The Hanneman story includes information about places around the world. From the Baltic Duchy of Pomerania to the smallest villages of Wisconsin, our family history includes an atlas of interesting places. Check this page often, as we are constantly adding entries to our digest of places.

ARPIN — A small village in Wood County, Wis., about 2 miles northwest of Vesper. Arpin was home to Orville Carlin’s butcher shop in the early part of the 1900s. Emma Carlin continued to live there long after her husband died in 1934.

ASKEATON — Hamlet in the  Town of Holland, Brown County, Wisconsin, founded by Irish immigrants in the 1840s and 1850s who came to Wisconsin to escape the potato famine. Named for a village in County Limerick, Ireland. Many of the settlers of Wisconsin’s Askeaton were from County Limerick. Early residents included Daniel and Mary Mulqueen, maternal grandparents of Earl J. Mulqueen Sr. (1895-1965).

BILINA — A city in modern day Czech Republic in the Central Bohemian Highlands, known for its spas and springs. The Ladick family originally hailed from Bilina before emigrating to Wisconsin in the early 1880s.

BLUE EARTH — The county seat of Faribault County, Minnesota, in the extreme south-central portion of the state. Many members of the Krosch family moved to Blue Earth from southeastern Wisconsin in the 1860s.

DARMSTADT — A city in central Germany in the federal state of Hesse. Darmstadt also refers to an administrative district within the state of Hesse. The Treutel family emigrated to America from Königstadten, Hesse-Darmstadt in the mid-1850s. The Treutel name was also strongly associated with the village of Heppenheim in southern Hesse and the village of Kelsterbach near Frankfurt.

FAIRIBAULT – A city between the Twin Cities and Albert Lea, Minnesota. Families from different branches of the Hanneman family tree settled in Fairibault and surrounding lands.

GRAND RAPIDS, Wisconsin — A city founded on the eastern side of the Wisconsin River in Wood County, Wis., Grand Rapids played an important part in Hanneman history. Grand Rapids was incorporated as a city in 1868. Lumbering was the early core of the economy, although the city quickly became a diverse place of business and culture. Centralia was a lumber town formed on the west bank of the river in 1874. The two municipalities merged to form a larger Grand Rapids in the early 1890s. Local Indians named the place Ad-dah-wah-gam, or “two-sided rapids.” In 1920, the name was changed to Wisconsin Rapids, since mail and packages meant for the city were often sent to Grand Rapids, Michigan.

JESSNITZ – A village in northeastern Germany that was home to the Krosch family before it left for America. Jessnitz is located on the banks of the Mulde River in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.

KELLNER — An unincorporated municipality on the border between Wood and Portage counties in central Wisconsin. The Hanneman family came to Kellner from Pomerania starting in 1861 and ending in 1882. Most of the children of Matthias Hannemann first came to Kellner, athough some eventually settled in other parts of Wood and Portage counties. A major reunion of Hanneman families was held at Kellner in 1976.

KÖNIGSTÄDTEN – A village north of Darmstadt that was home of the Treutel family headed by Johann Adam Treutel (1800-1859). The Treutels began leaving for America in 1849. The Treutel children were baptized in the Lutheran parish at Königstädten, which is near Rüsselsheim.

LAKE BEULAH – Several members of the Krosch family operated a farm near this 834-acre lake in Walworth County, Wisconsin after emigrating from Jessnitz, Saxony in 1854.

LAKE WAZEECHA – A 150-acre lake in Wood and Portage counties of Wisconsin. Wazeecha is an Indian word that means “lake of the land of the pines.” The lake is home to the South Wood County Park, home of many Hanneman family reunions.

MAUSTON – City on the Lemonweir River in Juneau County, Wisconsin. The family of Carl Henry Frank Hanneman settled here in 1936 and had a constant presence in the city until Carl died in 1982.

MEESOW – A village in Kreis Regenwalde, Pomerania, that was home to the Hannemann family from 1819 until 1882. A young soldier named Matthias Hannemann was married here in 1819. His family of 10 children was raised in Meesow (pronounced may-zoh).

MUKWONAGO – City in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, that was home to the Philipp Treutel family from the late 1850s until the 1880s. Philipp Treutel was a village blacksmith in Mukwonago for many years before the family moved to nearby North Prairie. The village name is an Indian word that means “place of the bear.”

NORTH PRAIRIE – A community about 3 miles west of Genesee in Waukesha County. Blacksmith Philipp Treutel spent his final years living in North Prairie after decades in Mukwonago. After his death in 1891, the Treutel family moved to Wood County, Wisconsin. Philipp and Henrietta Treutel are buried in the North Prairie Cemetery.

REGENWALDE – A county, or kreis, in Pomerania that was home to the Hannemann family immediately prior to its leaving for America between 1860 and 1882. The word Regenwalde means “woods of the Rega River.”

ROZELLVILLE – A village in Marathon County, Wisconsin, that was home to a band of the Treutel family. Just northeast of Marshfield, Rozellville was home to some of the children of John Treutel (1831-1908).

ST. BERNHARD, THURINGIA – Small rural village in central Germany that was the ancestral home of Johann George Ostermann (1817-1894). His father, Johann Martin Ostermann, was born in nearby Beinerstadt.

STETTIN – An important port city on the Baltic Sea that served as the capital of Pomerania, ancestral home of the Hannemann family. Christian and Amanda (Ladwig) Hanneman sailed for America from Stettin in 1882. They were the last of the Matthias Hannemann clan to leave for America.

SUN PRAIRIE — The second-largest city in Dane County, Wisconsin and one of the fastest growing in the state with an estimated 31,213 residents. The David D. Hanneman family moved to Sun Prairie in 1965. Hanneman served as an alderman in the late 1960s and again from 1988-96. He represented the area on the Dane County Board before being elected mayor of Sun Prairie in 2003.

Sun Prairie is known as the Groundhog Capital of the World, home to the famous weather prognosticator, Jimmy the Groundhog. Each Groundhog Day, Jimmy emerges to see if his shadow is visible, thus predicting either an early spring or six more weeks of winter. Sun Prairie was named by Augustus A. Bird, who left Milwaukee in 1837 with a group of companions to build the new state Capitol at Madison. After traveling the wilderness in the rain for eight days, they emerged onto a wide prairie just as the sun came out. Bird gave the place the name Sun Prairie and carved it onto an oak tree.

VESPER — A small village in north central Wisconsin historically known for lumber mills and dairies. First settled around 1874 along the Hemlock Creek, Vesper initially flourished with businesses that produced pine lumber, but a massive fire in 1894 burned the sawmill and much of the timber. A new Vesper sprung up after the fire, with dairying and manufacturing making up the economic lifeblood of the village. Widow Henrietta Treutel moved her family to Vesper in 1901 from Waukesha County and the Treutels became a major part of the village for six decades.

WEST BEND – A city in Washington County, Wisconsin, that is the final resting place of a number of members of the Treutel family. The matriarch of the family, Katharina (Geier) Treutel (1800-1886) is buried in Union Cemetery, adjacent to her sons John (1831-1908), and Henry (1841-1907), and not far from her son Sebastian (1834-1876).

WIND LAKE – Small village in Racine County, Wisconsin, that was the first American home of the Ostermann family. Johann George Ostermann settled his family here in 1852 after emigrating from Thuringia, Germany. The Ostermanns lived in Wind Lake until 1858, when they moved to Portage County, Wisconsin.

WISCONSIN RAPIDS — City in Wood County, Wisconsin that was home to many members of the Hanneman family that descended from Matthias Hannemann. Called Grand Rapids prior to 1919, Wisconsin Rapids has long been an important paper-making town on the Wisconsin River.See the Grand Rapids entry for historical information.

WOOD COUNTY – A county in north central Wisconsin that is home to many family lines mentioned on this web site, including the Hanneman, Treutel and Ladick families. Wood County was carved from neighboring Portage County in 1856.

ZEITLITZ – Village in Kreis Regenwalde, Pomerania, that was the ancestral home to Hannemann patriarch Matthias Hannemann (1794-1879). Church registers show members of the Hannemann family in Zeitlitz from at least the year 1550.