Editing Edgerton, Wisconsin (section)

==History==
Originally called '''Fulton Station''', Edgerton was named after 19th-century businessman [[Elisha W. Edgerton]],<ref>[http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=3477&search_term=edgerton Edgerton (Origin of Placename)]</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n113 114]}}</ref> or his brother [[Benjamin Hyde Edgerton]], a civil engineer.<ref>'Wisconsin Magazine of History,' vol. 4, Wisconsin Historical Society; 1921, Biographical Sketch of Benjamin Hyde Edgerton, pg. 354-357</ref>

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Edgerton was the center of the tobacco industry in southern Wisconsin. At one time, there were as many as 52 tobacco [[warehouse]]s dotting the streets of the city.<ref>Barry Adams, "http://host.madison.com/news/local/on-wisconsin-historic-tobacco-buildings-could-help-revitalize-downtown-edgerton/article_8e4dc4a8-3251-11e1-8fd2-001871e3ce6c.html[ On Wisconsin: Historic tobacco buildings could help revitalize downtown Edgerton]", ''Wisconsin State Journal'', January 3, 2012. Accessed February 16, 2014.</ref> [[Queen Anne style architecture in the United States|Queen Anne style]] mansions along Edgerton's Washington Street testify to the [[wealth]] and prominence some merchants once had. The 1890s Carlton Hotel, once located on Henry Street, also once served as an additional reminder of the tobacco industry's influence. Although built by a [[brewery|brewing firm]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Scarborough|first=Mark Wilson|title=Edgerton|date=2014|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|page=29|isbn=9781467110747|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-PJYAgAAQBAJ&q=Carlton+Hotel&pg=PA7}}</ref> the hotel (which burned to the ground in the 1990s) was frequented by tobacco buyers and sellers.
[[Image:Dickinson Tobacco Warehouse.JPG|thumb|none|250px|Tobacco warehouse in Edgerton]]

===Edgerton Bible case===
In 1886, Catholic parents in Edgerton protested the reading of the [[Authorized King James Version|King James Bible]] in the village schools because they considered the [[Douay-Rheims Bible|Douay]] version the correct translation. The school board argued that Catholic children could ignore the Bible readings or sit in the cloakroom while the rest of the children listened to the reading of a Protestant version of the Bible. Because the school board refused to change its policy, several families brought suit on the grounds that the schools' practice conflicted with the Wisconsin Constitution, which forbade sectarian instruction in public schools.<ref>{{cite book|last=Andersen|first=Arlow William|title=Rough Road to Glory: The Norwegian-American Press Speaks Out on Public Affairs, 1875 to 1925|date=1990|publisher=Balch Institute Press|page=36|isbn=9780944190029|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cemP7pfYDxsC&q=Edgerton++&pg=PA36}}</ref>

The circuit court rejected their argument, deciding in 1888 that the readings were not sectarian because both translations were of the same work. The parents appealed their case to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which overruled the circuit court on March 18, 1890, concluding that reading the Bible did—in fact—constitute sectarian instruction and thus illegally united the functions of church and state.<ref>{{cite book|last=Central Conference of American Rabbis|title=Year Book of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Volume 21|date=1911|publisher=Central Conference of American Rabbis|page=81|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T-sLAAAAIAAJ&q=Edgerton+Wisconsin+Supreme+Court%2C+which+on+March+18%2C+1890&pg=PA81}}</ref>

Seventy years later, when the U.S. Supreme Court banned prayer from the public schools in 1963, the [[Edgerton Bible Case|Edgerton Bible case]] was one of the precedents cited by Justice [[William J. Brennan, Jr.|William Brennan]].<ref>Source: Geiger, John O. "The Edgerton Bible Case: Humphrey Desmond's Political Education of Wisconsin Catholics," ''Journal of Church and State'', vol. 20. no. 1 (1978): 13-27; U.S. Reports 374 U.S. 203, pp. 282 & 292.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=10403&search_term=bible|title=Term: Term: Edgerton Bible Case|publisher= Wisconsin Historical Society |access-date= February 13, 2014}}</ref>