Memoirs of Vernon County book has history of Romance
https://archive.org/stream/historyofvernonc01spri#page/n5/mode/2up
Check out Harmony Township page 555. There are several other references to Romance.
Here is one about the first Postmaster Albert James Hall on pages 357-359.
Here are some facts:
* Genoa is 5 miles to the West
* Viroqua is 14 miles to the East
* Chaseburg is 11 miles to the North
* Red Mound is 7 miles to the South
* The Bad Axe river runs through Romance
* Highway 56 also runs through Romance
- Romance Tavern is on the South side of the HWY in the Township of Genoa
- Romance Store - Bar & Grill on the North side of the HWY is in the Township of Harmony
* A abandoned cemetery lies about 4 miles Southeast of Romance on the old Lois Engler farm
- Several Veterans from the Civil War are buried here along with past residents
- Names include: Hockenberry, Oliver, Johnston, Davis, Phillips, Hartley, Mellen,
Sidie, Miller, Campbell, Smith, and Sutton.
* We use to have a cheese factory and a stockyard
* The bounty paid on rattle snakes use to be 50 cents then it went up to $1 and now
we still have some snakes but there is no bounty
* From: Jayne Stokke. I've been living here since the mid 70's. I remember when the turkeys were released. Somewhere around here I think I have the clipping from the La Crosse Tribune. When we first bought the place, people around here would ask where we lived. They would reply "oh, the old Sledge Meyer place". He sold it to someone named Larson (up on Co. K), moved to Chaseburg, and nobody lived here again until we bought it. Larson used it for farming.
The road back to our place used to go all the way to the top of the hill, meeting up with North Ridge. I was told it was the old stage coach trail, and the valley was known as Robbers Roost. Because of how narrow the valley is, and how steep the hill sides are, robbers would ride their horses down, rob the stagecoach, and then ride up to the top again. I would think Ray Hass knows more about that story.
* Dates to remember:
1800's The school was established in Romance and ran until 1962
1854 - 1883 Romance had a Post Office
1920's Scarlet fever and diphtheria took many lives
also in the 1920's telephones were put into some homes
1925 The Romance Store was built by Clarence Chester Oliver
1930's Electricity was brought into the area
1940's The hot lunch program started in the school
1969 I (Ak Lallas) moved to Romance from Chicago and became a tobacco and beef farmer at age 16.
1969 Kevin Wolfe actually went to the Romance (one room) school in first grade in 1969. It was the last year before students were bussed to Viroqua. The teacher was Mrs. Bakkestuen.
1970ish The telephone party line was dropped
1976 The DNR released 20 turkey hens and 9 gobblers back into Romance on the Baumgartner farm in 1976. They trapped grouse in Wisconsin and traded for the wild turkeys with Missouri. Karl Baumgartner lives here now but his parents, Butch and Iva lived on the farm in 1976.
1983 The first turkey hunt season opened making Romance the Turkey Capital Of Wisconsin
2012 The Romance Wisconsin website went online
* If you know how Romance originally got it name, please contact me.
* Also, If you have any Romance Trivia you would like to share, send it my way.