Beetown, in west Grant county, occupies the seat of a narrow defile in Grant river valley. It became a mining settlement, in the same year with Platteville, 1827. Cyrus Alexander, Thomas Crocker, James Meredith and Curtis Caldwell, frontiersmen, pitched their camp at the foot of a big tree. During the night a storm came up and the tree was blown over. In the cavity left by the upturned roots the men found great boulders of lead ore. The tree also was filled with honey and bees. They called their mine the "Bee Lead," and thus originated the name of the town.

During the Indian troubles of 1831 and 1832 the early settlers took refuge among the rocks on the hillsides. After the war more settlers came in, but it was not until 1845 that the village became prosperous. From then until 1850, Beetown was an active trading point. Among the town of Grant County, it was surpassed only by Potosi and Platteville, It had three hotels the "Beetown House" "Thomas" and "America" hotels.

Horse racing was a leading activity. Owners of the race horses prominent in that time were Gordon Day and William Hammond.

The year 1850 was a dark one. The gold fever seized upon the lead miners and there was a big exodus to California. Late in the summer the cholera scourge came. There was a terrible panic in the village and it was almost depopulated. It is said by some of the old settlers still living that at one time there were scarcely a dozen men in the village.

Beetown records dates and events from the time of the "big flood," and the visitor here finds someone willing to tell of that tragic event. One summer's night in 1851, the flood waters swept through the narrow valley. The township had 48 square miles within its borders and the village boasted a population at one time of 1,740 inhabitants. There is scarcely one fourth of this number in Beetown how.

In the latter "60s" zinc mines were discovered here along the lead ranges and for a considerable number of years there were a dozen or more good mines giving employment to numbers of men. The haul from Beetown over the long hills was a handicap and one after another the mines shut down and have never been revived.

The first school was taught in 1840 by Edward Walker. The school was held in a log cabin near the Arthur home. A post office was established in 1843 with Samuel Varden as postmaster. The village was legally laid off in 1847. The first school was maintained by subscription and when the Methodist church was built it was used as a school until 1857. The Beetown Masonic lodge was instituted in 1860.

Note the Congregational Church was organized in May 1848 by Revs. S. Chaffee and O. Littlefield. "Convention Churches in Grant County" by Rev. J. N. Davidson, "Church Work" September 11, 1890. A Rev. Mr. Bonham, a young man from Tennessee was a Baptist pastor in Prairie du Chien while in Rockville, the pastor in 1853 was Rev. Edward Morris. Cornelius Kennedy, a veteran of the Revolutionary war opened the first school in Potosi in 1838.

Sawyers established a mill in Section 10 of the Township on the Grant river. Several homes and stores were built here and the buildings roofed with slabs. This outpost village was called Slabtown.