THE

HISTORY

OF

SAUK COUNTY,

WISCONSIN,

CONTAINING

AN ACCOUNT OF ITS SETTLEMENT, GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT AND RESOURCES; AN EXTENSIVE AND
MINUTE SKETCH OF ITS CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES-THEIR IMPROVEMENTS, INDUSTRIES,
MANUFACTORIES, CHURCHES, SCHOOLS AND SOCIETIES; ITS WAR RECORD, BIOGRAPH-

ICAL SKETCHES, PORTRAITS OF PROMINENT MEN AND EARLY SETTLERS;

THE WHOLE PRECEDED BY A HISTORY OF WISCONSIN, STATISTICS

OF THE STATE, AND AN ABSTRACT OF ITS LAWS AND CON-

STITUTION AND OF THE CONSTITUTION

OF THE UNITED STATES.

ILLUSTRATED.

CHICAGO:

WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY

MDCCCLXXX.

IT.

PREFACE.

T is with no little pride that the publishers present this work to the citizens of Sauk County, knowing that, with whatever inaccuracies it may be found to contain, it will prove one of the most valuable books ever added to their libraries. It is a book wholly unlike any other ever published, being exclusively for and concerning the people of this county, and is of such size, completeness and comprehensiveness as could never have been furnished had the community · been less advanced in civilization, culture and wealth than it now is.

The index shows what the book attempts to preserve. That it contains errors it would be foolish to deny; for the very nature of all historical publications, depending as they do upon oft-repeated and oft-mangled stories, imperfect newspaper accounts, and memories weakened by the toils and sorrows of many decades, renders perfect accuracy absolutely impossible. However, let the public take these prefatory remarks as a pledge that the publishers have spared no means, and the historian no labor or patience, to make every account as nearly perfect as possible. And let every reader remember, also, as he notes the contents of the hundreds of subjects the book contains, that, wherever the historian has been led in the least astray, it was due to the citizens of Sauk County, for whom the work was undertaken, and from whom he obtained the least and the greatest of the facts necessary in its compilation.

To those who have taken particular pains to aid in making this a valuable book sincere thanks are here returned; and, as years roll on, and the work becomes more and more cherished and valuable, the thanks of the future will be still more sincere than ours; sincere not only, but universal.