Brodhead: A Rich History

Founded in the spring of 1856, Brodhead was named after Edward Brodhead, chief engineer of the Milwaukee and Minnesota Railroad. Stores, hotels, homes, and churches were built as fast as men could erect them as the railroad brought more and more new residents. In 1857, Mr. Brodhead donated an 800-pound bell for the 1st church erected by the Methodists.

The Brodhead Band was organized in 1857 and the famous band wagon pulled by six horses was in great demand, going as far away as Freeport, Illinois, for the Lincoln Douglas debate. Enlisted in the Civil War, the band went with Sherman to the Sea and marched in the Grand Review in Washington at the war's end.

Circus pioneer Al Ringling painted in the Carriage and Wagon factory which still stands north of the fire station downtown on West Third Avenue. He held his first tent show in Brodhead.

Pearling in the Sugar River about the turn of the century became big business with dealers buying and selling thousands of dollars worth of pearls.

One of the great ventures of ten-year-old Brodhead was the digging of the three mile long Mill Race from Decatur Dam to the village, where huge four-story mill ground flour and feed in its five run of stone. Brodhead was one of the first towns to generate electricity from its water power.