Two things suggest that the little village failed to develop a “boom”
or even to gain a basis for healthy growth. These are the land
entries in the territory adjacent and the story of the post office.
Practically, there were no new entries of land between the years
1841 and 1849. This is true for all the townships in the tributary
region--7, 8, and 9, range 1 W, and 7, 8, and 9, range 1 E. The post
office under the name of Savannah appears in the government list for
the first time in the report for 1837. At that time Thomas J. Parrish
was postmaster. In 1839 S. A. Holley was postmaster, the office then
being listed as English Prairie. The postmaster’s compensation was
$5.68. Charles Stephenson’s compensation in 1841 was even smaller,
$3.36, the net proceeds of the office amounting to only $7.55. In 1843,
for the first time, the post office was called Muscoda. The postmaster
was Levi J. D. Parrish, who received as compensation $9.29, the net
proceeds of the office having risen to $16.51.
It is probable that most of the seeming prosperity of 1843 was due to
the presence of the land office, which had been removed from Mineral
Point to Muscoda in 1842. Some have charged that the change was brought
about through James D. Doty’s influence in order to save the town.
If so, the scheme failed, for the land office promptly went back to
Mineral Point in 1843, and May 16, 1845, the post office department
discontinued the office at Muscoda. Muscoda was not listed in the post
office report for 1847 or in the report for 1849. In 1851 it reappears,
with James Moore as postmaster. Now the compensation is $39.74 and the
net proceeds $53.09. The exact date of its restoration is not given
but it must have been as early as 1850, and possibly 1849 or even
1847.[86]