Brodhead Historical Society

02/25/2025

A belated thank you to Paris Trumbower, the designer of the new logos that are serving as our profile and cover pictures. Paris is a local graphic artist and lifetime member of the Brodhead Historical Society.

01/26/2025

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Brodhead Historical Society. Plans are being made for a special celebration to mark this milestone sometime during the year. Watch this page for information!

12/18/2024

Who remembers when Santa arrived in Brodhead by helicopter? In 1969, Santa (Sandy Peterson) flew to town without his reindeer and landed on Exchange Street and 1st Center Avenue. The pilot was Lee Buchanan.

10/27/2024

Our last meeting of 2024 is coming up, and you don't want to miss it. Society president, Jaine Winters, will present a program about Green County railroads from 1856 to the 1920s. Wisconsin's first successful railroad, the Milwaukee and Mississippi, was constructed between 1852 and 1857. The southern Wisconsin branch of that railroad was the first in Green County. After Brodhead was platted in 1856, it became a thriving town because of the railroad. Jaine will share information, stories and photos of early railroads, and their influence on communities in the county, especially Brodhead.
The annual business meeting will be held before the presentation. Please join us on Monday, October 28, at 7 pm, in the Knight Addition of the Depot Museum. The public is welcome to attend.

10/23/2024

The Depot Museum can’t function without the help of all the numerous volunteers that cheerfully greet and educate our visitors from May through October and organize our exhibits and archival materials. Earlier this month, we held a luncheon to show our appreciation. Thank you volunteers! Special thanks to Dolores Alsteen for organizing the event, Shirley Liska for scheduling volunteers, and apologies to those that may not be pictured.

09/28/2024

How's your knowledge of Antarctic research? If it's lacking, come to the next meeting of the Brodhead Historical Society on Monday, September 30. Dennis Duling, of Albany, will be the guest speaker. His presentation will cover the early years of Antarctic exploration to present day. He will discuss some of the scientific projects that are currently being done, and the effect these projects could have on people everywhere. Dennis is a Nebraska native and Wisconsin transplant, and has had the unusual career of working in polar regions. For the last 23 years, he has worked on projects in Antarctica, Greenland and Alaska. He has been involved with research using the largest hot water drill on earth and worked on the crew that was part of the first ever group of researchers to drill into a subglacial lake. Presently, he is working at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on another large drilling project.

Please join us for this great opportunity to hear first hand about
Antarctic research and its impact. The meeting begins at 7 pm in the Knight Addition of the Depot Museum. There will be a short business meeting. The public is welcome to attend.

08/21/2024

Do you have a family heirloom to show off, an interesting family story to share, or an unidentified item in your house that you would like to identify? Come to the August meeting of the Brodhead Historical Society, where the presentation will be "Show and Tell". The meeting is on Monday, August 26, and begins at 7 pm in the Knight Addition of the Depot Museum. The public is welcome to attend. (Shown are antique sheep shears used to shear some local sheep in the 1930s.)

08/11/2024

Come and enjoy this sunny day at Brodhead’s Veterans Park . The First Brigade Band will be leading an ecumenical church service at 10 am and performing again at 2pm in celebration of their 160th anniversary.

08/05/2024

Brodhead Historical Society invites you to step back in time on Sunday, August 11, 2024, when the 1st Brigade Band performs during Brodhead’s Covered Bridge Days. This unique, Civil War-era band will perform an Ecumenical Church Service at 10 a.m. and again at a concert from 2 – 3:30 p.m. Both performances will be in Veteran’s Park, which is near the Depot Museum on 1st Center Ave.

Come celebrate the 1st Brigade Band’s 160th Birthday!! The original band in 1864 included 18 men from the Brodhead Brass Band, who enlisted in the Union Army as the band of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 15th Army Corps. They left their rural homes to participate under the command of General William T. Sherman in the campaigns of Northern Georgia and the Carolinas. The “Tradition of Excellence” that these men established lives on today with the members of the 1st Brigade Band.

History comes alive as members play period brass band music on antique instruments while attired in uniforms and gowns circa the Civil War. The entire collection of 240 instruments, all made before 1865, and their collection of sheet music of the civil war era, numbering 690 titles help in the nostalgic portrayal of the atmosphere of days gone by.

While the abundant written and pictorial materials remain of this era, the mellow sounds of the brass bands of the 1860’s were lost until the 1st Brigade Band, starting in 1964, began to locate and restore the dented and broken instruments and to retrieve and reconstruct the yellowed and torn music. Through their work you can now hear what Presidents Lincoln and Davis, Generals Lee and Grant, and their contemporaries heard.

Covered Bridge Day events will conclude with the Brodhead Community Band performance at 6 p.m. in Veteran’s Park. Bring a chair, come enjoy these 1st Brigade Band events and our community band. If the weather is bad, the afternoon concerts will be held at the High School Auditeria.

08/01/2024

This is one of the birdstones shown by Judge Beer at the July meeting. Their purpose is unknown, but he feels they may have had a ceremonial use. They haven’t been commonly found in Wisconsin, except in the Milwaukee area.

07/28/2024

The next meeting of the Brodhead Historical Society will be Monday, July 29. Join us for an informational presentation by Monroe's James Beer. He will be speaking on "Native American Birdstones". Birdstones are carvings in slate or hard stone that resemble a bird. They are considered the highest art form created by prehistoric Americans, and date from approximately 2000 BC to 800 AD. Judge Beer was born and raised in Monroe, and started collecting in 1960. He is a regular exhibitor at area shows, and at schools and civic meetings. He is also a published author.
There will be a brief business meeting prior to the presentation. The meeting begins at 7PM in the Knight Addition of the Depot Museum. The public is welcome to attend. Please join us for an opportunity to learn about these ancient artifacts.

07/06/2024

For the first time in several years, our flag wagon was a part of Brodhead’s Family Fest parade.Our recently restored Knight wagon box and manure spreader were also on display in the parade.

06/26/2024

In case you were wondering…

Don’t forget that Brodhead has a new gift shop. Don’t have anyone to shop for? Treat yourself to a new T-shirt or jewelry, or choose something else from the variety of items for sale. The shop is open whenever the museum is: Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 1-4 pm.

06/21/2024

You might have seen airport radar equipment, used GPS, and even sent packages or letters by "airmail", but did you ever wonder how these conveniences came to be? Modern day navigation and our understanding of getting from Point A to Point B was influenced by the US Postal Service's beacon towers, one of which stands at the Brodhead Airport, near the Kelch Aviation Museum. Find out how airmail became a component in the development of American aviation at our next meeting on Monday, June 24. Michael John Jaeger, a volunteer docent at the Kelch Museum, gives a presentation on Airmail Beacons in Southern Wisconsin Fields. His presentation will explore the role that light beacons played in the advancement of airmail, airways, and navigation.

Michael John is also a researcher at the Kelch, and a former pilot who's always loved looking at landscape from above. He also likes to share with others how aviation in the past helped shape our local area and world we live in.

The meeting begins at 7 pm in the Knight Addition of the Depot Museum. There will also be a short business meeting. The public is welcome to attend.

06/13/2024

06/07/2024

Even if you don’t bank there, take a walk through the Bank of Brodhead and check out their “Wall of Brodhead History”. The Brodhead Historical Society provided the photos. See how many people and places you recognize!