Settlement. I’ll tell you about the other log cabin as soon as I finish with the governors. I’m telling you about this log cabin because just to the south of this area you will see another plaque. This one is recognizing another early resident, Knute Nelson. He spent his early years in an earthen home nearby. Knute Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Minnesota and a governor of that state, attended school in this district.

The third governor has connections to Whitewater.

JULIUS CHARLES BIRGE FOUNTAIN. The fountain was donated to the city by Julius "Jule" Birge. He was born November 18, 1840 in Whitewater. On November 5, 1902 he wrote offering a fountain to the city; by then he was a successful St. Louis industrialist. It had to be in Flat Iron Park on the site of the little brick school where he learned to read and write. His offer was accepted and the fountain was dedicated on July 4, 1903.

The little brick school had been built in 1844. One of Julius Birge's school mates was George Wilber Peck, governor of the state from 1891-95 and author of Peck's Bad Boys books. He was three years old (born 1840) when his parents moved to Whitewater from New York. He had all of his schooling in Whitewater and worked at the Whitewater Register at age 15 when he finished school. He married a Delavan woman, Francena Rowley; they had two sons, George, Jr. and Roy. He moved to Jefferson County, Ripon, Madison and Milwaukee. He was elected to the State Assembly, was State Treasurer for one year, mayor of Milwaukee and State Governor. Gov. Peck died 1916 in Milwaukee.

Birge died December 8, 1923 at the age of 84.

And, of course, we can’t forget our current governor, Scott Walker. He grew up in Delavan.

OLESON LOG CABIN on Duffin Road. Ole Oleson came from Hiterdal, Norway in 1846 with his wife and infant daughter. He built this spacious log cabin which was plastered on the inside and boarded on the outside. Fine moss was used to chink between the logs. A family of nine children was raised in this home.

Valley of the Kings Sanctuary

This is located on Town Line Road in the Town of Sharon. It is not open to the public; it is not a zoo. It is an area or haven for rescued large animals. They may be retired circus animals, abused and/or abandoned exotic animals.

Jill Carnegie, founder of the sanctuary, began this operation in October, 1973 on her family’s farm. She wanted to save cougars which were being shot out west. She found her first cat through a newspaper ad. They specialize in cat but do have other animals. At one time they had as many as 50 big cats at their place.

The sanctuary has memberships available; this helps to pay the bills. As you can imagine the food bill can be very high. $60 for six months, single or $120 for the year. Family memberships are $75/6 months and $$150/year. Seniors are at $30 and $60. You need to apply for membership ahead of time; they are not available at the gate. Only members can visit on Saturdays or Sundays. They feed bout 1,500 lbs. of food every day. They accept road kill and other dead animals. One time they were given live horses. These they found proper homes for in the area.

Poor House Cemetery

This is located at the end of a driveway just east of Lakeland School. At times there may be a sign which indicates that trespassers could be ticketed. It leads to a little cemetery and monument where about 150 of the residents of the County Poor House and Insane Asylum who died from 1879 to 1939 were buried. The monument which was dedicated in 2000 listed all known residents buried there. To see a listing of those buried see page 8A, The Week, Sept 10, 2000.

Teenage home of John Wesley Powell

South Grove was the home of John Wesley Powell for four of his years from 1846 to 1850. Mr. Powell is the person who discovered the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River which ran through it.

Powell was born in New York in 1834. He received his name because he was born in a Methodist parsonage. From New York the family moved to Ohio. In the fall of 1846 they moved to Wisconsin. On November 25, 1846 they bought 120 acres for $1200 from David J. Best at Best’s Corners ... soon to be called South Grove. Best had come to the county in 1837. He opened a store, became Postmaster and made boots and shoes on the side. He built a frame house on his property which included a small creek. Although the Indians had ceded this land in 1833 they came back and camped on the north side of the creek while the Powells had the property. Powell’s mother, his two sisters and he would visit with the Indians and learn about the area’s earlier history.

In 1849 the Powells bought another adjoining piece of land to give them a total of 160 acres. This latter was purchased from David Larkin. The father was a preacher and a tailor. He also tried to be a farmer. He discovered he wasn’t a farmer and also gave up tailoring. He expected Wes who was 12 years old and his ten year old brother to take over the farming. The land had never been tilled. Within three years Wes had 60 acres under cultivation, mostly in wheat. Remember, this had to be harvested by hand at this time.

(Most of the information about Powell was gained from A River Running West by Donald Worster. This book can tell you about his becoming a teacher and other details about his life.)

He served in the Union Army in ranks from private to brevet lieutenant colonel and lost his right arm at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. Later he taught natural history at Illinois State Normal School. While exploring the Colorado mountains he conceived the idea of rowing down the Colorado and Green Rivers. His 900-mile trip began in May, 1869 at Green River Wyoming. After spending three months on the river he discovered the Grand Canyon. He spent another 10 years exploring the Colorado Plateau. He served as head of the Bureau of Indian Ethnology from 1879 until his death on September 23, 1902. From 1880 until 1894 he also directed the U.S. Geological Survey.

INDIAN MOUNDS PARK

In 1920 there were 12 mounds mapped. Two are panther type; the turtle one is 143 inches long. The mink mound is the largest of the group at 380 inches in length. There are two bird mounds; one measures 57 inches in length with a 69-inch wing span. There are two round burial mounds and several oval mounds. None of them are very long but several are quite high.

The mapping was done by Charles Brown, head of the State Historical Society at that time, and Robert Coe, Whitewater Register editor. At the time the area was being used as a pasture. Nothing much more was done with the site until the possibility of Hwy. 12 expansion considered this area. At that time the community organized to prevent the destruction of the mounds. The city purchased the land.

Again, not much was done with the site. It wasn’t until there was the possibility of a housing development in the area. Citizens again organized to preserve the mounds. In 1991 the area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

These mounds were built by the Winnebago Indians and are usually a sign of a village. Mounds are built by various clans within the village. One source indicated the mounds were built around 200 to 1200 A.D. and were burial sites. Another source says they were built 500 B.C. to 1500 A.D. The mounds were built by hand, using primitive tools. A UW-Whitewater professor says that the mounds are linked to the calendar. The mink mound points to the summer solstice sunrise and the winter solstice sunset.