the Byams were given the option to leave within 24 hours or to stay and be hanged. One of the Byam brothers was tarred and feathered. The Byams left town the next morning, but one of the brothers returned the next day for a load of hay. The townspeople spotted him and burned the hay wagon. By 1880, the village had over 100 residents. Local businesses included two hotels with saloons, a leather goods and tanning shop, the general store, a shoe shop, a blacksmith shop, and a slaughter house. Today, the community consists of several homes and small businesses, a church, and a small park. Geography Mount Vernon is located south of Mount Horeb and southwest of Madison, at the intersection of County Highway G and Wisconsin Highway 92. It occupies land on the eastern edge of Wisconsin's Driftless Area, and is bordered on two sides by Donald Park, a county park at the headwaters of the Sugar River. Notable people Emma Amelia Cranmer, temperance reformer, woman suffragist, writer Herman Dahle - U.S. Representative John Donald - Wisconsin politician and dentist Fred Haefliger - highly decorated U.S. Marine Notes Unincorporated communities in Dane County, Wisconsin Unincorporated communities in Wisconsin Madison, Wisconsin, metropolitan statistical area