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 p.m. Dec. 11, 2024, at Cercis Brewing Company, 140 N. Dickason Blvd., Columbus. Anyone interested is welcome to attend.

Dear Columbus Area Historical Society members,

Several years ago we visited the former-First National Bank building to enjoy the varied collections from local residents – including the addition Doris Duborg Hughes had recently given to the Historical Society. We were so impressed by the creative vignettes and the historical provenance of many artifacts.

About a year later Judy’s brother, Dale Hughes, told us the Historical Society needed to find a new place to display and preserve its treasures because the former-First National Bank building was leased to someone else for a retail store.

About a month ago Judy decided to Google the status of the Historical Society. She was thrilled to learn you’d been successful in purchasing the historic Bellack Clothing Store. And you were in a major campaign to raise funds to renovate the new home for its historical artifacts as well as the vintage George Hasey’s Popcorn Wagon.

Some of you may have known Judy’s mother, Doris Hughes. She was an early advocate to save City Hall and the third-floor theater when many in the town wanted to tear the old building down to erect an accessible building. She worked with a group to write grants for the historic preservation of City Hall while heralding the iconic Louis Sullivan bank building. That group of ardent supporters prevailed!

We are encouraged by your exemplary efforts to save and preserve. Following in the footsteps of Doris Hughes, we want to be a Hasey Popcorn Wagon Level contributor with our donation of $25,000. Doris loved to tell stories about Friday-night popcorn on the corner. We, too, remember purchasing the yummy popcorn with Ed’s parents, Hemmy and Esther Bergauer, and Judy’s grandparents, Rudolph and Bertha Duborg.

We hope our charitable contribution helps you move quickly to establish a place for residents and visitors to learn, appreciate and continue the spirit our earlier generations had for the great city of Columbus.

Special regards,

Judy and Ed Bergauer

Judy and Ed Bergauer

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.