Columbus Wisconsin Area Historical Society

Columbus Wi Area Historical Society

The Columbus Area Historical Society has purchased a new home for a Museum!

The building at 152 W. James St. is the historic home of the Bellack’s Clothing Store, shown below.

Click on the “Capital Campaign” menu link for more information.

Welcome! The Columbus Wi Area Historical Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to saving the past and keeping it alive for future generations by preserving, celebrating and sharing Columbus-area history.

Columbus Area Historical Society meetings are held the second Wednesday of the month. The next meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 13, 2024, at Cercis Brewing Company, 140 N. Dickason Blvd., Columbus. Anyone interested is welcome to attend.

The Columbus Downtown Development Corporation donates $165,000 to the Columbus Area Historical Society for its museum fund. From left are Jorie Habenicht and Bob O’Brion from the development corporation, and Sheila Worthen, Amy Berry and Duane Gilbertson from the historical society.

The Duffy family donates $10,000 to the Columbus Area Historical Society for its museum campaign. From left are Sheila Worthen and Bonnie Adam from the historical society, with Joan Duffy and her son Ryan Duffy. John and Joan Duffy spent the majority of their lives growing up and raising their family in Columbus. The Duffy family wishes to support the goal of preserving the rich history of the city of Columbus and the surrounding area.

Farmers & Merchants Union Bank team members donate $10,000 to the Columbus Area Historical Society. From left are Jada Schulte, bank relationship banker; Bonnie Adam, historical-society volunteer; Randy Koehn. historical-society Museum Campaign Committee chairman; Randy Bobholz, bank president and CEO; and Amanda Emery, bank assistant vice-president, marketing and human resources. The donation was in support of the society’s fundraising campaign to purchase a new museum property that will also be home to the historic George Hasey Popcorn Wagon. Farmers & Merchants Union Bank is an independent community bank with locations in Columbus, Fall River, Friesland, Juneau and Rio, Wisconsin.

A color lithographic postcard from about 1900 shows two of the four Kurth-family residences on Madison Street (now Park Avenue) on the southwest side of Columbus, Wisconsin. At top left is the Christian Kurth house and to lower right is the mansion built by Henry John Kurth, brewing-company founder, for his son John Henry Kurth. The home in the middle belonged to J. Hein. At one time an underground tunnel ran from the J. H. Kurth mansion to the brewery’s office building across the street. Henry John Kurth arrived in Columbus in 1859 and established Kurth Brewery, which by 1870 grew into the largest of the three Columbus breweries and the most profitable business in Columbus at the time. By 1914 the operation was producing 100 barrels of beer a day, making it the largest brewing company in Columbia County. J. H. Kurth also owned malting operations in Milwaukee, two ice houses and a large grain elevator near the Columbus railroad depot. He also owned beer-distribution warehouses in Tomah, Portage and Luxemburg, Wisconsin.