History of Green County, Wisconsin. Together with Sketches of its Towns and Villages, Educational, Civil, Military, and Political History; Portraits of Prominent Persons and Biographies of Representative Citizens

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.
CHAPTER XXXI.
TOWN OF CLARNO.
The town of Clarno is in the southern tier of towns; bounded on the south by Illinois, on the west by the town of Cadiz, on the north by Monroe, and on the east by Jefferson. It em¬ braces township 1 north, range 7 east, contain¬ ing 23,222.87 acres (ff land. The surface of this town is considerably diversified. In places it is quite broken and inclined to be bluffy, yet in but very few Idealities is it suffi¬ ciently abrupt to make it useless for agricultural purposes. Interspersed with the timber land is found patches of prairie and clearing, and the town contains many of the finest farms in Green county. A local writer in speaking of this town says:
"One of the things worthy of notice in this vicinity is the noted spring on section 11, on the place now occupied by F. H. Smock. It is famous for once having been the head-quarters of Black Hawk, the noted Indian chieftain. By the side of this fountain of sparkling water, the dusky warrior gathered his braves around their coun¬ cil fires, to plan the midnight raids against the pale-facea who had raised their solitary cabins here and there on the hunting grounds of the red man. The spot is lovely and romantic, sloping gently to the south. Near the spring stands an oak tree, whose deep foliage casts a dark shade over the water."
It is estimated that there are over 23,000 acres of farming lands, in this town, of average value of $23.06 per acre, and total value |536,- 834. The total value of real and personal prop¬ erty in the town is $693,073. The population ofthe town in 1875 was  1,510; in  1880 1,429.
The stock in the town is as follows: Horses 674, average value $59.09, total $39,831; 3,132 head of cattle, average value $17.91, total $56,- 111; thirteen mules, average value $75.76, total $985; 2,839 sheep, average value $2.41, total $5,674; 3,283 swine, average value $5.30, total $17,418; there are 1,047 milch cows, valued at $21,789. The principal farm products grown in the town in 1882 were as follows: 4,163 bush¬ els of wheat, 161,546 bushels of corn, 84,325 bushels of oats, 540 bushels of barley, 6,050 bushels of rye, 6,772 bushels of potatoes, 723 bushels of root crops, 23f bushels of cranber¬ ries, 3,735 bushels of apples, 49^ bushels of clover seed, 146^ bushels of timothy seed, 31, 000 pounds of t(»bacco, 4,880^ tons of hay, 64,- 169 pounds of butter, 61,500 pounds of cheese. The acreage of the principal farm products growing in the town of Clarno at the time of making the assessment in 1883 was as follows: 451^ acres of wheat, 4,206 acres of corn, 2,545|^ acres of oats, four acres of barley, 623^ acres of rye, 119f acres of potatoes, four acres of root crops, 1^ acres of cranberries, 159 acres of ap¬ ple orchards, 5,088 bearing trees, six acres of tobacco, 2,878 acres of growing timber and 3,- 288 acres of grasses.
EAELY  SETTLEMENT.
The territory which now comprises the town of Clarno was first explored by whites, with the view of settling, in 1827. During this year, Andrew Clarno came from Illinois, and trav¬ eled all over this portion of the State in search of a suitable home for himself and family. In passing through the territory now included in