USA > Wisconsin > Brown County > History of Brown County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume I > Part 40
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Thus was the town of Holland begun. As time passed other families came over from the old country, and the place became a flourishing settlement. Some twelve families of Irish immigrants came to this vicinity as early as 1849, and made their home among the Holland settlers. Among these were Patrick Finnegan, Patrick Golden and Maurice Sommers, Patrick Dockery, Michael Dockery, John Clark, John Spain, Daniel Clune, Michael Brick, Joseph Franskee, Henry Freeman, Michael Sullivan, James Sommers, James Golden, Thomas Finnegan and Thomas Finnerty. Later came the Clearys, Meehans, Sheehans, Byers and many others. Hollandtown and Askeaton are the central points in Holland for the farms around the town. Forest Junction is also in the town.
The wild forest through which Father Gotherd led his devoted parishioners in 1848 has become one of the finest farming regions in Brown county, the soil being a sandy, clayey loam, well adapted to agricultural purposes. In the
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latter part of the fifties a number of German families joined the settlement at Holland, and at the present time the population is pretty evenly divided between the three nationalities, although the Hollanders are still in the majority. Here, as elsewhere in this dairying district, are to be found a number of cheese fac- tories and creameries.
Rockland was settled by the Irish as early as 1850, but was not set off as a town until 1857. The early pioneers were James Hobbins, Maurice Ryan, Stephen Joyce, Matthew Illsbury, followed by Leonard Bone, the Ryans, Dillons, Martins and Dollards.
The town contains about 2,000 acres of land, with soil varying from a rich sandy loam to red clay and is watered by numerous streams flowing into East river. The farms all through this section of country are excellent and well cultivated, and the land rich and productive.
In 1889 Rockland was a center for the breeding of Holstein cattle and is an extensive grazing country with fine farmis, but is not as great a dairying district today as the neighboring towns of Wrightstown, New Denmark and Morrison. All these towns, including Glenmore and Ilolland, shared to a large extent in the benefit derived from the charcoal kilns built by the iron furnaces. On every stream, and there are many that thread these towns, and that were of much greater volume before the forests were cut down, was built, even back in the fifties, at least one sawmill.
The immense daily amount of wood required for charcoal to smelt the iron ore formed the lever that set the wheels of agriculture' in motion. All the wood in the county was soon marketed at profitable prices, leaving the land free for the use of the husbandman.
The town of Lawrence was set off in 1848 and named in honor of Amos Lawrence, the founder of Lawrence University, who had purchased from Eleazer Williams a large tract of land on the west side of Fox river.
Lawrence included within her original limits a large part of the present city of De Pere. Even as far back as twenty-five years ago the town of Lawrence is reported as largely given over to dairy farming, and this characteristic still continues, some of the best creameries in Brown county being found in that town. All the land included in the town of Lawrence belonged to the Menominee tribe of Indians, and the property at an early day was obtained by Indian deeds. At Little Rapids began the original grant of land, deeded to Eleazer Williams and his wife, Madeline Jourdain. Here the landscape is diversified by steep hills sloping to the river, and the highway which borders the water is edged closely by sumach and hazel bushes.
The river eddies around an island, which lies at the foot of the declivity where the log house of the "lost dauphin" stood as late as 1886.
Ridge Point or Apple Creek, a beautiful park on the west side of Fox river. lies on the line between Wrightstown and Lawrence. This is a very popular resort during the summer months not only for parties from the cities near at hand but also for visitors from Neenah, Menasha and Appleton. Ridge Point has been laid out and improved by the Fox River Interurban line, and is under that management.
Passing northward we come to the great barns of the Lindauer Company and
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the cheese factory of the South Lawrence C. & B. Company. At Little Rapids is the Lindauer pulp mill, which brings business and life to the town.
In the early history of Brown county the Great and Little Kakalin is often mentioned : one of the earliest sawmills, that erected by the government in the early twenties, was at the latter point. The name through successive and varied spelling of Kakalin was definitely settled by George Lawe, the son of Judge John Lawe, who, having made a plat of the town of Grand Kakalin, placed it instead on record as "Kaukauna." In Indian language the original was "O-Gau-Gau- Ning," which signified a stopping place for the pickerel or the pickerel fishing grounds. Among the earliest settlers in the town of Lawrence were the Stewarts, Maxwell and William, who owned one of the finest farms in the whole of Brown county, situated on the shores of Fox river, and cultivated to the best extent pos- sible. Maxwell Stewart went extensively into the bee culture, and honey as well as butter from the Stewart farm was in great demand. Andrew Reid was one of the early mill men of Lawrence.
Among the farmers at a somewhat later day were the Bankers, father and son, Giles S. Philips. S. S. Clark, William and Robert Crabb, William Lusha at Little Rapids, John L. Morrison, F. Wiese, J. Williamson, W. F. Redman, Joseph Rupiper, the Wisharts, H. P. Cady, the Scheurings and many others, for the farms lie in close proximity.
The first property laid out in what was afterward West De Pere was a brick yard started by Drs. Louis Carabin and George Armstrong in 1855. Later a plat of the town was made by Dr. Carabin, the town being known as West De Pere. It became the Third and Fourth wards of the city of De Pere on August 20, 1889, when the east and west side consolidated under the name of De Pere.
The towns of Morrison and Glenmore, settled principally by Irish colonists, were set off respectively in 1854 and 1856. This part of Brown county, now among the most beautiful and highly cultivated farming sections to be found anywhere, were originally densely timbered and exceedingly difficult of set- tlement. From 1858 mills began to be established and the lumberman joined hands with the farmer in clearing up the land. The towns are now among the richest of Brown county, a veritable garden spot. The country extending through Rockland, Glenmore and New Denmark is thus described by Stam- baugh in 1830: "In a direction east from the Little Kakalin about eight miles there is a large body of delightful land. There are numerous streams rising at the foot of the mountain ( the ledge) near this place, the banks of which at some places rise to a height of seventy or eighty feet, and the waters become very rapid. On the margins of these streams are the finest groves of sugar maples. These streams unite a few miles below this place and form consider- able water called Devil's river, which is navigable for large vessels two or three miles above the mouth." (W. II. C. v. 15.)
In 1854 the board of supervisors passed the resolution that a new town be set off from the towns of Wrightstown and De Pere, said town to be called Morrison, and that the first election of town officers should be held at the house of Alphonse Morrison on the first Tuesday in April following. The home of this first settler was in the midst of an as yet almost unbroken forest. The earliest pioneers to hew their way to what is now the town of Morrison were Alphonse
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J. Morrison and his wife, who date their settlement there on February 8, 1851. their first child being the first white child born in the town. Morrison removed to Wrightstown in 1855, selling out his interest in Morrison to Philip Falck, who became a prominent business man in the place and its first postmaster. The Morrison cheese factory is today owned by Louis Falck, a son of this early settler.
Wayside is the shipping point for the country around and is a thriving and growing village. The population of Morrison shows an increase according to the census of 1910. Well known and early families of Morrison were John and James Clark, Michael Quinn, John G. Gross, John Hickey, John Lemke, Jerry Branin and John Malloy.
At Lark, a country postoffice in Morrison, eighteen miles south of Green Bay City, and seven from Greenleaf, are two cheese factories.
Glenmore's first settler was Samuel Harrison, who located in the region about 1846, and whose son Samuel led Company H of the Fourteenth. Michael Patten and Tim Murphy were the first Irish settlers, coming to Glenmore in 1846 and 1850 respectively. Those who came later and took up lands were: James Heiffernan, B. P. Brannan, Thomas Lawton, Michael Moran, Patrick Bailey, John Healey and Cornelius Donahoe. The first election of town offi- cers in Glenmore was held at the home of Michael Patten on the first Tuesday in April, 1857.
The town of New Denmark, settled by a Danish colony about 1848, is one of the most flourishing and steadily increasing in population of the county towns. Although immigration from the old country to Brown county was up to 1800 principally among the Hollanders, Irish, Germans and Belgians, yet there was also a generous influx of Scandinavians and Danes, beginning with the settlement of New Denmark, and including the Norwegian colony brought from Norway in 1850 by Otto Tank, to the town of Howard.
The villages of Denmark, Fontenoy, Buckman, and Lange are all centers for the cheese industry, seven factories and one creamery, according to the 1910 report of State Dairy and Food Commission, being in operation in the town of New Denmark. A large plant for the manufacture of condensed milk has also been erected in Denmark. The town of New Denmark shows a larger increase in population during the past five years than any other Brown county town, except Preble, and the village of Denmark is a prosperous and rapidly growing place, with Roman Catholic, Danish Lutheran, German Lutheran and German Methodist churches and the Denmark State bank. There is also the Denmark Lumber Company, the Denmark Manufacturing Company and the Kriwanek elevator. In addition are a number of good general stores, and cheese factories and creameries abound.
Among the earlier settlers were: John Bartelme, N. H. Gotfredson, Ed Rasmussen, F. W. Rasmussen, Caspar Hansen and M. Lewis. A postoffice was established in New Denmark as early as 1848, called Cooperstown, but was afterward changed to Denmark. The Cooperstown of today, familiar to motor- ing parties who make it a visiting point during the automobile season, is just over the line in Manitowoc county.
On March 8, 1855, a resolution was adopted by the Brown county board of supervisors creating the town of New Denmark, at that time forming a part
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of De Pere. The first election of town officers was held in the New Denmark schoolhouse. Some German and Irish families joined the settlement of Danes, and farms gradually began to dot the landscape in every direction. The Neshoto river which pursues its winding way through New Denmark is fed by many streams on which from forty to fifty years ago were the inevitable saw- mills.
In looking over a plat of New Denmark of twenty-five years ago, although there are other nationalities owning land in the town, yet the land owners for the most part are Danes, the Andersons. Larsens, Christensen, Hansen, Jor- gensen. Petersen, Nelson, Haeger, Erickson, Osterloh. Benecke, Hendricksen, Knuth, Marcus and Arvesen.
After leaving Denmark the country is rolling with deep indentations that cause a diversity of foliage in the landscape. Here and there are compact clumps of timber and streams bordered by willows slip away between patches of deeper green. Striking almost due north the road from New Denmark leads through leagues of fertile country to Henrysville in Eaton township, and through Humboldt to Schiller and the Sugar Bush. This part of Brown county is diversified by a chain of small lakes of which Lilly lake is the largest, and is watered by the Neshoto river, its tributary. King creek, and numerous other smaller streams. The grain stands high in the fields, promising as fine a yield as in 1910, when according to statistics 1.421.075 bushels of oats alone was raised in Brown county. There are herds of sleek black cows with a mellow bell hanging and tinkling from the neck of the leader, but creameries and cheese factories are not as numerous in Eaton as other parts of the county.
On November 18, 1859, the county board of supervisors ordered that from and after the Ist day of April, 1860, a certain part of the then town of New Den- mark be erected into a new town to be called Eaton. After the first day of April all connection by the said town of Eaton with the town of New Denmark was to cease and the first election of town officers in said town of Eaton was to be held at the house of Patrick Burns.
At the same session of the board in November, 1859, the towns of Hum- boldt, Suamico. Preble and Scott were set off, the election of town officers for all the newly organized towns to be held on the first day of April following. The first settlers in the town of Eaton came about 1855. They were Patrick Carney, Patrick Burns, James Kehoe and others, who were followed by Danes, Belgians, Germans and a large number of Polish colonists. The majority of these colonists went into farming and stock raising. Henrysville and Poland are centers of trade in Eaton. There is rural delivery from Green Bay. The popu- lation of Eaton is increasing steadily according to the last census report, the total being 1,188.
The first town meeting in Humboldt was held at the house of Henry Fon- taine. Humboldt was settled largely by Flemish Belgians. Germans and some Hollanders. Schiller and New Franken are the principal villages. At New Franken are a number of cheese factories. Schiller is the center of an im- portant farming district, and truck gardens throughout this section abound. The township is watered by Scarboro creek, and on this stream Anton Klaus, one of the successful business men of Green Bay, began milling operations early in the '6os, cutting the timber at first directly around his mill and gradually working
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CASCADES, TOWN OF SCOTT
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out from this central point. The lumber and shingles were hauled by ox teams to a dock built by Klaus at Bay Settlement and shipped from there by schooner. The streams throughout Humboldt were not large enough to raft the logs, and lumbering was hard work at that period in Brown county. Shingles were brought to the Green Bay port from every part of Brown county by ox team, and the long strings of wagons could be met at any hour of the day bringing in great loads of the manufactured article along the narrow stump rutted roads of the county.
The Flemish and Walloon congregation of the Immaculate Conception was established about 1870 in Humboldt. The Walloon mission of St. Hubert's was inaugurated some years later, and is located two miles from the mother church. The first church, a quaint little building is still standing and used, but at the Sugar Bush is the handsome large church of St. Huberts.
It was in July, 1845, that the families of John and Peter Schauer, Michael Burkard, Michael Lang, Valentine Lang, Wendelin Sohler. Caspar Schoerger, Andrew Schott. James Schauer and Andrew Schmitt came from Unter Franken, Bavaria, and located at New Franken. These were followed in 1846 by George Sehauer, Melchior Schauer, Martin Heim and Nicolas Holzapiel, while in 1848 the families of Peter Schaut, Gerhard Schaut. Christopher Simons, Henry Simons. Anthony Goetxmann, Michael Listel, Sebastian Gehring and Lawrence Wolfert came to the same place from Prussia. These were the members of the colony as given in the records of St. Killian's church, New Franken. A number of German families joined the New Franken colony until as many as thirty families had taken up their residence there.
In 1845 the whole of this section of Brown county was included under the town of Green Bay, but during the '50s the attention of the county board was largely given to the setting off of towns, and in 1869 New Franken was inchided within the limits of the town of Scott. These boundaries were later changed and New Franken came within the jurisdiction of Humboldt.
The colony has had a somewhat tragic history, first as being visited by the terrible cholera epidemic of 1855, and as the centre of that part of Brown county, of the disastrous forest fires of 1871.
Of the death within two days of the Burkard brothers in 1855, the Green Bay Advocate of July in that year has this to say: "The most remarkable fatality in this vicinity which it has been our lot to record has occurred during the past week at the German settlement of New Franken, about nine miles northeast of this place, by which the three Burkard brothers, John M .. Joseph and John have been suddenly cut off. Of John M. Burkard we feel it a priv- ilege to say a few words. We have known him for some nine years, and learned to respect and esteem him for his many manly qualities. He was a highly educated man, with a mind much above mediocrity, and a disposition most generous and gallant, unflinching and warm in his friendship, reliable and sound in all business, political and social relations. *
* * In the last Demo- cratic convention for this assembly district, Mr. Burkhard was nominated for the legislature. He accepted it only after much persuasion. A statement of this kind would have been doubted during an election campaign, but it will not be now that he is gone."
New Franken called during the '50s the "Bavarian Settlement." is now one
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of the most enterprising and flourishing of the Brown county villages, on the line of the Kewaunee, Green Bay & Western Railway, and in the midst of a productive farming country. As a shipping point for the country around, New Franken has the Wells Fargo Express Company, and has telegraph and tele- phone connections with the city of Green Bay, and surrounding towns. Albert L. Greiling in addition to being the manager of the New Century Co-operative Creamery Company, owns a large general store and an elevator. Other prom- inent firms are Schauer & Company, general store, John T. Basten, owner of a general store and leader of the New Franken orchestra.
The town of Scott or "Liberty" as it was first named, was set off from Green Bay in November, 1859, and the first meeting ordered to be held at the "schoolhouse near the old cascade." The name "Liberty" did not suit John P. Arndt, chairman at that time of the county board, and he proposed instead "Pochequette" as more suitable for the site of many former Indian villages, but Robert Gibson urged "Scott" probably in honor of Sir Walter, and this name was finally adopted. The election of town officers was held on the first day of April, 1860, "at the schoolhouse of Joseph Allard, near the falls in said town of Scott."
The official schedule of the inhabitants of Brown county, made in 1830 gives to Bay Settlement just eight inhabitants: the family of Isaac Jacques and that of Amable Gervais. Stambaugh's report in the same year says that there was a small settlement of French Canadians on the east shore of the bay six miles below the fort, who had cleared and cultivated several hundred acres of land. the only white settlement on the peninsula outside of the confirmed claims. The Langevin claim, belonging to the "Green Bay Settlement" was the farthest north of the old French claims, reaching nearly to the shore line of Bay Beach in 1830. Between the two settlements was quite a stretch of meadow land used by both settlements for grazing purposes.
Louis Corbeille who settled on the bay shore in 1830, says he found but two families there, those of Louis La Resch and Joseph Greenwood : Louis Rouse and family settled there a little later, as did the Rousseau family. Anton Allard and others. The "French Settlement" as it is usually termed in the proceedings of the county board. did farming in a small way, but the great industry of the place was fishing. All along the bay shore were set the nets of the fishermen, and until comparatively recent years the fisheries were the great interest of that part of the county.
The first American settlers came about the year 1836. They were: John Campbell, Robert Gibson, Van Rennssalaer Marshall and William Sylvester. The postoffice of Wequiock was established in 1856, another one at New Fran- ken in 1860, and still another at Bay Settlement in 1868. Rural delivery now reaches all the towns in the county, and brings a daily mail to the farm houses all along the route, and the majority of the farmers' homes have telephone connection.
Bay Settlement is the oldest point of colonization outside of Green Bay. De Pere and Prairie du Chien. in Wisconsin, and its Indian history antedates the other towns. It has one of the finest locations to be found anywhere. The gradual slope upward from the bay, the vivid green of the fields and groves, the lofty land eastward crowned by a succession of pretty hamlets render it a
NEW FRANKEN SCHOOL
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TILIA FOUNDATION 1
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charming picture from the bay. Red Banks still rises abruptly from the water's edge, although the contour of the land has changed with water erosion and the thick growth of juniper and evergreen shrubs that fringed the edge of the bluff in earlier days has disappeared almost entirely, gradually sliding away from the solid earth above.
The spire of Holy Cross church rises in the distance; one of the first Cath- olic congregations established in Brown county, and successor to a mission inaugurated at Bay Settlement in 1834, by Father Van den Broek. The mis- sionary erected and dedicated a church at that time to St. John Nepomué, the congregation including the families of La Framboise, Shallifax, Vieux, Rous- seau, La Plantes, Baumier, Champeaux and Verbocoeurs and other well known namies.
After these first French settlers had partially cleared away the massive growth of timber which formerly covered all this part of the country, a number of Hollanders, Germans, Flemish, Walloon, Belgians and a few Irish also took up their residence there, and thus the population became mixed both as to nationality and language.
The northern part of the town of Scott was occupied almost entirely by Lutherans and a few Scotch Presbyterians, but the number was not sufficient of eitlier denomination to warrant the building of a place of worship. Among these Protestant colonists were numbered the Gibsons, Campbells, the family of August Speirschneider and others who owned large tracts of land in this vicinity, cultivated fine farms and were numbered among its best citizens.
It was early in the '4os that the temporary church built by Father Van den Broek was succeeded by a log church built by the French settlers where Holy Cross stands today. For some time service was conducted by priests from St. John's church, Green Bay; the much beloved priest Father Bonduel, Rev. Perrodin, Anderledy, Father General of the Jesuits and others.
The first resident priest was Father Daems, who came from Belgium in 1850. For two years he assisted Father Van den Broek at Little Chute, when he returned to Bay Settlement taking charge of that church, and the small Bel- gian settlements all along the peninsula. A large number of pioneers from this nationality had immigrated to this point in the early '50s and Father Daems was influential among them.
Three times did the dread disease cholera visit the Green Bay region with deadly results. The first epidemic was in 1832, proving very fatal in the little town of Menomineeville. Again in 1834 the cholera swept this section, and still again in 1855 the disease broke out with terrible virulence among Father Daems' congregation and other dwellers in the county of Brown.
The sudden death of the Burkard brothers at New Franken was only one of many similar occurrences, the scourge slaying its hundreds throughout the entire vicinity. For seven weeks while it raged most fiercely Father Daems kept his horse constantly saddled, and for that whole terrible period he did not know one night of undisturbed repose. Many instances are recorded of the good father's kindness of heart, of his wonderful efficiency in emergencies and of his success in the executive pursuance of his work ; he became widely known and highly respected.
Among those most heavily engaged in agriculture were in 1876 Neil Munro, Vol. 1-21
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Thomas Smith, David Davidson, J. Verhulst, Robert Vickory, John Cook, Joseph Poitras, Paul Keiser, Peter Krouse and Alfred Wallingfang.
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