History of Vernon 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.

              HISTORY OP WISCONSIN.
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was appointed governor in place of Doty on the 21st of June, 1844, his commission bearing date the 16th of September. James K. Polk having been elected President of the United States in the fall of that year, Henry Dodge was again put in the executive chair of the ter¬ ritory, receiving his appointment April 8, 1845, and being commissioned May 13 following.
It was during the fourth session of the fourth legislative assembly that preliminary steps were taken, which resulted in the formation of a State government. The first Tuesday in April, 1846, was the day fixed upon for the people to vote for or against the proposition. When taken it resulted in a large m'ajority voting in favor of the measure. An act was passed providing for taking the census of the territory, and for the apportionment by the governor of delegates to form a State constitu¬ tion, based upon the new enumeration. The delegates were to be elected on the first Mon¬ day in September, and the convention was to assemble on the first Monday in October, 1846. The constitution when formed was to be sub¬ mitted to the vote of the people for adoption or rejection, as, at the close of the session, the the terms of members of the council who had been elected for four years, and of the house, ^ ho had been elected for two years, all ended. The legislature re-organized the election dis¬ tricts, and conferred on the governor the power and duty of making an apportionment, based on the census to be taken, for the next Legislative Assembly, when, on the 3d of February, 1846,
both houses adjourned sine die. The census taken in the following June showed a popula¬ tion for the territory of 155,217. Delegates having been elected to form a constitution* for the proposed new State, met at Madison on the 5th day of October. After completing their labors, they adjourned. This event took place on the 16th of December, 1846. The constitu¬ tion  thug formed was submitted to a popular
vote on the first Tuesday of April, 1847/and rejected. A special session of the legislature, to take action concerning the admission of Wis¬ consin into the Union began Oct. 18, 1847, and a law was passed for the holding of another convention to frame a constitution. Delegates to the new convention were elected on the last Monday of November, and that body met at Madison the 15th of December, 1847. A census of the territory was taken this year, which showed a population of 210,546. The result of the labors of the second constitutional conven¬ tion was the formation of a constitution, which, being submitted to the people on the second Monday of March, 1848, was duly ratified. On the 29th of May, 1848, by act of Congress, Wisconsin became a State.
It may be here premised that the western boundary of the new State left out a full or¬ ganized county, with a sheriff, clerk of court, judge of probate, and juotices of the peace. A bill had been introduced at a previous session in Congress, by Morgan L. Martin, the delegate from Wisconsin, to organize a territorial govern¬ ment for Minnesota, including the district left out on the admission of Wisconsin; but which failed to become a law. The citizens of what is now Minnesota were very anxious to obtain a territorial government, and two public meetings were held—one at St. Paul, and the other at Stillwater—advising John Catlin, who was secretary of Wisconsin, to issue a proclamation as the acting governor, for the election of a delegate to represent what was left of the territory of Wisconsin. Mr. Catlin repaired to Stillwater and issued a proclamation accordingly. H. H. Sibley was elected; nearly 400 votes hav¬ ing been polled at the election. Sibley was admitted to his seat on the floor of Congress by a vote of two to one. His admission facilitated and hastened the passage of a bill for the or¬ ganization of a territorial government for Min¬ nesota.