The Verona Leprosy House

The Prairie Moraine Park, which we and our dogs enjoy today, was once a remote parcel owned by the Dane County “Poor House” two miles to the north. Established in 1854, the institution’s purpose was to house Dane County residents who could not care for themselves for reasons such as illness, old age, abandonment, homelessness, and poverty. Some visits were short – just long enough for a fever to pass, an injury to heal, or to give birth. Other patrons stayed for the rest of their lives, many being buried in a small cemetery on East Verona Avenue.

In 1894, Norwegian-born Town of Vienna resident Thomas Larsen arrived at the Poor House suffering from leprosy. Incurable at the time, this feared disease had inflicted physical and social consequences on its sufferers for millennia. 

The Poor House initially turned him away but was later instructed by the county to create an isolated living space to house him and Ole, a second person with leprosy known to be living in the Town of Bristol. In spring of 1896, a three-bedroom cabin was built in this park at a cost of $330. Thomas moved in by June, but Ole had died before its completion.

Even though Thomas was isolated, he was not entirely alone. Food and supplies were brought here daily from the Poor House. A neighboring farmer is remembered as visiting for games of cards. For a period of time another Poor House resident named William served as Thomas’ personal attendant. Local journalists and clergy occasionally visited, their observations being recorded in newspaper articles.

Thomas died here in 1902 and is buried with other Poor House residents in a small cemetery on East Verona Avenue. According to an account by the superintendent of the Poor House in 1919, one additional person with leprosy briefly lived in the cabin before 1910.  As the story of this cabin was retold between generations it transformed from one dwelling into an entire “leper colony” - a term once used to describe large, isolated settlements of persons with leprosy.

On a hillside on the western half of the Prairie Moraine dog park are two groupings of rocks.  In the early 1990s, a group of longtime Verona residents recorded their firsthand memories of the Poor House and its residents. According to the members of the group, these rock groupings are the remnants of the "leper colony."  Both groupings roughly fit the known footprint of the cabin, and both appear in Verona’s oldest aerial photograph from 1929.  Further archaeological study is needed to look for artifacts that would indicate a historic dwelling.

Today we know that leprosy is difficult to contract, curable since the 1940s, and that ninety-five percent of people are naturally immune. Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide still live with leprosy today. Many face the same social stigma that Thomas did over a century ago.