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By Roland Schomberg The stories for "...And That's the Way it Was" were inspired by Schomberg’s parents' life on their Sheboygan County family farm. Though not a literary masterpiece, the hand-written two-page chronicle of events, sprinkled with bits of his own philosophy, provided most revealing and interesting reading for the author. Reflecting on his part in the family history, he resolved to leave a similar legacy for his children and their offspring, so that they might be enlightened and amused by my narratives of life during Schomberg’s boyhood in Wisconsin. -
By Richard A. Dykstra Thirty-five heartwarming stories about growing up in rural Wisconsin during the 1950s and 1960s. -
By Janice Hildebrand In Sheboygan County there was a lively trade with the Indians for deer hides and other animal skins. Barter with the Indians brought the first traders to the county in the early 1800s. The tanneries of the county were an offshoot of the fur-trading days and were among the first clothing-related businesses to get started in Sheboygan County. Everything from shoes to gloves to harnesses were made of leather. Follow the history of the leather business in the county. -
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By Robert Matzner Sheboygan resident, Robert Matzner, had a very important story to tell. Friend, Larry Vogel, helped him to put pen to paper. The result is Prisoner 19053, the true story of Matzner’s three years in Nazi concentration camps. Matzner, a native of Poland, lost most of his family to the Nazi’s Final Solution. He somehow survived the horror and came to the United States and Sheboygan with his family in 1949. Robert and Larry have written a remarkable document, a story full of sadness and hope which will touch all readers. The introduction, written by Robert’s son, Murray, is a poignant tribute and a great beginning to Prisoner 19053. -
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On a cold, cloudy evening, February 20, 1919, Zion Reformed Church in Sheboygan was reportedly "packed to the doors" to hear a concert. The highlight was to be a cantata performed by the Zion Choir, but the program listed them as "assisted" by a new entity: the Sheboygan Community Orchestra, led by John Schmidt, "who certainly needs no introduction," according to the anonymous review published the next day in the Sheboygan Press. In the months to follow, that body of players would be performing on their own, and by the time of their third concert they would be calling themselves the Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra. They are still the SSO, one hundred years after their founding in the fall of 1918: the oldest symphony orchestra still functioning in the state of Wisconsin. They have performed continuously, except for pauses during the Great Depression and in the midst of World War II; and though they were called the Sheboygan Civic (Symphony) Orchestra from 1936 to 1973, there has been a continuity in both personnel and musical vision, linking one generation to the next over a 100-year span. -
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Wisconsin's 37, The Lives of Those Missing in Action in the Vietnam War. By Erin Miller with John B. Sharpless Foreword by Major General John D. "Don" Logeman (Ret.) The signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973 signified the end of the Vietnam War. American personnel returned home and the 591 Americans held captive in North Vietnam were released. Still, 2,646 individuals did not come home. Thirty-seven of those missing in action were from Wisconsin. Using the recollections of the soldiers' families, friends and fellow servicemen, the author tells the story of each man's life. -
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By Roland Schomberg
Originally published 1994, this 2008 update provides the reader with a look at the schools in the towns of Herman and Mosel from the town’s earliest history. Schools covered: Millersville, Howards Grove, Green Bay Road, Washington, Franklin, Pinehurst, Schwartzwald, Elm Grove, Haven, Champion, and Lakeview.
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By James E. Schultz. More than a history about Schultz's great grandparents, this book features:
- threads of our German heritage, including food, wine and beer, language, religion, music, dance, and customs woven into the family history and indexed;
- sections devoted to “Why they came”, “Today’s German Attitudes”, and “People and Places”;
- a “Special Find” for each of the eight featured ancestors, a genealogical gem that I uncovered;
- a wide variety of church, government, military, personal, and other resources, with a list of 40 resources cataloged as an appendix; and,
- a section called “Challenges, Tips, and Surprises” that provides helpful pointers for finding information.
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By Jim Draeger and Mark Speltz The authors visit 60 Wisconsin gas stations that are still standing today and chronicles the history of these humble yet ubiquitous buildings. The book tells the larger story of the gas station's place in automobile culture and its evolution in tandem with American history, as well as the stories of the individuals influenced by the gas stations in their lives. -
By Rich Dykstra Rich is back with another series of short stories about life in the 1950s and 1960s. Life in the Slow Lane deals with seemingly mundane but very memorable activities that Dykstra participated in as a child – shopping trips to Sheboygan when it took a week or more of planning, going to the outhouse, Friday nights in Sheboygan Falls capped off with a stop at Bob’s Lunch, a one-room school fair, Sundays at Grandma’s, the anxious anticipation of a first Milwaukee Braves game, life in the era of polio and something called Sunday Rules. -
This is the second volume in a series. It contains more than fifty stories about Sheboygan County citizens and the amazing ways they participated in important history. Topics range from the 1950s bomb shelter scare to the opening of Road America and Clif Tufte to the opening of the Erie Canal in the 1830s. -
By Janice Hildebrand This book is a tribute to the City of Sheboygan in its sesquicentennial year 2003. The area that is now the city was settled years before 1853, but the city was not chartered until then. This book documents 45 men and women who were important in Sheboygan's early years. Each bio contains one or more photos. 2016 reprint. -
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By Elmer Koppelmann The citizens of Sheboygan County have always gone above and beyond the call of duty in times of military need; the Second World War was no different. Some 3000 young men and women served during World War II on all fronts and in all capacities from this county alone. Recorded here, after eighteen months of searches and interviews, are vignettes of 234 soldiers- one young woman and 233 young men from the Sheboygan County area who lost their lives. Four others- Joseph J. Archbold, Elmer C. Prahl, Roland Thompson, and Douglas Thornberg are noted as making the ultimate sacrifice, but regrettably, no information was found other than their names. -
By Emma Hermann Thieme NO LONGER AVAILABLE -- OUT OF PRINT Sophie Hermann Knop was born and raised in Schaefer, Russia, a German-Russian community along the Volga River. In 1923, when she was 18 years old, Sophie traveled to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where Gottlieb Hermann, had been living since 1912. During their long separation, Sophie endured great difficulties, including the Russian Revolution and the upheavals and famine that followed in its wake. Sophie willingly shared detailed descriptions of her life in Russia. Those “bits and pieces” follow a brief history of German migration to the Volga River area of Russia. -
By Jerry Apps The barns of Wisconsin are history books in red paint, sociology with gabled roofs, theology with lightning rods. In many ways barns are Wisconsin agriculture nailed together in buildings with cupolas on top. This revised edition was printed in 2010 and filled with beautiful images. -
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By Richard A. Dykstra Here are thirty additional stories about growing up in rural Sheboygan County. Two favorite chapters are “The Airport” and “The Ice Box.” In the first you will appreciate the gullibility of children and in the second you will want to check Dykstra’s nose to see, if like Pinocchio, it has grown a foot or two. Besides the silly and nonsensical stories there are those with a much deeper meaning as in “Revisiting the Gift,” “Three Conversations with Dad” and “Grandma’s Quiet Life.” Dykstra's appreciation of family shines through the pages of all of his books. -
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This publication is a chronological account of the sister city relationship between Sheboygan, a city in the state of Wisconsin, and Esslingen am Neckar of Germany. These articles span the years 1967 to 2017. The stories are told by actual headlines, story excerpts, photographs, and informational pieces gathered through articles in the Sheboygan Press, publications in the archives of the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center and Mead Public Library. The articles selected are meant to include a brief history and highlights of special visits and envoys. It is impossible to include everything. Many photos were available, but individuals and dates were not identified so they were not chosen. In a world that began with cablegrams, western union, letters, then phone and fax, communication evolved with the technology of cell phones, emails, the internet and FaceTime. In the beginning, travelers’ postcards and letters often arrived after they returned home. The bulk of the written material was found before all of this new technology replaced the newspaper stories. Some years there was more material than others. During the 1990s and beyond information was in the hands of individuals, not printed publications. -
Across time, cemeteries have acted as places of burial and remembrance, but they also provide vivid records of community history. Whether large or small, well maintained or neglected, historic cemeteries are an important part of our cultural landscape. The vast richness of expression through form, decoration and materials inform our understanding of the individuals buried in historic cemeteries and their cultural significance. The very stones that mark the graves form a museum of their own.
A church’s stained glass windows, to some degree, play much the same role to a community. They tell the story of some element important to the life of parishioners. They uplift, beautify and instruct.
This volume will introduce readers to some of the most interesting and beautiful stained glass windows and cemetery monuments in the county. We’ll discuss the background and history of each form of expression and much more. Consider this a primer to Sheboygan County’s treasures.
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The Sheboygan County Connection is a collection of forty-one stories about the way folks from Sheboygan County are connected to the greater world. Most were seen as Sheboygan County History columns in the Sheboygan Press from February to October 2014. Extra information and photos have been added. Topics range from ice fishing and the brutal winter of 1936 to the advent of Rocky Knoll and citizens’ participation in the Manhattan Project. -
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By Bill Wangemann
This second book of Bill’s is a compilation of articles that appeared in the Sheboygan Press during 2004. Many are based on activities of the 1950s
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By Plymouth Historical Society and SCHRC
Plymouth, originally considered a “hub” city because of the hub and wheel factory located there, it has also earned that moniker because of its central location between Milwaukee and Green Bay. Tourists flock to Plymouth year round to visit the variety of shops, to golf, swim and ski, or explore the beautiful Kettle Moraine State Forest. Residents are proud of their heritage, which can be seen at sites throughout the city. Visit Plymouth through this wonderful tribute using historic photographs.
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This is a compilation of articles run in the Sheboygan Press during late 2016 and early 2017. Story titles include: What we used to do at Sheboygan's zoo Remembering Sheboygan County’s forgotten places Interurbans’ meteoric rise, then fall Remembering American wars from the Home Front Memories from a town of Mitchell farm Recalling Sheboygan's unsavory 1920s, 1930s Quirky forgotten laws abound in Sheboygan When bootleggers smuggled margarine Pinehurst Farms boasts rich history Letters to Santa offer look into kids' lives Discovering stories of lost places in Sheboygan County Remembering the architectural trend of octagon houses Appreciation of Grassroots art emerges in recent decades Advertisements reflect culture, paint picture of past Passengers on Orphan Train found home in Sheboygan Dozens of brothels housed in county in early 1900s How Sheboygan cleaned up after hosting brothels -
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By Earl and Charmaine Kneevers During the late 19th and early 20th century, there was a relatively strong Socialist movement in the United States. Sheboygan, Wisconsin was one of those cities that had an active Socialist Party. The movement believed in public ownership and democratic management of the basic means of production and distribution. It had strong ties to the organized labor movement of the time. A strong leader of the Sheboygan movement was Fred Kneevers, whose history as a struggling worker with a family to support and with Socialist beliefs, brought him into the hotel and restaurant business to support his family when known Socialists were not welcomed in privately run businesses. The Kneevers' Hotel was a successful meeting place of the Socialists. -
By Edmund Schulz Spring Corners is located at the intersection of County Trunk M and the Manitowoc-Sheboygan County Line, now known as County Line Road in the Township of Meeme in Manitowoc County and the Township of Herman in Sheboygan County. A spring flows continuously at Spring Corners, a place where people have come from far and near for a cool drink and to fill their water jugs for home use. This spring is part of a line of springs that form the Spring Valley
