Pleasant Ridge

Overview

A ridge of free farmers

In 1848 Sarah Edmonds of Fauquier County, Virginia, died and freed the people she had enslaved in her will. Charles Shepard, his wife Caroline, their three children, his brother Isaac and Isaac's future wife Sarah Brown came west with her nephew, William Horner, who meant to make money in the lead mines of southwestern Wisconsin. The mines were already in decline, so Horner bought farmland in Grant County instead. The Shepards worked for him for several years, then bought 200 acres of their own at $1.50 an acre. That hillside became Pleasant Ridge.

Families who had escaped slavery in Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas settled nearby, and German, English and Irish farmers came too. The community stayed mixed. In 1873 its Black and white families built a log school with teachers of both races, which the county historical society calls one of the first integrated schools in the nation. A cemetery followed in 1883, a log United Brethren church in 1884 and a community hall in 1898. By 1895 Black residents owned nearly 700 acres. Estimates of the peak population run from about 100 to 200 people, roughly half of them Black. The 1998 marker counts over 50 African Americans; the 1994 DAR marker says over 100 free or escaped slaves.

The 20th century emptied the ridge slowly. The community was small and rural, with few ways to make a living, and the young moved to cities and other states. The church came down in 1920. Ollie Green Lewis, a Shepard descendant and the last Black resident, died there in February 1959. Today the land is farmed, and the hilltop cemetery is, in the DAR marker's words, all that remains.

Timeline

From Fauquier County to Slab Town Road

1. 1848Sarah Edmonds of Fauquier County, Virginia, dies and frees the people she enslaved in her will. Charles and Caroline Shepard, their children Harriet, John and Mary, Charles's brother Isaac and Isaac's future wife Sarah Brown travel to Wisconsin with her nephew William Horner. The Wisconsin Historical Society and the 1998 county marker date the move to 1850; the marker calls Horner a great-nephew.
2. 1850sHorner buys farmland in Grant County, between 1,000 and nearly 3,000 acres by different accounts. After several years of wages the Shepards buy 200 acres from him at $1.50 an acre, the first Black landowners on the ridge. Families who escaped slavery in Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas settle nearby.
3. 1863Black men are allowed to enlist. Charles Shepard serves with the 50th U.S. Infantry and dies at Vicksburg. His son John, of the 42nd Regiment, dies of disease on his way home at the end of the war. At least eight Black veterans come back to the ridge.
4. 1873Black and white neighbors build a log schoolhouse, Grant County District School No. 5, with Black and white teachers and pupils.
5. 1883The community cemetery is established. The Shepards had kept a family burial ground on their own land since 1858.
6. 1884A log United Brethren church goes up.
7. 1895Black residents own nearly 700 acres of farmland.
8. 1898Thomas Greene builds a community hall on his property, the marker says by the younger generation. It hosts an annual barbecue each August.
9. 1906The women of the ridge form the Autumn Leaf Society, which runs dances and dinners, sponsors the August barbecue and helps care for the cemetery.
10. 1920The church is torn down.
11. Feb 1959Ollie Green Lewis, a descendant of the Green and Shepard families and the last Black resident, dies at Pleasant Ridge.
12. 1994The Wisconsin Society Daughters of the American Revolution put up a marker at the cemetery.
13. 1998The Grant County Historical Society puts up a second marker, No. 394, where Slab Town Road leaves WI 35/81.
14. Oct 25, 2025The county marker is photographed for the Historical Marker Database, the newest dated photo we found.
15. 2026The county historical society lists both markers as stops on its History Hop from July 4 to September 30, and Eugene Tesdahl of UW-Platteville gives a talk on Pleasant Ridge artifacts on October 15.

What's left

A cemetery on the ridge

The 1994 DAR marker stands at the cemetery and says plainly that the one-acre burial ground is all that remains. It lies on Slab Town Road a mile west of WI 35/81, where the Grant County Historical Society's 1998 marker tells the longer story. Both were photographed in October 2009, and the county marker again on October 25, 2025. We found no recent photos of the cemetery itself on Wikimedia Commons, so we can't show its stones here. The 1962 USGS sheet below labels the plot beside the road Pleasant View Cemetery, not Pleasant Ridge.

The church survives only as a copy. Old World Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Historical Society's outdoor museum at Eagle, has re-created the log United Brethren church in a Pleasant Ridge section, with what the Society calls an authentic replica of the cemetery. On May 30 and 31, 2026, the museum held its Decoration Day program, on the forerunner of Memorial Day, at this replica.

The old maps show a scatter of farms, not a town. The 1900 sheet marks farmsteads along the ridge roads of Beetown town, with Beetown village at lower left. The 1959 sheet puts the ridge between Lancaster and Beetown on WI 81, and the 1962 sheet shows the cemetery on the road with a few farmsteads around it.

• Pleasant Ridge Cemetery (1883), about one acre
• DAR marker (1994) at the cemetery
• Grant County Historical Society marker No. 394 (1998) at WI 35/81
• Church re-created at Old World Wisconsin, Eagle
• School, church and hall sites: not marked

Historic maps

Pleasant Ridge on USGS maps, 1900–1984

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19001:125,00019591:250,00019621:24,00019841:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Lancaster, the Grant County seat, is the nearest city, about 11 minutes away. From Madison the drive runs west on US 18/151 and US 18, then south on US 61 into Lancaster. Both routes leave Lancaster on WI 35/81, pass the county marker at Slab Town Road, and end at the cemetery a mile farther west.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Pleasant Ridge, re-created at Old World Wisconsin

Gravestones in the replica of the Pleasant Ridge cemetery at Old World Wisconsin, Eagle, August 2013The re-created United Brethren church at Old World Wisconsin, August 2013

Visitor reports

Been to Pleasant Ridge?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Pleasant Ridge

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Wisconsin index.

• Potosi11.0 mi SE · Grant
• Sinnipee19.4 mi SE · Grant
• Belmont23.3 mi E · Lafayette
• Pendarvis (Mineral Point32.5 mi E · Iowa
• Adamsville45.9 mi E · Iowa
• Corwin53.6 mi NE · Richland
• Farmers Grove55.3 mi E · Green
• Cheyenne Valley60.4 mi N · Vernon

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wisconsin Historical Society, "Pleasant Ridge: A Community of Black Farmers in Wisconsin", read October 20, 2026: the 1850 move, Sarah Edmonds's will, over 1,000 acres, the Greene and Grimes families, the Civil War service, District School No. 5, about 100 residents, the Shepard family cemetery of 1858 to 1896 and the community cemetery of 1883, Thomas Greene's hall, the Autumn Leaf Society, Ollie Green Lewis, and the replica church and cemetery at Old World Wisconsin.
2. Wikipedia, "Pleasant Ridge, Grant County, Wisconsin", retrieved October 2026: the Shepard family and Sarah Edmonds's will, Horner's 1,000 to 3,000 acres, the Civil War, District School No. 5, the cemetery, church and hall, the Autumn Leaf Society, 700 acres in 1895, 100 to 200 residents, Ollie Green Lewis, the church torn down in 1920 and re-created at Old World Wisconsin, coordinates and GNIS elevation.
3. Grant County Historical Society, "Pleasant Ridge: A Refuge for Former Slaves", read October 20, 2026: the family's names, nearly 3,000 acres, the 200-acre purchase, the 50th U.S. Infantry and 42nd Regiment, the 1873 integrated school, 1884 church, 1898 hall, about 100 residents, Isaac Shepard's farm, and Ollie Green Lewis in February 1959.
4. Grant County Historical Society, "History Hop America 250", read October 20, 2026: the Pleasant Ridge marker and cemetery as stops from July 4 to September 30, 2026, and their places on Slab Town Road.
5. Historical Marker Database, "Pleasant Ridge" (Grant County Historical Society marker No. 394), page revised October 28, 2025: the 1998 inscription (1850 arrival, great-nephew, over 50 African Americans, log school and church, the cemetery one mile west), its place at Slab Town Road and WI 35/81, and photos of October 3, 2009 and October 25, 2025.
6. Historical Marker Database, "Pleasant Ridge" (Wisconsin Society DAR, 1994), page revised February 11, 2021: the inscription (1848, Horner of Warren County, over 100 free or escaped slaves, the one-acre cemetery all that remains), its place on Slab Town Road and coordinates.
7. WPR events calendar, "Decoration Day" at Old World Wisconsin, May 30 and 31, 2026: the Pleasant Ridge replica at the Wisconsin Historical Society's museum in Eagle.
8. Grant County Historical Society, "Pleasant Ridge Artifacts": Eugene Tesdahl's talk of October 15, 2026.
9. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited below each one; both were taken at Old World Wisconsin, not at the site. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Historic maps: USGS. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• Gravestones in the replica of the Pleasant Ridge cemetery at Old World Wisconsin, Eagle, August 2013: Royalbroil, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• The re-created United Brethren church at Old World Wisconsin, August 2013: Royalbroil, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Lancaster 1900, 1:125,000; Dubuque 1959, 1:250,000; Hurricane 1962, 1:24,000; Dubuque North 1984, 1:100,000.