Dane County Bicentennial Quilt

The Dane County Bicentennial Quilt is a folk art masterpiece produced by nearly 3,000 people. In a unique demonstration of unity and sharing, all 60 municipalities contributed a patch to illustrate an important aspect of its character or history. A quilt depicting outstanding features of Sun Prairie inspired the concept. The 60 patches were assembled in Mazomanie. The central feature of the quilt, the county seal, was sewn in Belleville. UW Extension provided project coordination and design consultation.

In March of 1976 at Dane County Heritage Days, the quilt was stretched on a rack and stitched by hundreds of people; 2,516 people signed the register for themselves and their families. It stimulates interest in local history and pride in this remarkable cooperative effort to commemorate the 200th birthday of the United States. Arrangements to borrow the quilt for events of a civic or educational nature may be made through the Area Agency on Aging of Dane County, (608) 261-9930.

To see the Quilt in person stop by the Area Agency on Aging Office, 2322 S. Park St, any week day. You might want to call, 261-9930, ahead to be sure we are in.

Quilt Patch Descriptions
Starting at the top left corner and going across the rows left to right.

1. Town of Roxbury: Saint Norbert House was the first Catholic Church in Dane County and the nucleus of the town and German settlement there. The Kehl winery, recently restored as the Wollersheim winery, was built in Roxbury in 1867.

2. Town of Oregon: Descendents of Nathaniel Ames, a Revolutionary War veteran who homesteaded here, still farm in the Town of Oregon and helped make the town quilt patch.

3. Town of Burke: Early settlers named their town for Edmund Burke, the Irish statesman who defended the American colonies prior to the Revolution.

4. Town of Springfield: The highest point of the old Sauk-Madison Road passes over Springfield Hill in this town, settled by Germans and renowned for its dairying. It has two churches, St. Peter [built in 1859] and St. Martin [built in 1886].

5. Town of Deerfield: The Liberty Lutheran Church has been in continuous use since it was built 125 years ago. Tobacco, corn, cattle, and hogs are Deerfield products.

6. Town of Dane: People here honor their early schools, dating back to 1849, as the centers of their community life. The school names appear as a "tree of learning" on their quilt patch.

7. Town of Montrose: The Paoli Mill, originally a saw mill and now a corn shelling and sales operation, still uses water power for its elevator and looks like it did over 100 years ago.

8. Town of Springdale: Thirty five miles of road, US 18, Hwy 92, and several county trunks traverse Springdale, whose name describes its many springs and valleys. The Mt. Vernon "Forest of Fame" in Springdale is a historic park of trees started from famous trees or from birthplaces of famous people.

9. Town of Perry: The Hauge Log Church [built in 1852] is kept as a monument to the Norwegian settlers of this area. The town was named for Commodore Perry, hero of the 1813 Battle of Lake Erie.

10. Village of Waunakee: In Ojibwa, Waunakee means "place of peace" or "peaceful valley." A Waunakee schoolgirl designed the community's Bicentennial Seal, which became the design for their quilt patch.

11. Village of Shorewood Hills: Two subdivisions on Lake Mendota, Shorewood and College Hills, combined to become Shorewood Hills. The four main entrances to the village are like the sign in the quilt patch.

12. Village of Belleville: John Frederick from Belleville, Canada, settled near the Sugar River and built a grist mill in 1851, on the site marked X on the Belleville patch. The island between the mill and the dam is the heart of the community's recreational activity.

13. Village of DeForest: County V, I-94, and US 51 complete a triangle, the heart of which is the village. Isaac DeForest acquired the land in 1856 and the village was platted when the railroad came through in the early 1870s.

14. Village of Dane: Platted in 1872, Dane is located on Old Military Road, which connected Ft. Howard (Green Bay) with Ft. Crawford (Prairie du Chien).

15. Village of McFarland: The star on the water tower symbolized the village for many years. William McFarland originally owned the land and platted the village in 1856.

16. Town of Bristol: In 1896, four carriers set out from the Sun Prairie post office to make the first free rural mail delivery in the state to folks in Bristol.

17. Town of Blue Mounds: In 1828, Ebenezer Brigham came to this area looking for lead. He established the first farm in Dane County, on top of the east mound of the Blue Mounds.

18. Village of Blue Mounds: The village takes its name from two prominent mounds on the border of Dane and Iowa counties. Ebenezer Brigham, first white settler in the county, built Fort Blue Mounds at the time of the Black Hawk War in 1832.

19. Town of Middleton: Established in 1848, the year Wisconsin entered the Union, Middleton cherishes its remaining farmland and credits Black Angus cattle replacing its dwindling dairy herds.

20. City of Middleton: Platted in 1856, the city had been known as Middleton Station and Peatville. The city's coat of arms indicates its brightness as a city, recreation offered from nearby Lake Mendota, industrial success and agricultural beginnings.

21. Town of Madison: The Town of Madison invites people to stroll, bike, or drive through the 1,200-acre UW Arboretum within the town boundaries.

22. City of Madison: Surveyed and platted in 1836, the city was named after James Madison, fourth president of the United States. More than half the people of Dane County live in Madison, which is also the state capital.

23. Village of Marshall: The Marshall Mill, built by Samuel Marshall in 1852, is still in operation and occasionally uses water power.

24. Town of Rutland: Early settlers here came from a town in Vermont of the same name. They built the first United Brethren Church in the state, using wooden pegs instead of nails, and established a cemetery nearby.

25. Town of Cross Plains: Irish and Germans settled here. A hatchet and hat of St. Boniface symbolize the Germans, while a shamrock and St. Patrick's headpiece stand for the Irish. Each group sat on their own side in church.

26. Village of Cross Plains: Old Military Road and the road from Arena to Madison intersect here, with a famous mile-long main street.

27. Town of Dunn: The Town of Dunn's efforts to preserve its wetlands and wildlife are symbolized in its patch by Lake Waubesa to the west, Lake Kegonsa to the east, and sand hill cranes who nest only in large areas of undisturbed marshland. Indian burial mounds, often in the shape of animals, are scattered on hillsides surrounding the lakes.

28. Dane County Seal: Incorporated in 1839, nine years before Wisconsin became a state, Dane County was then a part of Michigan. Diversity is celebrated here, as the seal shows. Recreation is inspired by the four major lakes and many smaller lakes and streams. Both the state capitol and the country's fourth largest university are here. Rich prairie soils make this one of the agriculturally productive counties in the nation.

29. City of Sun Prairie: After traveling from Milwaukee for nine days through rainy weather, Augustus Bird came upon a lush prairie in bright sunshine and carved the name "Sun Prairie" upon an oak tree to mark the event.

30. Village of Mazomanie: Mazomanie means "walking iron" in Winnebago. This may also refer to the steam engine that arrived there in 1856. The patch is the symbol of their historical society.

31. Town of Mazomanie: A creamery that operated for 70+ years and the oldest existing country schoolhouse in Dane County are here. John Appleby, a famous town resident, invented the knotter for the harvester and binder in 1877.

32. Town of Verona: Home of the Badger grist mill (first in Dane County), the Dane County Hospital and Home, rich farmland, and many Indian mounds discovered in the 1840s.

33. Village of Verona: The emblem depicts the stagecoach that once stopped at the Eagle's Nest, Old Military Road, and agricultural crops of the area.

34. Town of Primrose: A song she heard as a child inspired Mrs. Robert Spears, first woman settler in Primrose, to name the town. A history book circa 1880 reports: "Much talk was occasioned because the town was named by a woman." Wisconsin's famous Bob LaFollette was born here in 1855. The 125-year-old Lutheran church is still in use in this hilly town.

35. Town of Sun Prairie: The town hall, built in 1868, is a classic example of the one room wooden clapboard meeting halls that were built during that era. In 1839, the town recognized its founding by the burr oak, and in 1846, the first town meeting was held.

36. Village of Cottage Grove: In 1840, William Wells built a cottage in a grove of oaks, hence the name. Fourth graders at Cottage Grove School designed the quilt patch to include the village's water tower.

37. Town of Cottage Grove: Home of the Corn Palace, largest corn drier in Wisconsin, which processes 3.5 million bushels of corn, soybeans, and wheat annually.

38. Town of Windsor: The Yahara River begins here and runs southward into the Rock River. Established in 1847, the railroad development in 1871 stimulated the growth of Morrisonville, Windsor Village, and DeForest within the township. Lake Windsor is a new community.

39. Village of Maple Bluff: What was reported to have been "the finest sugar maple grove in the territory" gave Maple Bluff its name. The village is a promontory projecting into Lake Mendota.

40. Town of Fitchburg: The county's first permanent settler Ebenzer Brigham named Fitchburg for a Massachusetts town near his birthplace. Residents have excellent views of the capitol from their homes and farms.

41. City of Stoughton: Laid out by Luke Stoughton of Vermont, the city has strong Norwegian characteristics. Its history pamphlet is titled "Oak Openings," referring to the scattered oaks that survived repeated prairie fires more than 100 years ago.

42. City of Monona: Preceding the Winnebago Indians, the Hopewell Indians made an outstanding panther mound in the area. The Tonyawantha Springs Hotel drew people with its curative waters to vacation in Monona from 1879 until it burned in 1895.

43. Town of Dunkirk: A large burr oak used by surveyors as a landmark in 1833 still stands in the middle of a Dunkirk crossroads.

44. Village of Oregon: In the center of the village stands a granite pillar from the old Chicago City Hall. It was the first WWI monument erected in the United States.

45. Town of Vienna: Created from Windsor in 1849, the community of Norway Grove was the major settlement. The surveyor's stake to mark the first 100 miles along Old Military Road from Ft. Howard to Ft. Crawford was driven at Hundred Mile Grove here.

46. Town of York: Named for New York. The town hall represents local government throughout rural Dane County. Town boards meet at regular intervals and the entire electorate meets annually to make decisions at what is often considered the most direct and personal level of government.

47. Village of Mt. Horeb: Rev. George Wright, first postmaster here, named the village after the biblical mountain. Norwegian immigrants, settling in the 1870s, have given the village a decidedly Scandinavian atmosphere.

48. Village of Rockdale: Tucked in the valley of the Rock River, the village once vied strongly with Madison as a prospective site for the capitol. It is now Dane County's smallest incorporated village.

49. Village of Brooklyn: Unique because it is located in Green, Rock, and Dane counties. Represented by roots, Brooklyn calls its patch "a tree grows in Brooklyn."

50. Village of Deerfield: Built in the last century, the village hall has served as a jail, firehouse, polling place, school, place of worship, and library. It is still in use, though it has been remodeled and moved from its original site.

51. Village of Cambridge: The oldest Scandinavian church in the world was built here in 1851. The umbrella on the patch is a symbol of welcome to use the village's many recreational facilities.

52. Village of Black Earth: The Commercial House hotel is located here, where Buffalo Bill stayed, as the register proves. Among other tenants, it now houses a Dane County social services office.

53. Town of Black Earth: Home of the Patron's Mercantile Cooperative, oldest Wisconsin cooperative still operating. Families of people who attended the one-room Midland School still meet for social events and many people here farm.

54. Town of Vermont: Early homesteaders often built log cabins with dovetailed joints. The Vermont Valley was nicknamed "Pancake Valley," supposedly because the Norwegians offered pancakes as part of their hospitality to people passing through.

55. Town of Albion: Albion Academy, the first coeducational school of higher learning in the Northwest Territory, was established by Seventh Day Baptists in 1853 and now houses the Albion Historical Museum.

56. Town of Medina: Many early settlers came from Medina, Ohio. The town was created by separation from Sun Prairie in 1848.

57. Town of Pleasant Springs: Several arrowheads found at LaFollette Park indicate it was a favorite hunting ground for Indians. Lake Kegonsa State Park offers excellent fishing.

58. Town of Westport: Between 1832 and 1837, a trading post operated on the north shore of Lake Mendota. The first town chairman, Michael O'Malley, named the community after his birthplace in Ireland.

59. Town of Christiana: Named for the capital of Norway, schools, churches, and farmlands are integral parts of the town. Koshkonong Prairie was known as "Queen of the Norwegian Settlements" 100 years ago.

60. Town of Blooming Grove: Named by Rev. J.G. Miller, who said he "had never seen a section of the country where there were such fine groves and had so many wild flowers."

61. Town of Berry: The John Endres family built St. Mary of the Oaks Chapel in 1857 in thanksgiving for protection against a diphtheria epidemic. Indian Lake is now county parkland.

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