Memorial
Marker in Namur, Door County, Wisconsin, USA
Reads as
BELGIAN SETTLEMENT
IN WISCONSIN
Wisconsin’s and the nation’s largest Belgian American
settlement is located in portions of Brown, Kewaunee, and Door Counties
adjacent to the waters of Green Bay.
Walloon-speaking Belgians settled the region in the 1850’s and still
constitute a high proportion of the population. A variety of elements attests to the Belgian American presence: place
names ( Brussels, Namur, Rosiere, Luxemburg, ) a local French patols, common
surnames, unique foods (booyah, trippe, jutt ), the Kermis harvest festival,
and especially architecture. Many of
the original wooden structures of the Belgian Americans were destroyed in a
firestorm that swept across southern Door County in October 1871. A few stone houses made of local dolomite
survived. More common are 1880’s red
brick houses, distinguished by modest size and gable-end, bull’s – eye
windows. Some houses have detached
summer kitchens with bake ovens appended to the rear. And the Belgians, many of them devout Catholics, also erected
small roadside votive chapels like those in their homeland.