In 1839, Capt. Thomas Jefferson Cram of the U.S. Army asked for more funds.  “Between Madison and the Mississippi, nature has done so much towards providing a good road that an expenditure of about $10,000 in bridging the streams, ditching, and grading would be sufficient,” he wrote.  Despite Cram’s request, no more appropriations were made until 1845.  In the late 1830’ and 1840’s, the Wisconsin territory built many roads linking Madison and other points on the Military Road with other communities.

The City of Verona grew out of two communities settled in the 1840’s.  The first, Taylorville, was near a grist mill built in 1943-44 along Badger Mill Creek.  The Corners, a mile to the north, was the crossing of two main roads.  Verona’s population was mainly German and Scottish. 

The unincorporated community of Riley was founded in 1881, when the railroad was built.  Platted as Sugar River Station on William Riley’s farm, it became known as “Riley’s Station and Post Office” and has been known as Riley’s for most of its existence.  It was the best known water stop for the steam engines between Madison and Lancaster.  At the turn of the century Riley’s had a population of 100 or more, a creamery, stables, a depot, stockyards, general stores, a church, and a large hall.

In 1943, the Chicago and Northwestern received permission to remove the station buildings and equipment.  A grocery was the only substantial business near the station, the Public Service Commission noted, and no carload freight had been shipped from or received at the station for four years.  The only remaining business today is a tavern, in the building that once was a general store and post office.  The tavern features Sunday morning pancake breakfasts.  Bluegrass music jams are held on the first Saturday afternoon of the month.

Klevenville (unincorporated) was named for Iver Kleven, an early settler from Norway,  A colony from Valders, Norway, settled near a spring between here and Mount Horeb in 1846 and lived in covered wagons until building a log house.  Kleven was a carpenter, contractor, and stone mason; after the railroad came through, he ran a lumber business with two sons.  He was Klevenville’s postmaster until 1890.

In the 1890’s, mail was carried by foot along a grassy trail through heavy woods from Klevenville to Henderson, 2.5 miles to the southeast.

During the Blackhawk War, a fort was erected southwest of the present intersection of Highway 18/151 and County F to protect the area’s 25 miners.  The fort had four block houses ten feet high, with two walls that jutted out so Indians couldn’t climb them.  It was garrisoned by General Henry Dodge’s Iowa-Michigan Brigade from May 20 to September 20, 1832.  The fort also served as a stopover for travelers.

The first Norwegian settlers came in 1846.  Their houses were small and simple.  Many dug out the sides of the hill, with posts as a front wall in which they made a door and one or two windows.  Pulitzer prize-winner Hamlin Garland found characters in Blue Mounds for many of his novels.

Barneveld was born when David Simpson offered the railroad right-of-way through his farm for $1 if it would build a depot there.  He subdivided and began selling lots.  It originally was called Simpsonville.  The name Barneveld was chosen by a railroad surveyor who was from the Netherlands.  Most of the early settlers were from the British Isles.

County highways K and HH lead north out of Barneveld along Hogback Ridge, which was used by soldiers during the Blackhawk War to get to the Wisconsin River.  For many years, this route was an important link between the lead region and the railroad that went along the Wisconsin River.

Ridgeway was settled by J.B. Skinner and other miners in 1828.  Irish and Welsh settled in the 1840’s, large numbers of Welsh came in about 1850, and Norwegians and Germans in about 1855.

Ridgeway has the only railroad depot left along the Military Ridge Trail.  The depot was built in September 1913 from the middle-sized of three standard wood-frame depot plans commissioned by the Chicago and Northwestern around 1900.  Similar stations were built in Wyeville, South Beaver Dam, Grand Marsh, Sussex, Mercer, and Bellevue, Wisconsin, as well as communities in Iowa and Illinois.

The Ridge Hotel dates to 1841, when it was a stage stop on the Military Road.  The village switchboard was there until dial phones came through.  The 23-room hotel is now a private residence.

Dodgeville began soon after the coming of miners and prospectors in 1827.  Most notable was Col Henry Dodge, who came with his family and four black slaves on October 3, 1827.  Dodge made friends with the Winnebagos and gave them several hundred dollars’ worth of provisions and merchandise in exchange for rights to mine on their land.  By January, Dodge’s party had mined more than $3000 worth of lead.

Others heard about Dodge’s success and came to mine on Indian land, most without buying the right to do so.  Winnebago Chief Carumna complained to the Indian agent at Prairie du Chien, who ordered the miners off the Indian land.  But he found about 130 miners, armed with rifles and pistols.  Since there were only 130 men fit for duty at Fort Crawford, the U.S. government decided instead to negotiate to buy land from the Indians.  Dodge was a signer of the 1829 treaty.  He later became the first territorial governor, a Congressman, and a U.S. Senator.