History
Schwab-we-way-kum
Indians following their trail from Milwaukee to Green Bay could tell where they were when they
reached the mouth of the Sheboygan River. They called this spot "Schwab-we-way-kum" Indian
terminology for "great noise underground."
The theory is that the rushing sounds of the falls upstream prompted this description. This is the most generally accepted version of how Sheboygan got its name.
Early Settlers
It is thought that the French explorer Jean Nicolet was the first recorded white man to have
visited this locality as he skirted the shores of Lake Michigan. When the white man first came
there were probably about 1000 Indians living in the County, mainly Potawatomi, Chippewa, Ottowa,
Winnebago and Menomine. In 1833 the Indians relinquished all claim to what is now Sheboygan
County, although many Indians remained here for years.
The first permanent settlement in Sheboygan was made in 1834 when William Paine and Oliver Crocker built a sawmill near the confluence of the Mullet and Sheboygan Rivers at the present site of Sheboygan Falls.
A study of names of the first pioneers established them to have been of English ancestry ("Yankees") from New England. First came trappers, then surveyors, followed by businessmen. They were followed in the 1840s and 1850s by large migrations of Germans, Dutch and Irish who came directly from Europe. Settlers cleared land and raised crops -- work they had learned in their native land.
Early Industry
Natural water power from lakes and streams flowing generally southeasterly into Lake Michigan attracted
numerous sawmills and flour mills. Many of the immigrants were skilled tradesmen and with the abundant
raw materials it was natural that early manufacturing utilized the abundant forest resources.
In the 1850s implements and engines were manufactured and a tannery prospered in Sheboygan. Two outstanding developments characterized the era between 1880 and 1890 -- a phenomenal growth in population and the development of large scale industry.
In 1875 Sheboygan had a population of less than 7,000 and mushroomed to 16,300 by 1890.
Woodworking continued to dominate the scene, producing furniture, lathes, windmills, spokes, doors, wagons and barrels. The manufacturing of the 1880s took the form of small kitchen utensils and large kitchen and bathroom fixtures.
Immigrants had a cultural and economic effect on the community. Thrifty and industrious, they earned and saved money with which to build homes and communities. Great music lovers, they formed signing societies and held dances and festivals. Slavonics, Lithuanians and Dutch arrived early in the 20th century and added to the heritage of the county.
No doubt German "gemutlichkeit" was responsible for the one and only sausage delicacy -- the Sheboygan bratwurst.
Long ago our forefathers made sausage in the homeland, but this was mostly a veal sausage, or weisswurst. When German immigrants settled in the Sheboygan area, they brought their lust for sausage with them, but since this was mostly a wheat-growing area in the early to mid-19th century, they made their sausage from pork, rather than veal or other beef products. Shazam! The birth of the brat!
