Cheyenne Valley | |
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Coordinates: 43°38′59″N90°21′01″W / 43.649767°N 90.350399°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Wisconsin |
County | Vernon |
Cheyenne Valley, Wisconsin was a former community in Vernon County, Wisconsin. It was a multi-racial community and is primarily known as a 19th century rural African American settlement, which was the largest in the state. [1] [2] [3]
It is now the site of Cheyenne Settlers Heritage Park in Hillsboro, Wisconsin (across from Mount Vernon Cemetery), and it contains a historical marker erected in 1997 by the Wisconsin Historical Society (no. 383). [4]
Cheyenne Valley, Wisconsin was named after a valley and is located off Wisconsin Highway 33, near Hillsboro and between Ontario and Hillsboro; the area had previously been a part of Forest, Vernon County, Wisconsin before it's establishment of a new community. [5] The settlement was created by nearly 150 African American settlers, who had moved north before the American Civil War with assistance by the Quakers. [4] [5] Most had worked as farmers in the area. [5] Another early Black farming settlement had formed around the same time period in Pleasant Ridge near Lancaster in Grant County, Wisconsin. [6]
The first settler was Walden Stewart in 1855, who was Black and born free in North Carolina. [7] Stewart was followed by five more Black families to the area, including the Bartons (Wesley Barton), Revels (Micajah Revels), Roberts (Ishmael Roberts), Waldrons (Samuel Waldron), and Basses (Elijah Bass). [5] [6] [8] A decade after the American Civil War had been a second wave of migration, which included in 1879 notable resident Thomas Shivers from Tennessee. [6] By 1870 there were eleven Black families (and some 62 people) living in the area. [5] [6]
Early settler Wesley Barton (c. 1824–?), founded the settlement of Barton Corners (sometimes written as Barton's Corners), now known as Burr Corners in Vernon County. [6] He also served as the first postmaster. [6]
Alga “Algie” Shivers (1889–1978), the son of Thomas Shivers, built and/or designed at least fifteen round barn s in the area. [9] [10] [11]
For many years this was considered a "lost community" by historians, and it was brought forward in part through work by sociologist James Knox Phillips in the 1960s. [7]
In 2008, descendants from the Cheyenne Valley community gathered at Cardinal Stritch University to discuss their upbringing. [12]
The Cheyenne Valley Heritage Committee, and the Cheyenne Valley Heritage Road Tours are based in Hillsboro. [13]