Edgerton, Wisconsin
| Edgerton, Wisconsin | |
|---|---|
| City | |
Fulton Street in downtown Edgerton
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| Motto: "Tobacco City U.S.A." | |
 Location in Rock County and the state of Wisconsin. |
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| Coordinates: 42°50′10″N 89°4′23″W / 42.83611°N 89.07306°WCoordinates: 42°50′10″N 89°4′23″W / 42.83611°N 89.07306°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Wisconsin |
| Counties | Rock, Dane |
| Area | |
| • Total | 4.14 sq mi (10.72 km2) |
| • Land | 4.14 sq mi (10.72 km2) |
| • Water | 0 sq mi (0 km2) |
| Elevation | 817 ft (249 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 5,461 |
| • Estimate (2012) | 5,503 |
| • Density | 1,319.1/sq mi (509.3/km2) |
| Time zone | Central (CST) (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| Zip Code | 53534 |
| Area code(s) | 608 |
| FIPS code | 55-22575 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1564443 |
| Website | www.cityofedgerton.com |
Edgerton is a city in Rock County and partly in Dane County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 5,461 at the 2010 census. Of this, 5,364 were in Rock County, and 97 were in Dane County. Known locally as "Tobacco City U.S.A.," because of the importance of tobacco growing in the region, Edgerton continues to be a center for the declining tobacco industry in the area.
Originally called Fulton Station, Edgerton was named after a 19th-century businessman, Elisha W. Edgerton, or his brother Benjamin Hyde Edgerton, a civil engineer.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Edgerton was the center of the tobacco industry in southern Wisconsin. At one time, there were as many as 52 tobacco warehouses dotting the streets of Edgerton.Queen Anne style mansions along Edgerton's Washington Street testify to the wealth and prominence some merchants once had. The 1890s Carlton Hotel, once located on Henry Street, also once served as an additional reminder of the tobacco industry's influence. Although built by a brewing firm, the hotel (which burned to the ground in the 1990s) was frequented by tobacco buyers and sellers.
In 1886, Catholic parents in Edgerton protested the reading of the King James Bible in the village schools because they considered the Douay version the correct translation. The school board argued that Catholic children could ignore the Bible readings or sit in the cloak room while the rest of the children listened to the reading of a Protestant version of the Bible. Because the school board refused to change its policy, several families brought suit on the grounds that the schools' practice conflicted with the Wisconsin Constitution, which forbade sectarian instruction in the public schools.
The circuit court rejected their argument, deciding in 1888 that the readings were not sectarian because both translations were of the same work. The parents appealed their case to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which on March 18, 1890, overruled the circuit court, concluding that reading the Bible did, in fact, constitute sectarian instruction, and thus illegally united the functions of church and state.
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