The 1878 Vernon County plat map is our oldest county map. An original, wall-sized version of the map hangs in the 1st-floor hallway here at the history center. Recently we re-printed the index to this map, which is one of our more popular books. The Alphabetical Index to the 1878 Vernon County, Wisconsin, Plat Map contains a map of each township, and then an index of all the names found on the maps with location information. This book sells for $12 at the museum gift shop and at our website bookstore.
What is not in the index but is on the original wall map are business directories for most of the townships and a couple of the villages in Vernon County. The directory entries are essentially advertisements, and I’m guessing that the business proprietors paid for them, maybe by the word or the line. So, they aren’t a complete listing of all businesses in the county at that time, but they still provide an interesting glimpse of daily life then.
Remember that this was 1878 and before cars and highways, at a time when rivers were still used as main transportation routes by ordinary people for moving themselves and their goods around. Of the three villages with business directories on the map, two are on the Mississippi River, including Victory, which we’ll look at today.
The village of Victory was founded in 1852 in the town of Wheatland, in the southwest corner of what is now called Vernon County. The 1878 “Business Directory of Victory” begins with Dr. A. J. Wiard, “homeopathic physician and dental surgeon”. His work was guaranteed to satisfy, and if it didn’t, you wouldn’t have to pay! If that ad didn’t give you pause, the fact that Wiard was also a general store owner might have – the next listing is for “A.J. Wiard, Dealer in Dry Goods, Groceries, Boots and Shoes, Clothing, etc.”
August Mueller had an identical listing as a dry goods dealer, plus the addition that he was the “Agent for the Keokuk Northern Line Packet Company”. This company ran side-wheel passenger steamers between St. Louis, MO, and St. Paul, MN, with an emphasis on connecting boat passengers to rail service. Similarly, J.B. Wilcox was a “Dealer in Produce, Coal, Salt, Cement, etc.” and also a general steamboat agent, so apparently those who ran a general store always needed a side line.
The “Victory Nurseries” business was run by William A. Hodge, who in addition to this 1878 business directory listing also has a short biography in the 1884 History of Vernon County book. He raised and sold “All kinds of Hardy Fruit Trees”, especially apples and plums, plus many berry plants. The biography entry mentions that he was also a market gardener who supplied passing steamboats with fresh vegetables.
O.E. Hale is next in the directory. He was a busy man who owned and operated a hotel in Victory, served as a justice of the peace and as a “collecting agent”, and had a business dealing in wheat and farm produce.
The business directory of Victory on the 1878 plat map is rounded out by the Pulver family. The Pulver Brothers made and repaired wagons, buggies, cutters (sleighs), etc. D. H. Pulver is listed separately as a blacksmith.
You are welcome to come view the original wall map during the history center’s regular summer business hours of Monday through Friday, 11AM to 4PM, and Saturday, 10AM to 2PM.
