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Each week a small segment of Vernon County history is published in the county papers.
For the week of 4/21/2024
by Kristen Parrott, curator
April is National Volunteer Month, and an opportunity for us to recognize the many volunteers who help the Vernon County Historical Society to flourish. Volunteers do a wide variety of tasks here, including running the reception desk, filing, researching, writing grants, serving on committees, cleaning, doing yardwork, grilling bratwurst, and so much more. Thank you to all of our volunteers! And if you would like to join this hardworking crew, contact us at 608-637-7396.
Remember that the Ridges and Rivers Book Festival is this weekend, Friday, April 26, and Saturday, April 27. There will be a full day of author presentations here at the Vernon County History Center on Saturday, from 9 to 4:30. We will also have a table at the book fair, which will be held at Western Technical College next to Viroqua’s public library. The book fair, where you can buy books directly from authors and small presses, runs from 9 to 4:30 on Saturday, April 27.
Our next free public history program will be on the topic of "The Ku Klux Klan in Vernon County and Western Wisconsin in the 1920s". This is the program originally scheduled for early April but postponed due to the snowstorm. It will now be held on Wednesday, May 1, at 7PM, at the Vernon County Museum and History Center. The speaker for the evening will be Dr. Michael Jacobs, a Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Baraboo campus.
Dr. Jacobs earned his PhD in U.S. history at Marquette University in 2001, with a dissertation on the Catholic response to the Ku Klux Klan in the Midwest, 1920-1928. He researches and writes primarily on intolerance movements in the American Midwest. He served as a consultant on the PBS television series, “History Detectives,” and advises the Wisconsin Historical Society on Klan-related artifacts, papers, and photographs.
Dr. Jacobs describes his talk as follows: “The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s was not necessarily comprised of like-minded racial bigots. The organization differed from the more familiar domestic terrorists of the post Civil War and Civil Rights eras. Jazz Age Klansmen made greater efforts to resemble mainstream fraternal orders. While African Americans remained an object of derision, western Wisconsin's Klan paid greater attention to Catholics, immigrants, and Prohibition violators. The Klan was active in Vernon County and included some of its most prominent citizens.” Join us on May 1 to learn more about this difficult history.
For the week of 4/14/2024
by Kristen Parrott, curator
The second annual Ridges and Rivers Book Festival will take place in Viroqua on Friday, April 26, and Saturday, April 27. The Vernon County Museum and History Center is honored to again be a venue for several book festival activities.
On Friday afternoon, UW Eau Claire English professor B. J. Hollars will lead a writing workshop in our conference room. You must register and purchase a ticket for this workshop from the book festival’s website: Ridges and Rivers book festival.
Saturday will begin with waffles! Kristina Reser-Jaynes will park her Waffle Wagon in the history center’s parking lot and will sell Norwegian waffles – little heart-shaped waffles with various toppings – from 8:30AM to 1PM. Half of the waffle profits will go to the book festival, and half to the Vernon County Historical Society.
Several Wisconsin authors will give presentations in the conference room all day on Saturday. No tickets or registration are required for any of Saturday’s events at the history center.
Beginning at 9AM, Kevin and Patsy Alderson of La Farge will present a program about their book, Barns Without Corners: Round Barns of Vernon County, Wisconsin. This book was first published 15 years ago and continues to be very popular. It builds on the round barn research of June Zalewski-Pedretti. The Aldersons have ordered a new printing of their book and hope to have copies on hand to sign and sell that day.
At 10:30, David Shih will read from his 2023 book, Chinese Prodigal: A Memoir in Eight Arguments. Shih, like B.J. Hollars, is also an English professor from UW Eau Claire, where he has taught for the past 25 years. The eight essays in his book explore his experience of being Asian American.
Eric Schlehlein will give his presentation, “Forged in Blood: How One Civil War Brigade Earned its Metallic Moniker”, beginning at 12:30. Schlehlein has written two novels about the Iron Brigade, a Civil War unit that included Vernon County soldiers. The novels are Black Iron Mercy (a story set mostly in Mineral Point and Hillsboro about the life of a man before, during, and after the Civil War) and The Dim White Light (about a young Indiana Civil War veteran after the war).
At 2PM, Larry Scheckel of Tomah will talk about his book, Country School Days: True Tales of a Wisconsin One-Room School. Larry grew up in Crawford County and attended Oak Grove School. His presentation will illustrate why the one-room school was described by some as the best possible education for over 150 years, and how the lessons learned could be applied to today’s schools.
Ridge Stories: Herding Hens, Powdering Pigs, and Other Recollections from a Boyhood in the Driftless is the title of Gary Jones’ memoir, which he’ll be reading from beginning at 3:30. Jones grew up on a farm near Richland Center, and this memoir about his childhood was published in 2019.
That will be a full day of interesting programs right here at the Vernon County Museum and History Center. There will also be lots of other book festival programs and events happening around Viroqua’s downtown area that Friday and Saturday. Hope to see you there!
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