The Dutch emigrants from the province North-Brabant, called Brabanders, arrived in Little Chute, Wisconsin in 1848. This village did not have much to it yet. It still had to be built from scratch. Forests were cut down in order to make space for buildings and fields.
These first emigrants had a rough time. The climate was very different than what they were used to. The winters were harsh, very cold and long and the summers were hot and short.
However, going back to the Netherlands was not an option. In the letters they sent back home they made it out to be much better in Little Chute than it really was. This attracted more Brabanders to emigrate to America which resulted in the Dutch colony in Little Chute. Throughout the years the Brabanders didn’t only stay in Little Chute but spread out along the Fox River. The Norbertines from the abbey of Bern in Heeswijk moved to the village De Pere and started a monastery
About 8 families settled in 1848 together with Father Godthardt in the woods, about 10 kilometers from Little Chute. They founded a new village called Franciscus Bosch. Not much later they rename it Hollandtown.
Many Brabanders who emigrated in the 1950s also moved to Kimberly in addition to Little Chute. A village on the other side of the Fox River. They settle there because many of them go to work at the Kimberly-Clark paper mill.
