Embedded Files
We have a small collection of objects that tell pieces of the Verona story - sometimes significant, sometimes simply snippets of daily life. Holding an artifact and knowing its story helps us connect with the past, and today's objects will help future generations connect with our present. Below is a sampling of our collection.
If you have an item which you think might be relevant to Verona history (historic OR modern objects) that you would consider donating, please contact us to see if it fits our collections philosophy.
The following are a few examples of things that are appreciated:
Verona Yearbooks, class photos, diplomas, school pictures.
Anything connected to our rural schools. Interesting items connected to the Verona School District.
Photos of founding or early families, old pictures of lost and surviving buildings, photos of community events from any era.
EVEN MODERN photographs and materials from Verona events or items that might be important in the future. A great example is our gold shovel from the 2018 high school dedication, and Mayor Diaz's 2020 declaration of emergency for COVID.
Pamphlets from grand openings or dedications of buildings, businesses, churches, or schools.
Antiques with connections to the Verona area (created here, or maybe used here historically).
Promotional material and "schwag" from Verona area businesses.
Old copies of the Verona Press or other community newspapers / bulletins.
Military uniforms and memorabilia of Verona area veterans.
Anything related to the Dane County Asylum / Poor House.
Other items you think might be of our interest. Thank you!
Theme: Verona and the Railroad
Item: Artifacts collected from the Verona railroad depot, collected upon its demolition in the mid 1960s.
Description: Logged as VAHS0235 (the house track lantern/signal) and VAHS0236 (the sign, flag, lens, and levers shown below). Few event influenced the development of Verona as much as the coming of the Chicago and Northwestern railroad in the early 1880s. This vital connection to the rest of the Midwest brought commerce, visitors, supplies, and even a few houses that still stand today. Verona's tracks were decommissioned in 1982 and opened as the Military Ridge bike trail we know today in 1985. (Curtis, 1997) Our artifact collection includes the items shown below that were salvaged by Verona families when the depot was torn down around 1966. Note that the depot itself was abandoned decades before the tracks themselves were decommissions. Among the artifacts shown below is the 9-foot-wide "Verona" sign seen by travelers arriving to the depot via Madison from the East.
Theme: Verona Schools
Item: Gordon School hand bell, pre-1900.
Short Description: Logged as VAHS0158. Hand bell used at the Gordon School, pre 1900, by teacher Bertha Casebeer. Bertha was the daughter of Verona Civil War Veteran Frederick Casebeer. This bell stayed in her family for several generations until being donated to us around 2017 by a direct descendant. Hand bells were typically used by teachers of one room rural schools to call in kids after recess and other outdoor activities.
Items: Gordon School post-tornado fundraiser quilt.
Short Description: Logged as group VAHS0160. A quilt containing names of Verona families created around 1929 as a fundraiser to buy supplies for the newly reconstructed Gordon School following its earlier destruction by tornado in September of 1928.
Full Description: Quilt created as a fundraiser to buy supplies for the newly reconstructed Gordon School. Area families bought squares to raise money, and the quilt itself was auctioned and won by Emil Dreger, relative of Eugene Dreger, the little boy who was tossed around by the 1928 tornado but survived. After Emil died, the quilt was transferred to the Miller family of the Gordon School Distrit. In 2011 Ruth Miller donated this quilt to the Verona Area Historical Society.
The 1929 replacement of the Gordon School cost $7,008, but money was still needed for school supplies - hence the community project to make this quilt. Signatures were sold for 10 cents each and were hand embroidered into blocks of five. There are differing accounts as to when this quilt was completed, ranging from 1928 to 1930.
Items: Various pieces of the 1929 Gordon School, recovered from its October 2017 demolition.
Short Description: Logged as group VAHS0159. Bricks, Wooden floor panels, foundation piece of the 1929 reconstructed Gordon School, collected after its 2017 demolition.
Full Description: Various pieces collected from the Gordon School demolition in October of 2017. the original school was destroyed by a tornado in 1928 and a brick version was rebuilt a year later and served as a school until consolidation of Verona's rural schools in to the Verona school district in the mid 1960s. The outside face of the bricks is a rugged decorative texture. The inside surface has stamped "STREATER BRICK CO. Shaletex. STREATOR, ILLINOIS".
Items: Ceremonial shovel used during high school ground breaking, April 2018.
Short Description: Logged as group VAHS0159. A gold colored shovel used during the ground breaking ceremony at the new high school site on April 24, 2018.
Full Description: Used in various group photographs with school board members, teachers, and other persons associated with the high school project. This ceremony included speeches by superintendent Dean Gorrell and High School principal Pam Hammen, as well as a small band of high school students playing music and the Wildcat mascot mingling around a tent with cake and refreshments. Earth movers had just recently begun sculpting the land where the high school would eventually be constructed. A public referendum had approved the high school facilities and conversion/upgrades of existing schools earlier that Spring. The goal was to open this facility in Fall of 2020. This gold colored shovel was collected at the conclusion of this ceremony with permission of a Findorff employee present.
Items: Desk from the "Andrew Henry" rural school in Verona.
Description: Logged as item VAHS0247. A desk used at the former Andrew Henry rural school on the northeast corner of Whalen Road and Highway PB. The school is currently a private residence. At one point Verona's schoolchildren attended nearly a dozen different schools, with most being small one-room schools like Andrew Henry.
Item: Verona High School Band Uniform, 1950s.
Description: Logged as item VAHS0230. A band uniform worn by Linda Sharer in the Verona High School band during the falls of 1959 and 1960. It is noteworthy that at the time, band was one of the very few school activities that did not separate students by gender.
Linda is in the back row (immediately left of the tuba) in this 1959 photograph of the Verona band printed in a 1974 article by Bill Wineke (who is standing to the right of the tuba).
Theme: Verona and the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020
The goal of these objects is to help future generations understand how the COVID-19 pandemic affected Verona.
Items: Handmade signs related to the Spring 2020 teacher parades during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Short description: Various signs from teacher's cars, spectators, etc displayed during COVID-19 era teacher parades in Spring of 2020.
Full description: COVID19 caused the closing of schools and in-person instruction in Verona starting on March 16, 2020 and lasting through the end of the Spring semester. During this time, teachers from various Verona schools came up with various ways to show support for their students and community. Several schools held teacher car parades, where the teachers drove in a line with inspiring and caring messages attached to their cars. Students and parents gathered on the sides of streets.
Country View Teacher Parade April 24, 2020:
Glacier Edge Teacher Parade, May 7, 2020:
Items: Caution tape from Cathedral Point Park.
Short description: Logged as items VAHS0147-0148. Segments of caution tape used to close down the playground equipment at Cathedral Point Park during the COVID-19 quarantine.
Full description: In line with social distancing and the closing of public spaces due to the pandemic, the Verona parks department was required to close down playground equipment around the end of March 2020. Seeing the caution tape draped over playgrounds around Verona was a difficult visual for many parents in Verona as it was a stark indicator of the seriousness of measures being taken and the possibly vulnerability if our children - mentally if not physically - to the world events unfolding. The parks remained open but playground equipment, swings, and ball courts were all closed for several months. Caution tape was removed from Cathedral Point Park and Scenic Ridge Park the week of June 15, 2020.
Items: "6 FEET" social distancing signs from Military Ridge and Ice Age trails in Verona.
Short description: Logged as items VAHS0161. Several signs displayed near the Military Ridge bike trail crossing by Hometown Junction and the Ice Age Trail by Whalen, instructing trail users to practice social distancing.
Full description: These signs were placed at various outdoor locations around Verona towards the end of March 2020 as social distancing and quarantine were being recommended in public spaces.
Items: Homemade masks made or used by Verona residents during the pandemic.
Short description: During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, many people began making protective masks for themselves and others. In March and April of that year it became increasingly more difficult, and at often not possible, to purchase masks at stores or even online as supplies could not keep up with Demand. At the beginning of the pandemic masks were not being recommended but by some time around mid-April(?) the CDC recommended people wear masks when being in public. It became commonplace to see people wearing them outside, in stores, and sometimes even while driving.
Even with the recommendation, there was still disagreement between people about if they should be worn and where. Some stores required masks for customer (causing some arguments when people tried to enter without them) but most only required them for employees. In July of 2020, Dane County issued an order to take affect on 7/13/20 that requires masks to be worn in all indoor locations, with some exceptions such as eating in restaurants, people with health conditions that prevent it, and very young children.
Theme: Farming in Verona
The Verona we know today began as a rural farming community. These items show us the evolution of agriculture in our town, mirroring changes across the industry as a whole.
Items: Thompson Family Farm Collection.
Short description: The Thompson Farms were a great example of land being worked by a multi-generational Verona farm family. Their farms encompassed parcels on North Nine Mound Road and the ground on which our new high school sits.
Item descriptions, clockwise from upper left:
Barn trolley used to lift and move bunches of hay into the hay mow. Removed from the last Thompson barn, where Grace Coffee is today, before demolition in 2005.
Weathervane from the same barn as above.
Lunchbox used by Dale Thompson in the late 1960s while attending the Verona Graded School (ART House 360 today) on Verona's west side.
Kerosene lamps used at the Thompson farmhouse.
Books related to dairy farming techniques, exemplifying how farmers have needed to keep up with advances and trends in their industry.
Wearable milking stool used by Marvin "Marv" Thompson. Note the wear patterns from countless thousands of stand-ups and sit-downs while attaching/removing milkers to cows.
Farm toys enjoyed by the Thompson children.
Handmade "Pineapple" doily, emblematic of just one of the many often-overlooked skills and contributions of farm women.
Items: Himsel Family Farm Collection.
Short description: The Himsel Family farmed for over a century on the southeast corner of Valley Road and Sugar River Road. They are also connected to the White Family, first-generation settlers of Verona near White Crossing Road and Timber Lane.
In 2026 we received and began curating a large collection of artifacts from the Himsel Farm, around the time of their auction that May. The level of documentation and personal stories that still exist for many of these items make them invaluable.
Bottom left: International Harvester (IH) #9 sickle mower purchased by Orville Himsel circa 1940. This was the last model of horse-drawn sickle mower made by IH before fully switching over to only making tractor-drawn models. This mower's stamped manufacture date plate is too corroded to read, but its frame has the model number M2589. Various sources indicate that the #9 was produced from 1939 to approximately 1946.
Bottom middle: Orville Himsel is seen riding this mower behind a team of horses on the Himsel Farm, circa 1940s.
Bottom right: A manual corn sheller used by the Himsel family to remove kernels from small batches of field corn cobs, often for feeding hogs.
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