This synagogue window is a testament to the successful efforts of hundreds of Russian Jews to recreate a familiar community in Sheboygan, Wisconsin in the early twentieth century.
Immigration
OBJECT HISTORY: Pasty
The lead mining industry of the 1830s and 1840s brought miners from Cornwall, England to southwestern Wisconsin. The miners brought Cornish traditions like the pasty, a filling food for hungry miners. The availability of pasties today demonstrates the lasting traditions of early European immigrants in Wisconsin. Pasties are folded pastries filled with meat and vegetables.…
OBJECT HISTORY: Norwegian Genealogical Plaque
Created in 1879, this beautiful plaque features the genealogy of Sara Magelssen’s family, including the story of her and her husband’s immigration to Wisconsin in the 1860s.
OBJECT HISTORY: Migrant Worker’s Cabin
This cabin, once occupied by a family of migrant workers employed by the Bond Pickle Company, is located at the property of Thomas and Jamie Sobush of Pensaukee, Wisconsin. The cabin was originally one of many other small cabins, clustered together at the Bond Village Migrant Camp on Van Hecke Avenue in Oconto, Wisconsin. The…
OBJECT HISTORY: Cherryland T-Shirt
In 1927, Marilyn Färdig’s grandparents, Andrew and Esther Färdig, purchased twenty acres of land in Ephraim, Image courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society. Image ID: 79142. Wisconsin, and started a cherry orchard. With the help of their seven children and workers from a variety of locations, including the southern United States, Mexico, and Jamaica, Andrew…
OBJECT HISTORY: A Hmong Baby Sash
We are surrounded by objects that seem very ordinary, but once we look closer, they often reveal deep connections to the history of our state and our communities. In this Object History, Pao Vue writes about the thread-bare baby sash he found in his mother’s room that, it turns out, once saved his life and…
Missionaries and Land Rights: The Story of Erik Morstad and the Potawatomi
Some histories are not as straightforward as others, especially when cultures collide. It may come as no surprise that stories about the interactions between Native Americans and white settlers are sometimes one-sided. We can partly …
The Growth of Sheboygan’s Jewish Community
Although Sheboygan and Milwaukee are only 55 minutes apart by car today, the two cities on the west coast of Lake Michigan remained largely separate in 1900 when they both competed to become the industrial capital of Wisconsin. Through the latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, the industrialization process in both cities was shaped by an increase in Jewish immigration to the region.
The Arpin Settlement of Jewish Farmers
Today the largest Jewish communities in Wisconsin exist in the cities with the highest populations. This, however, was not always the case. Around 1900, there were many new and budding Jewish communities across the state in places like Sheboygan, La Crosse, and Eau Claire. There were also smaller, rural communities emerging like the Arpin Settlement in Wood County.
Industry and Manufacturing in the Whitewater Area
Since the earliest settlers arrived in the Whitewater area in the 1830s, industry and manufacturing have played important roles in the establishment and continued growth of the area. One of the earliest industries in Whitewater …