By KRISTEN PARROTT | Vernon County Museum curator
When we talk about African-American history in Vernon County, we usually focus on Cheyenne Valley, a community founded in the 1850s in the town of Forest. Several free Black and multiracial families settled there before the Civil War, and freed slaves joined the community after the war. One of those families, the Craft family, lived in Cheyenne Valley for many years but then moved to Viroqua in the late 1880s.
Two summers ago, the Vernon County Historical Society hosted a guided walk at the Viroqua Cemetery, featuring several local historical figures, including Jefferson Craft. As we prepared for the event, we discovered that while Jefferson was indeed buried there, his plot didn’t have a gravestone.
Last summer, a number of local people made donations to help erect a small stone over the graves of Jefferson, his wife Lottie, and their young daughter Delia. The stone went up last fall, and now we are ready to dedicate it. A free public event will be Monday, June 19, at 6 p.m. at the Viroqua Cemetery, 429 Hickory St. Bring a lawn chair or something else to sit on if you’d rather not stand the whole time.
This story has a Civil War connection, and local American Legion members will provide an honor guard ceremony during the dedication event. Jefferson Craft is listed on the 1890 census, special schedule for veterans, as having served in the Civil War as a private in Company G of the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry, with an enlistment date of July 11, 1862, and a discharge date of Oct. 25, 1865. This information is found nowhere else that we’ve seen; he’s not on any rosters or in any other records.
Jefferson was Black and probably living in the South and enslaved at the start of the war, so we don’t know how he ended up in a Wisconsin unit before the Emancipation Proclamation. Possibly he was employed by the unit, serving as a horse handler or a drayman — something other than a soldier, at least to begin with. Perhaps he joined the unit when it passed through his home area in the South, wherever he was living.
The dedication also will include the story of the Craft family as told by local actor Dodie Whitaker portraying Lottie Craft. The Christian faith was important to the family, and the Rev. Margaret Hoversten will bless their new gravestone. Refreshments will be served afterward in the gazebo. Rain date is Monday, June 26.
