BAD AXE, a county in the W. part of Wisconsin, bordering on the Mississippi river, contains 772 square miles. It is drained by the Bad Axe and Kickapoo rivers, from the former of which the name is derived. The surface is uneven. This county is not included in the census, as it was not organized in 1850. Capital, Springville. (Baldwin's New and Complete Gazetteer of the United States..., 1854)
BAD AX, County, is bounded on the north by La Crosse, on the east by Sauk and Richland, on the south by Richland and Crawford, and on the west by the Mississippi river, and was set off from Crawford and organized March 1, 1851. The county seat was established by a vote of the electors of the county on the 29th day of June, 1852, at Varoqua, near the centre of the county. It forms a part of the sixth judicial circuit, the second congressional, and the nineteenth senate district, and with Crawford sends one member of the assembly. The streams are the Bad Ax, Kickapoo and Racoon rivers, with their tributaries, and small streams emptying into the Mississippi. A large quantity (41,807 acres,) of that portion of school lands known as the 500,000 acre grant, is situated in Bad Ax county, the soil of which is good, and produces good crops of wheat, oats, corn, &c. This county is comparatively new, and contained in 1850 less than 700 inhabitants. During the last two years the population has increased very fast.—County Officers: Judge, Henry J. Defrees; Sheriff, James Bailey; Clerk of Court, Wm. F. Terhune. (John Warren Hunt, Wisconsin Gazetteer..., Madison, 1853)
Renamed Vernon County in 1862.