Family History

Wilhelmswald Settlement
5686 Highway 32
town of Oconto Falls

Thought to be the original
Wilhelmswald Evangelical Lutheran Church
c: 1910

2004
contributed by: Richard LaBrosse

Constuction on the original church building is thought to have begun in 1902 with the building being done by members as it was possible. Some of the farms of these members, such as the Krueger, Schleck/Schlack, Depner, Bloch and Piesler were clustered in the area south of the Oconto River along both sides of the Gillett - Oconto Falls township line. That area, which included the church, had the locally used name of Wilhelmswald (William's Woods/Forest in English).

This church building first shows up on the 1905 county plat map west of Oconto Falls upstream along the Oconto River toward Gillett. It is on the east side of Highway 32, just south of the river.

The area around the church was locally known as "Wilhelmswald" in the early to mid 1900's. Many of the original congregation families immigrated from "Poland Russ" in the 1890s and several in the same year of 1899. They were of German origin and language. Poland had been in the control continuously of Russia, Prussia and Austria from the mid 1600s.

Founding members were of German origin, having first migrated from what is now Germany in 1800 to near Lodz in central Poland and then to the US in the early 1890s and 1900's. The village of Wilhelmswald in Poland, Europe is now named Norowo.

The Wilhelmswald Evangelical Lutheran Church building had undergone changes in both name and architecture in the years since it's construction. The cemetery is beside the church and the earliest burial stone is for baby Adelgunde Piesler in 1906.

Surnames of early members included: Flemke, Slack/Schlack, Braun, Marten, Jaeger, Kuhn, Meyer, Schindel, Greske, Bloch, Depner, Drat, Feitag, Heinz, Henshel, Jesse, Krueger, Wolske, Lemke, Meyert, Piesler, Radke, Schoenkoske, Schleck, Schulz, Sommerfeld, Zellmer, Zielke.

This information about St John's Lutheran Church Gillett appears in a book "The History of Gillett Continues" (recently published) which includes information from an original writing in 1962: ....Reverend Klemm served until 1901. He decided to tour Germany and asked his brother-in-law, Reverand C.S. Gerlach to substitute for him. For some reason, Rev. Klemm never returned to Gillett, and Reverend Gerlach remained as permanent pastor. He stayed here until November of 1912. During the pastorate a school house was erected, the parsonage enlarge, and a cemetery of three acres purchased. In 1902 the Ladies Aid was organized. Pastor Gerlach also served congregations at Underhill, Willhelmswald, Oconto Falls, and Breed, and also served a small congregation at Spruce temporarily. posted 2009