Brownsville

History

The Village of Brownsville was first known as Thetis Station and had a narrow gauge railroad connection to Fond du Lac and Iron Ridge. In April 1878 the village was officially renamed to its current name, which was taken in honor of Alfred D. Brown, an English immigrant and pioneer farmer who in 1850 had settled an 80-acre farm on the edge of the village and became one of the first merchants there as well. The village remained unincorporated until it gained official status as an incorpated village on December 23, 1952. 1878 can therefore be regarded as the village's founding, with 1952 being its start as a proper municipality. As the town became more established towards the turn of the 20th Century, additional businesses and agricultural infrastructure were built, including crop storage bins and a grain elevator. In 1902 a small factory was built in town where it was used in local cheese production by various owners until the building was purchased by Michels Corporation in 1965, and demolished in 1973. The Brownsville Fire Company, the local fire department, was organized in 1891 and originally consisted of 13 members and hook-and-ladder wagon with a hand-operated water pump. It was reorganized in October 1912. The first mechanical fire truck was purchased in 1931, a Studebaker pump truck which remains preserved today in local private ownership. The fire department today operates modern equipment, and responds to local and surrounding emergencies in collaboration with the emergency services of other towns in Dodge and Fond du Lac counties. The local Lutheran church, Saint Paul's Lutheran Church, began in 1885 when 15 local families from the congregation in Lomira (bearing the same name) were released to begin meeting as their own congregation. They built their first…

Geography

Brownsville is located two miles from US Hwy 41 and Wisconsin Highway 175. Wisconsin Highway 49 runs through the village. Kummel Creek, a tributary of the Rock River, begins just north of the village, through which it flows, and the Horicon Marsh sits approximately five miles west of the town. According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , all land.

Race & ethnicity