Little Kohler, Wisconsin

Little Kohler, or Kohler, is an unincorporated community located in the Town of Fredonia in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, United States.[2][3]

Little Kohler, Wisconsin
Unincorporated community
Little Kohler, Wisconsin Little Kohler, Wisconsin
Coordinates: 43°29′47″N 88°01′24″W
Country	United States
State	Wisconsin
County	Ozaukee
Elevation	264 m (866 ft)
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
Area code(s)	262
GNIS feature ID	1567600[1]

Transportation

Little Kohler is located at the intersection of County Highway H (Kohler Drive, Fredonia-Kohler Road), Belgium-Kohler Road, and County Highway E. County H had been designated as Wisconsin Highway 84 before the highway was decommissioned.[4]

History

Martin and Theresa Koller and their children settled in the area in the 1840s, having emigrated from Bavaria. The community was originally named Koller, after them.[5] In 1912, the Kohler Company created a planned community in an area of Sheboygan County formerly known as River Side. They named the village Kohler after the family company. At some point, the community of Koller began to be called Kohler as well. Residents of the Kohler in Ozaukee County then began referring to their community as "Little Kohler" to differentiate the two.[6]

Little Kohler is the location of the former Camp Fredonia, an Allied prisoner of war camp that held 330 German prisoners of war guarded by 46 U.S. combat veterans under the command of Captain Ray Thill, a native of Belgium, Wisconsin. The camp opened on June 15, 1945, and closed in January 1946. The headquarters was located in the Louis Glunz Hall on Fredonia-Kohler Road, while the prisoners slept in tents in a fenced enclosure. Most of the prisoners worked on local farms harvesting peas and sugar beets. Some were contracted to work at canneries in West Bend, Thiensville, Saukville and Belgium.[7]

Attractions

The Pineview Wildlife Rehabilitation Center is located in Little Kohler.[8] St. Mary Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church was built in Little Kohler in 1849. This parish merged with those in Fredonia and Holy Cross in 2001.[9][10][11]

References

1. "US Board on Geographic Names". United States Geological Survey. 2007-10-25. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
2. "Term: Kohler, Ozaukee Co". Dictionary of Wisconsin History. Archived from the original on February 2, 2014.
3. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-12-27. Retrieved 2009-12-24.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
4. "1973 Official Highway Map of Wisconsin". Wisconsin Department of Transportation. 1973.
5. Kevin Struck. "The story of the 'other' Kohler, 20 miles to the southwest". The Kohler Villager, vol. 4 no. 12, (August 2009)
6. "Newland Became Cedarburg". The Milwaukee Sentinel. 4 September 1967. pp. Part 5, Page 5. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
7. Cowley, Betty (2002-01-01). Stalag Wisconsin: Inside WW II Prisoner-of-war Camps. Badger Books Inc. pp. 120–25. ISBN 9781878569837.
8. "Pine View Wildlife Rehabilitation Center".
9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-11-21. Retrieved 2009-12-24.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
10. "Fcgw.org". www.fcgw.org. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-10-29. Retrieved 2009-12-24.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)