Kewaskum, Wisconsin

This article is about the village. For the adjacent town, see Kewaskum (town), Wisconsin.

Kewaskum, Wisconsin
Village
Intersection of US 45 and WIS 28 in downtown Kewaskum
Location of Kewaskum in Fond du Lac County (top) and Washington County (bottom), Wisconsin.
Coordinates: 43°30′51″N 88°13′24″W
Country	United States
State	Wisconsin
Counties	Washington & Fond du Lac
Settled	1852
Incorporated	1895
Government
• Administrator	Adam Gitter
• Board President	Michael "Fuzz" J. Martin
• Village Clerk	Tammy Butz
• Village Board	Trustees Jim Hovland Jim Wright Richard L. Knoebel Mary Schlitt Justin Weininger Marnie Parse
Area
• Total	2.35 sq mi (6.10 km2)
• Land	2.35 sq mi (6.10 km2)
• Water	0.00 sq mi (0.00 km2)
Elevation	935 ft (285 m)
Population  (2020)
• Total	4,309
• Density	1,833.6/sq mi (699.38/km2)
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
Area code	262
FIPS code	55-39325
GNIS feature ID	1583474
Website	village.kewaskum.wi.us

Kewaskum is a village in Washington and Fond du Lac counties in Wisconsin, United States. The population was 4,309 at the 2020 census. All of this population resided in the Washington County portion of the village. The village is mostly surrounded by the Town of Kewaskum.

Kewaskum water tower

Toponymy

Kewaskum was the leader of a group of Potawatomi Native Americans who lived in Washington County in the 1840s. He was friendly with the early settlers, including future Wisconsin state senator Densmore Maxon. He died sometime between 1847 and 1850. In 1849, the early settlers named the Town of Kewaskum (and later the village) in his honor. In the Potawatomi language, Kewaskum means "turning back on his tracks" or "retracing his steps."

History

In the early 19th century, the Kewaskum area was home to the Potawatomi, who surrendered the land the United States Federal Government in the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, which required them to leave Wisconsin by 1838. While many Potawatomis moved west of the Mississippi River to Kansas, some chose to remain, and were referred to as "strolling Potawatomi" in contemporary documents because many of them were migrants who subsisted by squatting on their ancestral lands, which were now owned by white settlers. One band of strolling Potawatomi travelled through Dodge, Jefferson, and Washington counties, and was led by Chief Kewaskum, who had a camp on Pike Lake. The chief was friendly with the white settlers who began arriving in the 1840s. He died sometime between 1847 and 1850, but itinerant Potawatomis lived in Washington County into the late 19th century, when many of them gathered in northern Wisconsin to form the Forest County Potawatomi Community.

The first settlers in the area were the Barnes family, who arrived in 1844 and began farming near the future village. In 1847, the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature created the Town of North Bend from land that had previously been part of the Town of West Bend, and the community's first post office was established. In 1849, the residents changed their community's name to the "Town of Kewaskum" to distinguish it from neighboring West Bend.

While the first settlers were primarily farmers, the village of Kewaskum traces its origins to J. H. Myer, who settled on a horseshoe bend in the Milwaukee River in 1852 and later built a sawmill and a gristmill. The settlement, which was originally known as "Myer's Mill" and later as "Kewaskum Center," soon became a market town with a general store and a blacksmith shop serving the local farmers. The first religious services were held in private homes, and in 1862 the Catholic villagers constructed a church. A German Methodist church was built in 1866 and a Lutheran church was built in 1868. In 1873, the Chicago and North Western Railway completed a line from Milwaukee to Fond du Lac with a station in Kewaskum. The community's rail connections caused the local economy to grow and prosper as new businesses, including hotels, stores, and grain elevators opened around the station. The Village of Kewaskum incorporated in 1895.

While the village economy was primarily agricultural in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Kewaskum became increasingly industrialized throughout the 1900s. In 1919, Adolph L. Rosenheimer founded the Kewaskum Aluminum Company in the village to manufacture aluminum cookware. During World War II, the company made aluminum products for military use, before being acquired by Enterprise Aluminum Company of Ohio in 1945. The company was renamed Regal Ware in 1951, and through acquisitions of aluminum companies in Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, and Mississippi, moved into the international high-end consumer cookware market. The community's population grew during the post–World War II economic expansion, leading the village to annex land from the Town of Kewaskum for new commercial and residential developments. The village first annexed land in 1959 and again in twenty of the next forty-six years. Additionally, Kewaskum annexed a noncontiguous parcel of land in the Town of Auburn in Fond du Lac County in 1963.

Government

The village of Kewaskum's local government consists of an elected Board President and six Board Trustees, as well as a hired village administrator. The Board President and Trustee term is 2 years.

List Of Village Presidents

Mayor			Term in Office
1		Adolph Lehman Rosenheimer	1895 – 1900
2		Henry J. Lay	1900 – 1902
3		August G. Koch	1902 – 1904
4		William Stark	1904 – 1906
5		Valentine Peters	1906 – 1907
6		Louis D. Guth	1907 – 1909
7		Valentine Peters	1909 – 1912
8		John P. Klassen	1912 – 1914
9		Louis D. Guth	1914 – 1917
10		William Zeigler --Resigned--	1917 – May 20, 1918
11		John Klessig Pro-Tem	May 20, 1918 – 1919
12		Byron Heinrich Rosenheimer	1919 – 1921
13		E. L. Morgenroth	1921 – 1924
14		David M. Rosenheimer	1924 – 1927
15		Lehman Peter Rosenheimer	1927 – 1931
16		Theodore R. Schmidt	1931 – 1933
17		Valentine Peters	1933 – 1935
18		Adolph Lehman Rosenheimer Jr.	1935 – 1940
19		Anthony P. Schaeffer	1940 – 1942
20		Charles F. Miller	1942 – 1957
21		James D. Reigle	1957 – 1963
22		Wayland D. Tessar	1963 – 1969
23		Carl T. Freehauf --resigned--	1969 – June 16th 1969
24		Cyril N. Wietor Pro-Tem (1969 - 1971)	June 16th 1969 – 1973
25		Charles F. Miller	1973 – 1979
26		Robert A. Danielson --Resigned--	1979 – 1980
27		Gerald F. Stollenwerk Pro-Tem (1980-1981)	1980 – 1985
28		David E. Nigh	1985 – 1987
29		Paul E. Blumer --deceased--	1987 – 1990
30		Mary L. Krueger Pro-Tem (1990-1991)	1990 – 1993
31		Robert H. Wagner	1993 – 2001
32		John D. Kenworthy	2001 – 2003
33		Mathew A. Heiser --Resigned--	2003 – 2008
34		Andrew Pesch Pro-Tem (2008 - 2009)	2008 – 2015
35		Kevin Scott Scheunemann --Resigned--	2015 – 2022
36		David Spenner Pro-Tem	2022 – 2023
37		Michael "Fuzz" J. Martin	2023 – Incumbent

Village Administrators Name Tenure Daniel S. Schmidt 1979 - 2006 Jay Shambaeu 2006 - 2008 Mathew A. Heiser 2008 - 2021 Adam Joseph Gitter 2021 -

Village President Election Results

Village President Elections Year Candidate Votes % Notes 2005 Mathew A. Heiser (inc) 610 99.19% Trustee (2000 - 2003) Write-Ins 5 0.81% 2007 Mathew A. Heiser (inc) 519 99.05% Write-Ins 5 0.95% 2009 Andrew "Andy" Pesch (inc) 306 51.00% Appointed Village President Pro Tem (2008 - 2009) after Mathew Heiser resigned. Trustee (1997 - 2008) Kevin Scott Schuenemann 294 49.00% Trustee (2001 - 2011) (2012 - 2015). Local business owner 2011 Andrew "Andy" Pesch (inc) 562 54.94% Craig Garbisch 452 44.18% Trustee (2011 - 2014) Write-Ins 9 0.81% 2013 Andrew "Andy" Pesch (inc) 505 99.21% Write-Ins 4 0.79% 2017 Kevin Scott Schuenemann (inc) 459 98.29% Write-Ins 8 1.71% 2019 Kevin Scott Schuenemann (inc) 799 98.52% Write-Ins 12 1.48% 2021 Kevin Scott Schuenemann (inc) 486 95.67% Write-Ins 22 4.33% 2023 Michael J. "Fuzz" Martin 1,029 98.94% Local broadcaster and radio host. CSO of EPIC Creative in West Bend. Trustee (2022 - 2023) Write-Ins 11 1.06%

Geography

The primary north–south highway serving Kewaskum is U.S. Route 45, and the primary east–west highway is Wisconsin Highway 28. Kewaskum is located in the 262 Area Code of south-eastern Wisconsin, with Prefix 626.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 2.45 square miles (6.35 km²), all of it land.

Demographics

Historical population

Census	Pop.	Note	%±
1880	471		—
1890	557		18.3%
1900	679		21.9%
1910	625		−8.0%
1920	707		13.1%
1930	799		13.0%
1940	880		10.1%
1950	1,183		34.4%
1960	1,572		32.9%
1970	1,926		22.5%
1980	2,394		24.3%
1990	2,515		5.1%
2000	3,274		30.2%
2010	4,004		22.3%
2020	4,309		7.6%
U.S. Decennial Census

2020 census

As of the census of 2020, there were 4,309 people, 1,762 households, and 896 families living in the village. The population density was 1,833.6 inhabitants per square mile (708.0/km²). There were 1,813 housing units at an average density of 771.5 per square mile (297.9/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 92.6% White, 1.2% Black or African American, 0.1% Native American, 0.8% Asian, 1.0% from other races, and 4.1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.1% of the population.

2010 census

As of the 2010 census, there were 4,004 people, 1,581 households, and 1,148 families living in the village. The population density was 1,634.3 inhabitants per square mile (631.0/km²). There were 1,698 housing units at an average density of 693.1 per square mile (267.6/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 96.0% White, 0.5% African American, 0.3% Native American, 0.5% Asian, 1.2% from other races, and 1.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.9% of the population.

There were 1,581 households, of which 35.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.9% were married couples living together, 10.0% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.7% had a male householder with no wife present, and 27.4% were non-families. 21.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 2.92.

The median age in the village was 36.8 years. 25.4% of residents were under the age of 18; 7.1% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 29.7% were from 25 to 44; 24.9% were from 45 to 64; and 12.7% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the village was 49.0% male and 51.0% female.

2000 census

As of the 2000 census, there were 3,274 people, 1,212 households, and 895 families living in the village. The population density was 2,217.3 people per square mile (854.1/km²). There were 1,264 housing units at an average density of 856.0 per square mile (329.8/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 97.95% White, 0.27% Black or African American, 0.18% Native American, 0.37% Asian, 0.37% from other races, and 0.86% from two or more races. 0.92% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 1,212 households, out of which 37.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.8% were married couples living together, 10.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.1% were non-families. 21.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.64 and the average family size was 3.09.

In the village, the population was spread out, with 27.4% under the age of 18, 9.3% from 18 to 24, 31.7% from 25 to 44, 19.5% from 45 to 64, and 12.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.8 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $49,861, and the median income for a family was $55,144. Males had a median income of $37,639 versus $25,806 for females. The per capita income for the village was $20,509. About 4.0% of families and 5.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.0% of those under age 18 and 8.7% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people

• Ty Bodden, Wisconsin State Representative, previously lived in Kewaskum.
• Louis D. Guth, Wisconsin State Representative and businessman, lived in Kewaskum.
• Kenneth William Haebig, Wisconsin State Representative and lawyer, lived in Kewaskum.
• Einar H. Ingman Jr., Medal of Honor recipient, lived in Kewaskum.
• Jesse Kremer, Wisconsin State Representative, lived in Kewaskum
• Timothy Ramthun, Wisconsin State Representative, lived in Kewaskum.
• Jordan Stolz, American world champion speedskater, lives in the village.
• Glenway Wescott, author, born in Kewaskum.

See also

• List of villages in Wisconsin

External links

• Official website
• Sanborn fire insurance maps: 1894 1900 1910