ment to the future prosperity of the county. The Hon. William F. Terhune went east about 1859, and when he returned he was thoroughly convinced that the name of the county was a great detriment to it, and from that time he strongly urged the change. An effort was made to change the name in 1860. In 1861 I was elected to the Assembly, and a very strong petition was signed and presented to me, urging the change to something else, but not designating what. At that time I was not very favorable to the change; but when the Legislature convened I became thoroughly convinced that the name was a detriment to the county. Whenever I rose and addressed the chair, and the speaker recognized "the gentlemen from Bad Ax," every body in the chamber turned to look at the member to see if he looked like the rest of the members. I immediately wrote Judge Terhune to select a name and I would do what I could to make the change. Judge Terhune sent me the name "Vernon," and the bill was presented and passed that Legislature.

Yours very truly,

J. M. RUSK." Mr. Terbune found much trouble in selectiug a new name that was pleasing to the people. Some thought it should be Wheatland; others suggested Minnesheik, as already noticed; and other names had advocates. Finally, Mr. Terhune hit upon the name of Vernon as a kind of compromise. The reason for its suggestion was that the root of the word (greenness) was applicable not to the people but to the general appearance of the county, covered as it was in many places with green wheat fields. Besides this, the word was euphonic and carried with it a pleasing association with Mt. Vernon the home (as is well known) of the Father of his Country, during his lifetime. These considerations induced Mr. Terhune to believe that the word would be, as it proved, generally acceptable to the inhabitants of the county; and he sent it forward as Gov. Rusk states in his letter just given.

The bill introdued by Hon. J. M. Rusk and which passed the Legislature was as follows: ("Published March 28, 1862).

"An Act to change the name of Bad Ax county to that of Vernon. "The people of the State of Wisconsin, represented in the Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

"SEC. 1. The name of Bad Ax county, in this State, is hereby changed to Vernon county, and by this latter name the said county shall be called and known in popular nomenclature and in law, in all places and for all purposes; and whenever, in any law of this State, and in all deeds, mortgages and public records, the words "Bad An" occur, having reference to said county of Bad Ax, (now county of Vernon) said words shall be construed and understood in the same manner as if the word "Vernon" were printed or written in lieu thereof.

"SEC. 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after the 1st day of May, A. D. 1862.

"Approved March 22, 1862."

A correspondent of the Vernon County Censor, in writing to that paper, March 10, 1869, thinks the change of name worked a great change in the prospects of the county. He says:

"For many years, the county, of which Viroqua is the county seat, labored under a great disadvantage in consequence of her taking to herself a name that had neither meaning nor sense. Why the settlers of the county suffered the name of Bad Ax to be fastened on them cannot now be ascertained. That the name blasted the county so long as it was retained, is a fact patent to all. As soon as the name was ch nged to Vernon, the whole county began to flourish, and now Vernon county has no small influence in the State. She has quite an array of public men, too, whose names. are well known throughout Wisconsin; such as Rusk, Priest, Purday, Graham, Terhune, Butt, Newell and others."

EFFORTS TO FORM A NEW COUNTY.

About the year 1859 there began a county seat war of a mild form in Crawford county. The southern portion of that county wanted it to remain at Prairie du Chien while the northerners desired to have it removed to Dagget's Knob. The result was a "secession movement" at the village of De Soto which lies in both Crawford and Vernon (then Bad Ax) counties. The denizens of this village and the country

round about took it into their heads to form a

new county out of the northern part of Crawford and southern part of Vernon. Could this be accomplished, then De Soto would be just the place for the couuty seat, of course.

Pursuant to notice, then, the citizens of the towns of Wheatland, Sterling and Franklin, in Bad Ax county, and of Freeman and Utica in Crawford county, held a meeting at the school house in Sterling, on Wednesday, Jan. 2, 1861, "to consider the propriety of certain changes in the dividing line of said counties," but in reality

to promote a new county movement. The meet

ing was called to order by Dr. Bean, of Sterling, in the chair, and J. C. Kurtz, of Wheatland, secretary. The chairman, in some appropriate remarks, stated the object of the meeting. He was followed by Messrs. Crittenden, Carlyle, Ferguson, Sterling, McMinn, Cate and others; when, on motion, a committee of three, consisting of A. Carlyle, C. G. Allen and A. Crittenden, was appointed to draft resolutions expressive of the wishes of the meeting. The committee submitted the following resolutions, which were adopted:

"Resolved, That, in the opinion of this meeting, the present line dividing the counties of Crawford and Bad Ax-dividing township 11 -is detrimental to the best interests of the inhabitants of the south half of said township 11, now situated in the limits of Crawford county and that the said county line should be removed to the line between townships 10 and 11.

"Resolved, That, in the opinion of the meeting, the pecuniary interests of a portion of Bad

Ax and Crawford counties would be materially promoted by the establishment and organization of a new county, with the county seat located on the Mississippi river."

A committee of three, consisting of J. C. Beny, of Wheatland; C. B. Whiting & Co. and D. A. Bean, of Sterling, was then appointed to draft a map designating the boundary lines of the proposed new county and to a meeting when practicable "to determine on the same." But this ended the new county movement in that region.

inconvenience of being so far from the county By the year 1866, so great was felt to be the

seat as were the inhabitants of the six eastern

towns of the county, that they made a protracted effort to have the county divided, so that Hillsborough, Greenwood, Forest, Union, Whitestown and Stark, with adjoining towns, either on the north, east or south, as they might be able to obtain them as companions, would form a new county. Petitions were sent in to the Legislature in favor of a division. But it was soon found that nothing could be got from adjoining counties to help on the movementnothing could be got from the north; nothing from the south; and finally the two towns to the east which had been confidently counted upon, could not be had.

But the friends of the new county were not disheartened, and at once concluded that they would form a county out of Hillsborough, Greenwood, Forest, Union, Whitestown and Stark-six towns-proposing, however, to remain attached to Vernon county for judicial purposes, so as to avoid the expense of erecting county buildings, and a bill was introduced in the Assembly at Madison for that purpose. But the principal argument against the new measure was that, if the towns remained attached to Vernon for judicial purposes, they would derive little or no benefit from a separation, as the principal necessity for it was the inconvenience of attending court so far away as Viroqua; so