The year is 1881. James Garfield, 20th president of the United States, is killed by an assassin’s bullet, just four months after taking office. This was the age of industrial growth and also the time during which our country saw massive waves of immigrants arriving from Europe.
And in north central Wisconsin, the Town of Scott was established in 1881. Situated on the south and west sides of Merrill – which was still named Jenny at this time – this township was settled predominantly by immigrants from Pomerania in northeast Germany. The fertile, un-glaciated lands to the south had already been claimed, but these immigrants were happy with the land farther north, as they knew that they would be able to vote after residing just one year in Wisconsin. Already in the first election held in the Town of Scott in November of 1881, 49 men voted. (Women would not be allowed to vote until 1920).
It is the history of this township and the reminiscences of past and present residents, that readers will find in the book, Town of Scott, Established 1881, which is now available for purchase and which was researched and written by Town of Scott resident, Catherine G. LeMay-Brown. The cover drawing and design for this book was completed by Town of Scott resident, Mark Sczygelski. Graphic design was performed by graphic artist Rhonda Kanitz-Henrichs, owner/operator of Compass Graphics, whose ancestors settled in the Town of Scott. Both are former students of LeMay-Brown, who taught German for 33 years in the Merrill School District.
Several years ago, LeMay-Brown was asked by her town to write a book, as a volunteer, about the history of the Town of Scott.
“I very naively and enthusiastically replied that I would love to take on this project, but quickly realized that I had no idea how I would proceed,” she said. “I am not originally from the Town of Scott, and I did not even know the actual physical boundaries of the town.
Armed with an old-fashioned cassette recorder, LeMay-Brown set about interviewing long-time Scott residents and the descendants of the town’s original settlers.
“Since I began this project, four individuals whom I interviewed have died, and three have moved into nursing homes,” she added. “It is important that their recollections and stories, as well as those of others, be saved for posterity. Thus, this book is my gift to the Town of Scott and to the kind people whom I interviewed, and without whom there would be no book.”
Along with transcribing her numerous interviews, she studied plat books and documents from the town’s history. Organizing the book in her head led to many sleepless nights for LeMay-Brown. In the spring of 2014, she laid out a table of contents and started to assemble the many pieces of the book.
The book, Town of Scott, Established 1881, will be available for purchase on Saturday, Nov. 15, from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Town of Scott Town Hall on Lake Road. LeMay-Brown will be personally selling the books. An initial press run of 1,000 books has been ordered. The 144-page book features all glossy pages.
Subsequent to this, it will be available for purchase at the Beacon Bar on Fairview Road and at Schult’s Country Inn on Church Avenue, both of which are in the Town of Scott, and at the Merrill Historical Society on East Third Street in Merrill.