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Location:  N6759 17th Lane 

The story of the Germania “Colony” begins in Lunenburg, MA, the birthplace of Henrietta Jones, who was born in 1816.  Her first marriage (1836), to Reverend Joseph Ellis, ended with his death in 1842, leaving Henrietta with their two young daughters. Five years later (1847), Henrietta married Major Abraham Peirce, and the family travelled westward to Wisconsin, living in the Kenosha area for several years before moving to Marquette County in 1850 and homesteading 40 acres on the shore of Lake Comstock.  The family’s living quarters consisted of a dugout in a bluff on the eastern shore of the lake.  In 1853 Major Peirce died and Henrietta moved back to Massachusetts with her two daughters from her first marriage and her young son Clarence Peirce (b. 1850).  However, she retained possession of the Marquette County land that would become the Germania “Colony.” Germania Historical Society was founded by a group of individuals who saw a need for quality community support services. Over the years, we have grown and expanded our services to meet the needs of our community.

Location:  W2015 Eagle Road 

Back in Massachusetts, Henrietta Jones Ellis Peirce became acquainted with Benjamin Hall, a successful Boston importer of woolens who retired at middle age, broke from the Congregational Church because of his fervent abolitionist views, and became involved with the Millerite religious movement in the 1840’s, organizing a small community of followers in Groton, MA.  Following the “Great Disappointment” of 1844, when the second coming of Christ failed to materialize, Hall and his followers eventually split from the Millerites and considered moving westward to await the anticipated imminent return of Christ.  In 1857, Hall married Henrietta, and in 1859-’60 the Groton “Community” settled on Henrietta’s land in Marquette County, WI, and established the Germania Company, also known locally as the “Colony.”  Hall purchased an additional 80 acres for the communal Company’s purposes, and the group built a large house in which a number of initial community members lived.  According to an account by one of Henrietta’s granddaughters who lived in this “Big House,” the original section of the building had a leaky roof because it was erected quickly without careful attention to workmanship, since the Colony expected the Second Coming to occur in the near future.  However, subsequent additions to the Big House were built with greater attention to construction precision.  Throughout the early years of the Colony, the Big House was the center of the Colony’s religious life. 

Location: W1974 Eagle Road 

 Shortly after settling in Germania, Benjamin Hall began building a dam on the Mecan river, which created a shallow lake -- the Germania Lake or Mill Pond -- that became a popular boating spot for community and area residents.  The dam was removed around 1902.  Thereafter, the former Mill Pond area was used to grow marsh hay for livestock until the 1950’s, at which time the WI DNR purchased the land to create the 2,400-acre Germania Marsh State Wildlife Area by re-installing a dam in approximately the same location as the original Colony dam. 

Location:  N6906 CTH N

 As the Germania dam was built, the Colony members also dug a “ditch” parallel to the Mecan River, in order to provide a controlled water flow for powering a grist mill situated near the junction of CTH N and Eagle Road.  The mill burned in 1899, and one of the millstones was subsequently recovered and delivered to the Marquette County Historical Society in Westfield.  The Germania creamery was later built just south of the original mill location, and part of that building still remains standing.  Another long-standing Germania landmark, the Germania general store, owned at one point by F. W. Matz, was situated on the southwest corner of the intersection. 

Location: N6866 18th Court

 Several years after settling in Germania, Benjamin Hall received a considerable inheritance upon the death of his brother, which he used for the benefit of the Colony’s fortunes both in and outside of Germania.  For example, he built a woolen mill in Montello and sold it after several years of operation.  He also helped finance the construction of the Germania school, which served the children of the community and the area until the 1950’s.  Remnants of the teeter-totters, slippery slide, and merry-go-round can still be seen today.  After the closing of the school, its care transferred to the township of Shields.  Family gatherings and elections were regularly held in the building, and it still holds many memories for long-time area residents.

 Location:  N1968 Eagle Road

  In 1875, the Colony erected a church for formal services, probably conducted by an itinerant pastor serving several area churches.  An early picture shows a carriage building on the property, and a white picket fence along the front of the lot.  An enclosed entryway was later added to the front of the church.  The belfry contains a bell, manufactured in Cincinnati, OH, hanging from a floor-mounted cradle.  At one point the belfry supported a long lightning rod topped by a weather vane.  The church also houses an upright piano of good quality, manufactured by a reputable East Coast company.  During cold weather, the building was heated by a potbellied wood burner located at the rear of the church, with a long stovepipe suspended from the high ceiling leading to the chimney at the front of the church.  The building was built with care, as attested by how square the window openings still were when windows were replaced 140 years later. 

Location: W2015 Eagle Road

Clarence Peirce, born in 1850 on the banks of Lake Comstock, ten years before the Colony was established in Germania, is the first Germania-born member of that group.  He became a personable, influential entrepreneur who financed the building of a grist mill in Lawrence (just west of Westfield), ran an extensive dairy and stock breeding operation (Pond View Farm) on this site in Germania, and served in the Wisconsin Senate and Assembly.  In 1887 he moved his family into this elegant house built just west of the Big House.  Remnants of the walkway between the “Big House” and the Peirce Mansion can still be seen today.  The farm buildings, including the barn and windmill, ice house, hen house, and machine sheds, have largely fallen victim to deterioration and fire over the passing years.  Living grandchildren of Ellis Bandt, who purchased the Peirce farm in 1925, remember seeing, as young children, multiple fancy horse carriages with velvet cushions abandoned in and around the buildings on the estate. 

Location:  W1914 Eagle Road

Angelina Ellis, the first-born child (1837) of Henrietta (Jones) Ellis Peirce Hall, spent her childhood years in Massachusetts.  Her father, Joseph Ellis, who was a preacher in Harvard, MA, died when Angelina was 5 years old.  When her mother then married Abraham Peirce, Angelina accompanied them when they moved to Wisconsin (living first in Kenosha and then in Germania), where Abraham died in 1853.  Henrietta returned to Massachusetts and eventually married Benjamin Hall, who led his new family, along with a contingent of Congregationalists-turned-Millerites, back to Germania in 1860, establishing the Colony to await the imminent “end of days.”  In 1868, Angelina married Samuel Hartwell, a member of the original group that came from Massachusetts to Germania.  The couple built and ran a 24-room hotel and a livery barn until about 1880, when business waned.  Using the lumber from the dismantled hotel, Samuel and Angelina built this house near the former hotel site.  In 1896 the couple journeyed back to the Lunenburg, MA area to revisit her childhood home.  Angelina wrote her diary of the trip in the unused pages of a diary she had received from her uncle.  Samuel kept several diaries of the waning years of the Germania Colony, spanning the period from1895 to the early years of the 20th century. 

Location:  Unnumbered dirt driveway on Eagle Road approximately ½ mile east of junction of CTH N and Eagle Road

 This cemetery is often referred to as the Germania Methodist Cemetery, to distinguish it from the Germania Lutheran Cemetery located a mile or so farther east on Eagle Road.  Many of the original members of the Colony who came from Massachusetts are buried in this cemetery.  The lives of people connected to Henrietta (Jones) Ellis Peirce Hall who are buried in this cemetery span the years from the birth of Major Abraham Peirce (Henrietta’s second husband) in 1800, to the passing and burial of Carolyn (Bandt) Dahlke (2009) and Mina (Bahler) Kuhn (2015), both daughters of Angelina [Phillips] Bandt, a descendant of Henrietta.  The history of the Germania Colony is rooted in opposition to slavery and fervent faith in a divine providence.  It is generally regarded as the longest-thriving religious commune in Wisconsin history, and its heritage continues through the memories of its descendants and the efforts of the Germania Historical Society.