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Weyauwega is anything but a sleepy little town. At one time, it was on the leading edge of the Wild West. As early as 1843, settlement at Gills Landing on the Wolf River led to the beginning of Weyauwega. The friendly Menominee tribe made settlement easier. Rugged individuals like William Gumaer, Louis Bostedo, Jacob Weed, and Lorenzo and Joseph Post broke ground for a gristmill, sawmills, stores, and streets. The Civil War took the best men away from Weyauwega, many of whom are featured in a recently uncovered pre-Civil War Masonic photograph album. By the 1880s, Main Street stores were being filled with Eastern goods, women were dressed in the latest styles, such as big floppy hats, and William Bauer was making highly prized furniture. It is hard to imagine that it was the edge of civilization when looking through the photographs for this book.
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Land O' Lakes, Wisconsin, is surrounded by more freshwater than any small town in America. Originally named State Line because it straddled the border of Wisconsin and upper Michigan, Land O' Lakes quickly became a premier vacation destination because of its wilderness beauty. Resorts built from local timber, like the famous Gateway, attracted celebrities including Dwight Eisenhower and Lawrence Welk. In 1946, Stevens Point-based North Central Airlines inaugurated seasonal flights to Land O' Lakes, complementing railroad service by the Chicago and North Western Railway. The word had spread: for the best north woods entertainment, recreation, and beauty, head to Land O' Lakes, "at the top of Wisconsin." This book features the best images available from the Land O' Lakes Historical Society to depict the region's early pioneers, resorts, and businesses.
Cudahy's commerce began with Patrick Cudahy, an Irish immigrant who started a meatpacking business in 1892. He invited other industrialists to follow him to the farmlands southeast of Milwaukee, and soon nationally known companies like Ladish, Federal Rubber, and George Meyer opened factories in the new city. Smaller businesses like Adamczyk's Meat Market, Dretzka's Department Store, Pinter's Inn, and Sullivan's Cigar Shop thrived amidst a growing population. With the gradual loss of heavy industry after World War II and the rise of retail box stores, Cudahy has strived to attract commercial and light manufacturing companies like the Gift Shoppe, Milwaukee Cylinder, National Tissue, and Angelic Bakehouse. Cudahy started as--and continues to be--a small town with big opportunities.
Prior to World War II, there were 90 single-screen movie theaters in Milwaukee. By 1960, that number had been reduced by half. With the arrival of television for the home market, the golden age of the movie theater in Milwaukee was dead. Yet their ghosts continue to haunt the old neighborhoods. Churches, warehouses, stores, nightspots, and other businesses now occupy the former Tivoli, Paris, Roosevelt, and Savoy Buildings. Others are simply vacant hulks, decaying from the inside out. The Elite, Regent, Lincoln, and Warner are but a few of the many silent sentinels from the days when Milwaukee was in love with the movies.
Many activities become short-lived fads. Not so for the drum and bugle corps in Racine. Here, after 150 years, drum and bugle corps activity still flourishes as a proud tradition. Racine is the self-proclaimed drum corps capital of the world. Racine had six competing drum and bugle corps during the 1960s and 1970svery impressive for a community of 90,000. In fact, it would be difficult to find a longtime resident who is unaware of this activity. Everyone in Racine either was a member of or had family or friends who were members of a drum and bugle corps.
Not to be confused with Milwaukee's "South Side," the City of South Milwaukee is in fact a separate and independent community, with a rich and colorful history all its own. It is this spirit of self-sufficiency that has long been a hallmark of South Milwaukee, going back to 1835 when the area was first settled and continuing through the city's remarkable transformation from a small rural settlement to a bustling industrial suburb. Since 1892, the city has been home to Bucyrus International, one of the world's leading manufacturers of heavy excavation equipment. Bucyrus provided employment to South Milwaukee citizens, allowing the city to grow and add more businesses and city services, and to feel an even more confident sense of independence.
Beginning in 1906, A.J. Kingsbury sought to earn his living as a photographer. He frequently traveled the roads in the counties surrounding his hometown of Antigo, Wisconsin, taking pictures he could sell and resell to residents and the small number of tourists from the city seeking the peace and quiet of the countryside. He soon realized these photo images could be turned into picture postcards and began printing these in his photographer's studio in Antigo. Sadly, most of his work was lost in a fire that burned the studio and everything in it to the ground. This book, Langlade County, represents a small portion of the 600 remaining images and negatives captured by Mr. Kingsbury, preserved in the Langlade County Historical Society.
Sheboygan County's iron-fisted work ethic began with its earliest residents. From the jackknife trading posts and mill wrights of the early 1800s to the spas and "Great Wall of China" of Kohler Company, the importance of commerce to Sheboygan County is evident. This wonderful pictorial history of the small family-owned businesses of Sheboygan County begins in the 1870s and ends with a great shot of a 1950s American Classic--McDonald's Golden Arches. It provides an intimate look at tin shops and cheese factories, butchers and blacksmiths, movie theaters and much more. Sheboygan County: Pioneers of Commerce presents a cross section of American life as the country grew from a rural entity to a business giant.
The old town of Brookfield provides an ethnic microcosm of what makes Wisconsins settlement story so unique. As Native Americans, primarily the Potawatomi tribe, were forced out of the region, in came large numbers of Protestant farmers from New York State. A step and a half behind the New Yorkers came distinct colonies of families from western EuropeCatholics from near Nuremberg, Bavaria; Evangelical Lutherans from Canton Bern, Switzerland; Methodists from Lincolnshire, England; Zion Evangelicals from Sulzback, Wrttemberg; as well as Catholics from County Sligo, Ireland.