Editing Green County, Wisconsin (section)

==History==
The land of Green County had long been settled by [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]]. In 1632, [[Samuel de Champlain]] included this area in the region belonging to the [[Illinois Confederation|Illinois]], and in the 18th century the [[Sauk people|Sauk]] mined lead within the present county limits. By the time the first white settlers arrived there, all of Green County was the property of the [[Ho-Chunk]], who referred to the mines as the "Sac Diggings." The federal government recognized Indian title to frontier land, and generally forbade the private sale of Indian land to individuals, but as squatters continued to work the mines in southwestern Wisconsin, conflict arose between them and the Ho-Chunk, as well as the Sauk and [[Meskwaki]], all of whom mined and sold lead. In 1832, [[Black Hawk (Sauk leader)|Black Hawk]] attempted to bring his people back into their former [[Illinois]] lands, they were pursued across the border into Wisconsin, then known as western [[Michigan Territory]]. The Ho-Chunk were divided in the [[Black Hawk War]], with many warriors siding with the Sauk, and others taking personal revenge on frontier settlers in the lead mining district. Although many other Ho-Chunk aided the [[United States Army|US army]] in pursuing the Sauk, they were coerced into selling their lands south of the [[Wisconsin River]] in a treaty signed in September, one month after Black Hawk's surrender. Although other towns had been founded in the lead region of Wisconsin prior to the land cession, [[Monroe, Wisconsin]] was one of the many communities founded in the mid-1830s after this land became legally open to settlement.<ref>{{cite web |title=A Brief History of Monroe |url=https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS2448#:~:text=The%20town%20was%20named%20for,the%20Sugar%20and%20Pecatonica%20rivers. |website=Wisconsin Historical Society |publisher=Wisconsin State Historical Society |access-date=November 8, 2023 |language=en |date=July 27, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=History of Green County, Wisconsin. together with biographies of representative citizens. history of Wisconsin, embracing accounts of the pre-historic races, and a brief account of its territorial and state governments. - Full view - UWDC - UW-Madison Libraries |url=https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AKUDOOTWPZAAOS8Q/pages/AA362SETGB6UAL87 |website=search.library.wisc.edu |publisher=Union Publishing Company |access-date=November 8, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Marty |first1=Dwayne L. |title=Old Exeter And The Sugar River Diggings |url=https://monticellohistoricalsociety.org/digital%20pubs/old%20exeter%20and%20the%20sugar%20river%20diggings%20marty.pdf |website=Monticello Historical Society |publisher=Monticello Historical Society |access-date=November 8, 2023}}</ref>

The county was created in 1837 from the [[Wisconsin Territory]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/documents/WI_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm|title=Wisconsin: Individual County Chronologies|website=Wisconsin Atlas of Historical County Boundaries|publisher=[[Newberry Library|The Newberry Library]]|date=2007|access-date=August 13, 2015|archive-date=April 14, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170414132220/http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/documents/WI_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> When in December 1837, a new county was to be split off from the over-large [[Iowa County, Wisconsin|Iowa County]], [[William Boyles]] of Monroe, as the Representative of the area, was allowed to choose a name. He chose Green County, after the verdant color of the vegetation there. Another member suggested that it be modified to "Greene" after General [[Nathanael Greene]], who commanded the [[Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War|Southern Campaign]] in the [[American Revolutionary War]] but Boyles insisted on his original choice.<ref>[http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.HistGreen1884 ''History of Green County, Wisconsin. together with biographies of representative citizens. history of Wisconsin, embracing accounts of the pre-historic races, and a brief account of its territorial and state governments'' Springfield, Illinois: Union Pub. Co., 1884; p. 220]</ref> The story that it was named for General Greene still persists in some circles.<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 | page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n142 143]}}</ref>