Civics
4
On October 25, 1836, when Governor Henry Dodge addressed the joint session of the legislature at Belmont, the Territory of Wisconsin included all of present day Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and parts of the two Dakotas, with the population about equally divided east and west of the Mississippi. Criticism of Dodge's choice of Belmont as the Territorial Capital was so strong that he immediately offered to accept any location chosen by a majority of the representatives. A bitter contest followed, and the Dubuque and Burlington, Iowa, delegations finally joined the eastern Wisconsin group to move the capital for one year to Burlington and then permanently to Madison. Belmont, which had briefly bloomed as a village, quickly declined, and when the railroad bypassed it by two miles to the southeast, many residents moved their buildings to the new Belmont.
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Belmont, Wisconsin · United States
