The naming of Spring Green in Sauk County, WisconsinWeekly Home News, Spring Green, Wisconsin, June 19, 1902, page 1, column 3:We have been told that Spring Green received its name from the Indians among whom the spot on which our village is located was known as the home of early vegetation, and that while snow covered the grass at other points along the Wisconsin, the fertile soil in this vicinity was covered with a heavy matting of verdure. Ever since the savages noted the superiority of the soil here, conditions have been the same, and it has responded to the manipulation of civilization with abundant and early growths until to-day, without apparent effort, we find home grown vegetables closely following those shipped from the south. While we were at dinner to-day, there was brought over from W. Hood's garden and left at our office a nice, plump cabbage. The 4th of July has heretofore been considered early for home grown cabbage.
Weekly Home News, Spring Green, Wisconsin, June 26, 1902, page 1, column 4:
How About The Name? J. F. M. Says the Home News is misinformed in Regard to the Indians Naming Spring Green - Vegetation is Not Forward Here in the Spring.
[Dear] Editor Home News: In your article relative to the name "Spring Green," in your last issue, you err slightly. The soil upon which this village stands was not noted because it would "green up" in the spring quicker than surrounding territory. In fact it "greens up" more slowly than the sandy soil surrounding it. Our clay soil and the almost ice cold water that lies beneath it when the river is high and cold in the early spring retards vegetable growth but when the waters recede and the ground gets warm vegetation comes with a rush and keeps coming.
Before the railroad came through Spring Green there was a "sink hole," such as you will now see just beyond Schoenmann's grove, about where Mrs. Lewis's and Dr. Christman's lots are. It extended across the present railroad property and was filled in when the road was built. This spot did "green up" very quickly, as it had a southern exposure and was protected on the north by oak groves. When all the rest of the prairie was covered with snow this was covered with Verdure. It was thought at that time a spring existed there, hence the name. Who gave it the name is a disputed point. John Thomas, who is about our oldest settler, says William Barnet, who prempted the Barnard farm, named it, and John says he heard him name it. Mrs. J. M. Jones says Mrs. Tom Williams named it. It is probable that the name was used before the time of either.
Doesn't it strike you as being a little singular that while Spring Green is named for a depression in the ground Lone Rock was named from an elevation of it? Would that account for the fact that they have always been at cross purposes since? Yours, J.F.M
[Mrs. Turner, widow of the first white man who built a house in Spring Green town – an old log house that stood just north of Thos. Norton's residence – (about 1841), probably named Spring Green. Mr. Turner died of sunstroke and the widow married Thos. Williams. Mrs. Williams told Mr. William Reely, who has been a resident here since 1849, that she named Spring Green. It was not a sink-hole that suggested the name, but the fact, as she informed Mr. Reely, that it was green here so early in the spring. The Home News was evidently misinformed as to who furnished the name, though not as to what suggested it. – Ed.]
Also see: "The Romance of Wisconsin Place Names" by Robert E. Gard & L. G.
Sorden
Copyright 1968 by Wisconsin House, Inc., page 119
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