New Cassel, Wisconsin

Crouch and a Native American companion named Weh-aug-wok-na had come up the Milwaukee River in February 1846 in search of a good site to build a dam for waterpower, and found it at this spot.

Crouch and his brother-in-law John Howell returned in the spring and claimed land on each side of the river, in order to build a sawmill.

By 1856, having changed hands several times, it had fallen into disuse; one Emil Brayman purchased the site, and started to build a flour mill at that location.

[3] By 1868, there was a hotel, a flour mill, three churches (Baptist, Catholic and "Protestant or Lutheran"), three general stores, a tin shop, two smithies, two tailors, two carpenters, a brick mason, a cabinet maker, two shoemakers, a harnessmaker, two breweries, a meat market, two saloons, a notary public, a cooper shop and a physician.

[4] On April 28, 1874, Emma Franziska Höll (Sister Mary Alexia) and two other nuns arrived in New Cassel from Schwarzach, in the German Empire, to establish a new religious congregation.