Brownsville, WI USDA Benefits

Brownsville is a village in Dodge County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 581 at the 2010 census.

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 23 December 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 emergancy 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 church building in 1887, which was located on Main Street next to the current cemetery until it was destroyed by a fire on 6 September 1909. The same year as the construction of the first church, the congregation elected a local Mr. Gottmanshausen as its first pastor, who accepted the call of the community. Reverend Gottmanshausen was installed on 25 June 1887. The current church, located a block away from the cemetery, was constructed in June 1915. It was completed in November later that year, and still stands in use today.

On 28 August 2018, an EF1 tornado caused major damage in the village. The tornado uprooted trees, tore siding off from buildings, damaged roofs, and downed power lines, among other destruction. The village was put under a state of emergency, with residents only being allowed in days after the tornado.