HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
LITERATURE-SCIENCE-ART. 
 
LITERATURE. 
In the domain of English literature, there 
has been, in Green county, no one in the past, 
nor is there one at the present time, who has 
achieved a national reputation nor even, per- 
haps, one eo-extensive with the limits of the 
State; but several have written fugitive pieces 
of poetry published in the county papers of con- 
siderable merit; and there are not a few who, in 
prose, have done themselves equal credit. One 
book, however, has been written   in Green 
county, of a high order of merit, and is deser-v- 
ing of special commendation. It is the "History 
of Green County, Wisconsin," by Helen M. 
Bingham.    It was published in 1877 and is a 
small 12 mo. volume of 310 pages. The author, 
in her excellent preface, says: 
"In the effoat to make this history correct, a 
great many letters have been written, and a 
great many visits have been made in the several 
towns. Assistance has been received from over 
200 persons, more than one-fourth of whom 
came to the county before 1840, some of them 
before 1830. With all the avidity of Dryden's 
reaper, who 
'-fills his greedy hands 
And binds the golden sheaves in brittle bands,' 
I have seized upon these individual gleanings 
from memory's field and bound them together." 
And thus she concludes: 
"With just one plea in its behalf, the history 
is now submitted to the people of Green county. 
The plea is this: It is often said, though whether 
the saying originated with an unsuccessful his- 
torian cannot now be ascertained, that 'that 
people is most fdr'tnnate whose history is most 
 
wearisome to read.'  Will those to whom this 
history is the dullest and most monotonous of 
books have the charity to infer that Green is 
the most fortunate of counties?" 
But the fair author is altogether too modest. 
She has written a, book which is neither dull 
nor monotonous, and one which, it may safely 
be said, has been fortunate for Green county. 
It is the best county history, not biographical, 
written by any Wisconsin historian. The style 
of the author is terse and lively and her gener- 
alizations are marked with much more than 
ordinary ability.  There is but one matter of 
regret connected with the pubiication of Miss 
Bingham's history, and that is, that so few of 
the citizens of Green county have purchased the 
book and attentively perused it.  It is worthy 
a careful reading by all. 
Helen ]aria Bingham 
was born in Monroe, Green Co., Wis., Oct. 10, 
1845. She is the daughter of the late Judge 
John A. Bingham and Caroline E. Bingham, 
(mee Churchill) who is still living, and is a resi- 
dent of Green county.  Dr. Bingham received 
her early education in Monroe. She afterwards 
attended the State University at Madison and 
Lombard University, in Galesburg, Ill., gradu- 
ating from the latter in 1867. She has taught 
school not only in Wisconsin but in Arkansas, 
and was, at one time, an instructor, in her Alma 
Mater.   She was, also, employed for awhile 
on the Janesville Gazette. She is the author of 
the "History of Green County, Wisconsin," 
published in 1877, mention of which has already 
been made in this chapter. In the fall of 1877, 
Miss Bingham went to Boston3 and the succeed- 
 
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