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Each week a small segment of Vernon County history is published in the county papers.
For the week of 2/1/2026
by Kristen Parrott, curator
The monthly genealogy class will be meeting for the first time this year on Thursday, February 12, at 10AM, at the Vernon County museum and history center. Teacher Karen Sherry will show a webinar about free genealogical websites, with a discussion. Doing family history research from home, using the websites of large research institutions, is a great modern convenience, especially in the winter.
Classes are held in the handicapped-accessible, first-floor conference room. Members of the Vernon County Historical Society may attend for free, and non-members are asked to pay $5 per class session. New students are always welcome.
February is the month of presidents and valentines, and you can find small exhibits about both inside the conference room. Postcards about President Washington, President Lincoln, and other patriotic themes fill one display case, as part of our years-long focus on the U.S. 250th.
The other case features valentines of the past 100+ years, showing the shift from the flowery and romantic European cards of pre-World War I, to the simpler cards made in the U.S. in the mid-20th century, with bright colors and funny sayings. Vintage animal-themed valentines are also on display in the room.
Stop by the museum during our regular winter hours of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 11AM to 4PM, to see these and other exhibits. With the addition of our new heating system, you can now tour the whole museum in relative comfort during these cold winter days.
We offer two scavenger hunts to make the experience more interesting. One scavenger hunt is for children, with pictures of artifacts that they can search for throughout the building. A new scavenger hunt for adults and teenagers focusses on artistic details of everyday objects found in the exhibits.
The museum is also open by appointment if the regular hours aren’t suitable for you, or if you’d like to arrange for a group tour. Call us at 608-637-7396 to schedule an appointment or guided tour.
An antique valentine in the museum’s collection.
For the week of 1/25/2026
by Kristen Parrott, curator
Local African-American history will be the topic of our next program on Tuesday, February 3, at 7PM, at the Vernon County Museum and History Center. February is Black History Month, and the program will get the month off to a good start!
Vernon County is not usually thought of as having much racial diversity, but in the 1800’s we were home to the largest rural African-American population in Wisconsin. This population lived for the most part in and around the community of Cheyenne Valley, which is located generally along Highway 33 in the Town of Forest. Black families in Cheyenne Valley sometimes had connections to Black families in La Crosse and Sparta.
The speaker for the evening will be Denise Christy, who is part of the Enduring Families Project. This project is a program of the La Crosse County Historical Society, and was founded to create public theater based on the lives of early African-American settlers to La Crosse County and to Cheyenne Valley in Vernon County.
Denise will talk about brothers Thomas and Ashley Shivers, and about Birletta Waldon Loving, all of whom spent part of their lives in Cheyenne Valley. Thomas and Ashley were born into slavery, and Birletta was born into a free family.
The evening will also include a short presentation of the Vernon County Historical Society’s 2026 budget, as required by our bylaws. This will be brief and informative, followed by a chance for VCHS members to vote on the budget. We are facing a difficult year financially, because our income has dropped while our expenses are going up, and we want to be transparent about the situation. To sweeten the task, hot chocolate will be served!
Everyone is welcome to attend the program. A suggested donation of $2.50 each will help us to defray costs. Programs are held in the wheelchair-accessible conference room on the first floor of the building. The upper floors of the building, which are now heated, will be open for those who wish to tour the exhibits before or after the program.
Thomas Shivers moved to Cheyenne Valley in the 1870’s.
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