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Residential Street, 1915 ca.

View of houses along street. View the original source document: WHI 42593

New Holstein is located between Lake Winnebago and Lake Michigan in Calumet County. First settled by German immigrants in 1848, it was first named Schleswig-Holstein after the area in Germany many of them came from.

The Germans brought with them a strong sense of their German culture, forming a “gesangverein” (singing society) in 1849, the New Holstein Dramatic Society in 1854, and a “turnverein,” or gymnastics society, in 1867. They became equally patriotic Americans, and more than 10 percent of the town's 220 residents served in the Civil War.

New Holstein was predominantly an agricultural town, producing potatoes, wheat, barley for brewing, wool, pigs and cattle. As the community grew, the Lauson Manufacturing Company (founded in 1884) and the Meili-Blumberg Company (1907) were founded to produce engines and agricultural equipment.

Prominent citizens from New Holstein include engineer Edward Schildhauer (1872-1953), who helped design machinery for constructing the Panama Canal in 1906, and Prof. Harry Steenbock (1886-1967) of the University of Wisconsin, who researched Vitamin D and irradiation.

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• New Holstein, Wisconsin

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Source: WHS Library-Archives Staff, 2009