First and Important Events

The United States land office was removed to New Ulm and opened on March 17, 1870.

St. Alexander's Hospital was dedicated at New Ulm, November 1, 1883.

Doctor Martin Luther College was dedicated, November 9, 1884.

President Lincoln's proclamation was first heard in New Ulm, April 22, 1861, and April 24 there were twenty men volunteered and started to the front, all but two returned.

The Sons of Herman organized a lodge in New Ulm, July 6, 1883.

New Ulm received her city charter, March 21, 1876. The Globe Mills were burned, December 12, 1873.

The national government allowed two million dollars for settlement of the "Sioux Claims," growing out of the loss of property destroyed by that outbreak in 1862, in which New Ulm and Brown County lost heavily.

The first daily mail service (except Sunday) was secured for New Ulm July 1, 1866.

The new Turner Hall was begun on July 4, 1864, under supervision of Julius Berndt.

The first grasshoppers to annoy this county came in 1857; in 1864 they did great damage. In the seventies they were the worst pests in the history of the county.

New Ulm had its first steam fire apparatus in 1888. The water tower was built in 1890, one hundred and four feet high.

The first horse fair in the county was held in 1886.

A local telephone system was installed in New Ulm in July, 1897.

The earliest fire department in the city of New Ulm was formed on December 13, 1856, and it consisted of forty six members.

The wind grist-mill was started at New Ulm, in December, 1856, by C. C. Brandt. The stones came from the river bed here and the timbers were sawed out by hand.

Judge A. F. Chatfield held the first term of court in New Ulm, September 22, 1857.

The first theatrical entertainment in New Ulm was in Turner Hall, on the evening of January 17, 1858, and the play was entitled: "One Must Marry."

The first brewery was commenced in January, 1858, by August Friton.

The New Ulm Turnverein was organized on November 11, 1856, with thirteen members.

Frederick Kapp, of New York City, donated a library of one hundred volumes to New Ulm in 1860, this was the town's first library.

The Eagle flouring mills burned at New Ulm in 1860, causing a loss of seventeen thousand dollars.

The first train of cars to enter New Ulm was that coming over the Old Winona & St. Peter (now Northwestern) railroad, February 20, 1872, and two days later there was a great public demonstration given in commemoration of the important event.

A sugar factory was established at New Ulm in 1879, by Messrs. Westphal, Boock, Amme, Hellman and George Jacobs.

In 1880 a woolen mill was started on the Cottonwood River near New Ulm, by B. Marschner.

A creamery was established at New Ulm in 1883, by W. Hummel, E. G. Koch and Henry Crone.

The first fire alarm in New Ulm was sounded by beating a circular saw in the old Turner's Hall, April 25, 1861, to warn the people against a sweeping prairie fire that was seen coming into the outskirts of the town.

John Spenner was murdered on December 25, 1866, by two trappers near Mankato. They were later lynched for their wicked crime.

January, 1867, Mrs. M. Roehl was murdered in Sigel Township by Andreas Schmidt.

February 9, 1866, W. Jacques murdered Giles Thomas in Milford Township, using an ax to commit the deed.

November 11, 1904, Dr. L. A. Gebhardt, a dentist of New Ulm was brutally murdered while at work in his office after nine o'clock in the evening. The murderer was never convicted.

The first cars to arrive in New Ulm over the Minneapolis & St. Louis railway came on July 4, 1896.

The first practicing physician in the county was Dr. John Kaula, who was a member of the German Land Association, coming here from Chicago, in 1855. The next in the profession here was Dr. Charles Weschke, who came direct from Germany in 1860.

  Brown County |Minnesota AHGP 

Source: History of Brown County, Minnesota, L. A. Fritsche, M.D., Editor, Volume I, 1916.