A settler accidentally found a dilapidated set of bogus coinage tools in a grove near the head of the south branch of Bass Creek, which he named "Bogus."

The evidence

• “" As an evidence of the severity of that winter, I will here state a fact with which most of the settlers of that day were familiar, which was that coons were so emaciated that when, on a pleasant day, they ventured from their holes in the trees, in quest of food on the ground, they were unable to return for want of strength, and were frequently found by the hunters frozen to death at the foot of the tree in which they had lived, thereby betraying the whereabouts of those who had been more cautious, or unable to get out. In the fall of, 1841, while looking for a piece of land that I might be supplied with fire-wood, and fencing timber, I accidentally ran upon a dilapidated set of bogus tools in a small grove near the head of the south branch of Bass Creek, southwest of my farm, some three miles. There was a cast-iron press, weighing some eighty pounds, an iron bar, used, perhaps, as a lever with which to turn the screw to make the impression in coining ; also a small hand-vise, a steel spring and steel punch with which to cut the pieces to be stamped ; and German-silver plates cut into strips the width of half-dollars, a small box, containing a meal-bag and a buckskin mitten, in wh”

  1879-history-of-rock-county/13-rock-county-ch07-town-histories.md, PDF p. 517 / book p. 521

  Butterfield, C. W., et al. The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: its early settlement, growth, development, resources, etc. Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1879. Cornell University Library via the Internet Archive, archive.org/details/cu31924028871585.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources

  

• “Richardson, who was then trading in Janesville. In the fall of 1841, while looking for a piece of land that I might be supplied with firewood and fencing timber, I aceidently ran upon a dilapidated set of bogus coinage tools in a small grove near the head of the south branch of Bass creek, southwest of my farm some three miles. I gave the grove in which the tools were found the name of Bogus, by which cognomen it is known to this day.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/31-smaller-cities-villages-towns.md, Vol. 2, PDF p. 197 / book p. 702

  Brown, William Fiske, editor. Rock County, Wisconsin: A New History of Its Cities, Villages, Towns, Citizens and Varied Interests, from the Earliest Times, Up to Date. Chicago: C. F. Cooper & Co., 1908. 2 vols. archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon01brow, archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon02brow.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources · may repeat 1879-history-of-rock-county, so not counted as independent