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About

Johnson County is named for Colonel Richard Mentor Johnson and not Andrew Johnson, as some believe. Colonel Johnson was in the War of 1812 and the vice-president of the U.S. during the Van Buren administration. 

Until the late 1830s the area known today as Johnson County was nothing more than wilderness and a hunting ground for the Fox and Sac Indians. Between 1832 and 1837 the Indians were stripped of their lands by treaty. Soon settlers began to move into the county. The county was established in 1837. By 1838 there were two towns competing for the county seat--Osceola and Napoleon. An Act of the Wisconsin Assembly selected Napoleon as the county seat on June 22, 1838. A two-story log cabin courthouse was then constructed at Napoleon.