In 1960, All Saints Parish hosted a regional Holy Name Rally bringing thousands of people to Denmark for an hour of prayer.

In 1916, Steve Siudzinski began operating the Langes Corners Cheese Factory, which later became known as Steve’s Cheese. As Steve’s business grew and modernized, a new and larger cheese plant became necessary.

In 1918, only three years after the Village of Denmark incorporated, the village constructed its first sewage treatment system. The initial system consisted of an Imhoff tank housed in a “barn-like structure hidden in the woods”. The Imhoff tank functioned much like a septic tank doing “little more than [removing] solids from the liquid sewage”.

During the 1950s, the Denmark School District worked on projecting their enrollment growth over the next several years to plan for the future. They realized that by 1960, the area would experience a lot of population growth which would translate into a 20-30 percent increase in the incoming freshman classes in the high school.

In 1979-1980, the village of Denmark constructed a brand new wastewater treatment plant that would be able to accommodate village growth for years to come.

In 1956, Our Savior’s Lutheran Church was in the early stages of the planning process for a new church building. Since Calvary and Trinity Lutheran Churches merged in 1951 to form Our Savior’s and consolidated operations in the Calvary building, the congregation realized the building was far too small to meet the needs of the newly-combined congregation.

In the mid-1950s, Our Savior’s Lutheran Church was in the midst of a building campaign to build a new church building. The building they were in at the time was far too small to meet the needs of the growing congregation.

The first Danish settlers, and the second settlers overall, in what would become the Town of New Denmark were Niels and Laurentine Gotfredsen. They were the pioneers of what would become one of the first large-scale Danish settlements in the United States. Because of this, the couple was referred to as the “King and Queen of Denmark”.

In the very early days of the New Denmark settlement, life was not easy. Without easy access to large towns or modern conveniences, the early immigrants had to make do with what they had.

Denmark State Bank was founded in 1909 to provide banking services to the growing community of Denmark. They completed their first permanent building in November 1909 on Main Street. 

In 1932, construction on the new All Saints Church was well under way. Plans had been drawn up in 1912 for a complete church for the new congregation, which had been founded the year prior, but due to a lack of funds, just the basement had been completed. The congregation worshiped in the basement church for 20 years before deciding to construct a complete church.

This week, The Denmark News would like to introduce a new series entitled the “Historical Question of the Week”. We have teamed up with the experts at the Denmark Historical Society to find puzzling mysteries within their extensive collection and attempt to find the answers.

In the early 1900s, medical treatment was severely lacking compared to the present day, and unsanitary practices did not help in many situations.  

For the first few years after immigrants began settling in the Denmark area, there was no school. In 1854, that changed with the creation of District No. 5 of the town of De Pere.

In the 1950s, many one- and two-room schoolhouses still operated throughout the state.  However, many people were beginning to see the benefits of consolidating into larger school districts with the ability to share a larger high school.