History

In 1846 several families from Germany settled in Howards Grove and surrounding areas.  F. Beckfeld built a hotel and hall called the Washington House, which was located at the corner of what is now North Wisconsin Drive and Madison Avenue or highways 32 and 42.  From 1846 to 1854 others that settled here were E. Schlichting, Hy. G. Mueller., Chas. Oetling, Geo. Pieper, A. Selsemeyer, Aug. Fromme, and Carl Freyburg.  Descendants of some of the settlers still live in the Howards Grove area today.  Some time in the 1850's Beckfeld sold the Washington House to Schlichting.  When fire destroyed the landmark in 1969, it was owned by Chas. Johannes.  This is now the site of the Petro Center. Howards Grove was named after H.B. Howard, who built a hotel among a beautiful grove of trees and added a post office within a year.  Later a store and livery were added.  Operated by Aug. Witte in the early 1900's it is now the site of Klemme's Wagon Wheel.  Another of the early established businesses was the "Herman House", a tavern located across from the Washington House.  Later, an adjoining store was built and located there.  This was known for many years as Kolberg's Tavern, now Howard's Pantry. The southern part of the village, known as Millersville, was named after H.G. Mueller.  He built a farm house and crude saw mill on the 3 1/2 acres of land.  By 1854 he had purchased most of the land in his area and laid it out in lots.

E.W. Schlichting founded the first school district and school in 1848.  It was built of logs and stood near the site where the Oetling home was built on the northwest corner of Highway 32 and Millersville Avenue.  Eva Atwood was the first teacher.  In 1868 a frame schoolhouse was built across the street.  In 1870 a school was built at the north end of the village on N. Wisconsin Drive.  In 1918 the elementary and high school were built opposite the former school on the corner of Kennedy Ave. and N. Wisconsin Dr..  That building was later used for the school district office, and grades K-1 were taught in the wing know as Riverview School, which was added in 1952.  The junior and senior high school building was constructed in 1960 on Kennedy Ave. and Northview Middle School on Tyler Road was opened in 1972.  A new high school was opened in 1994 on Audubon Road and there was a major shift in the school building uses.  The Middle School became the Elementary School for Grades K-4, the High School became the Middle School for grades 5-8 and the school known as Riverview was sold.  The district office was relocated to the lower level of the the new high school..  

Throughout the 1800's, new businesses were established.  There were cheese factories, wagon implement and harness makers, shoemakers, carpenters, blacksmiths, and cigar makers.  In 1878 August Fromme added a cheese box factory to his saw mill on Mill Street.  In 1890 H.C. Mueller sold his saw and grist mill to Herman Sprenger who added a roller mill and cheese box factory.  This is now the site of Millersville Box Company.  There were many saw and grist mills in the area, many of which were destroyed by fire and rebuilt repeatedly.  A general store, built on Millersville Avenue in 1868 by Wm. Kohl and sold to Alfred Bitter in 1922, is now the site of Spindler's Decor.  A guest house erected by Wm. Damrow on the corner of Millersville Avenue and Highway 32 is now Millersville House.  The State Bank of Howards Grove was organized in 1913.  When the bank built a new building in 1950, the old bank building from that site was moved across the street and now serves as the home and barbershop of W. Kuhlow.  In 1975 the bank built in 1950 was razed and a bigger bank was built on this and adjoining properties.  About 1898 the "Entertainment Hall" was built with a stage that held movable scenery and rollup curtain.  All school programs, class plays and home talent shows, etc. were held here.  It is now the site of the Stuckmann apartments, Corbins Hide-a-Way, and Hometown Bake Shoppe. 

Prior to 1967, Millersville and Howards Grove were two small communities in the Town of Herman.  After the Howards Grove-Millersville Sanitary District was formed, it became obvious for municipal and economic purposes, that these two communities be combined into one village.  They were incorporated as a single village on August 1, 1967, with a population of 927.  Our village had the distinction of having the longest name of any village in Wisconsin - Howards Grove-Millersville.  On November 2, 1971 residents voted to shorten the name to Howards Grove.

Howards Grove is indeed a good place to settle, for it is again a booming village and for several years has had the largest percentage population increase in Wisconsin and Sheboygan County.