Brookfield and Elm Grove

The old town of Brookfield provides an ethnic microcosm of what makes Wisconsin's settlement story so unique. As Native Americans, primarily the Potawatomi tribe, were forced out of the region, in came large numbers of Protestant farmers from New York State. A step and a half behind the New Yorkers came distinct colonies of families from western Europe--Catholics from near Nuremberg, Bavaria; Evangelical Lutherans from Canton Bern, Switzerland; Methodists from Lincolnshire, England; Zion Evangelicals from Sulzback, Württemberg; as well as Catholics from County Sligo, Ireland.