Duane Murphy Fox Valley, Appleton, WI Homes for Sale- Local Real Estate News

Looking to Sell or Purchase a Home in the Appleton,WI Area?

If you are looking for an Appleton- Fox Valley - Fox Cities WI Real Estate partner that is not like all the rest then you have found him! Call me today to see how I can help you to sell or purchase your home/property! You will not be disappointed!!

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A little bit more about Duane....

Born and raised in Wisconsin, Duane has a deep appreciation for all the state has to offer. He is an avid outdoorsman with a huge passion for the outdoors and all of the different seasons Wisconsin has. At different times throughout the year you can find him on one of our local lakes or blazing trails in our abundant forests. Duane resides in Kimberly, a small community just outside of Appleton. Duane also volunteers his time on the local Kimberly Fire Department being an active firefighting member. Duane grew up on a family farm just outside Fond du Lac in the quaint Village of Eden. Duane has an extensive background in management and in customer service and that has transfered into a very successful real estate career. His outgoing personality and "farm boy" work ethic is evident and the reason why most of his clients become good friends. Duane consistently will go above-and-beyond to meet all of your real estate needs! Duane is a Broker Associate with Coldwell Banker The Real Estate Group, Inc. (CB TREG,INC.) If you have any real estate questions I encourage you to contact him. www.duanemurphy.com

Did you know that when it comes to selling one of your largest investments, the Realtor you choose could literally make or break the deal? There are many factors involved in selling a home, but it really boils down to four things: Aggressive marketing, a sound pricing strategy, knowing the numerous options that are available to you, and finally, having an agent who is fully invested in your best interests. If you or someone you know is thinking about selling their home, I encourage you to at least give my Team and I a chance to tell you about our system for getting your home SOLD. I will go over all of those elements in great detail to show you how we can make you more money, in the least amount of time and with the least amount of hassle to you. Give our office a call TODAY at 920-993-7234. Don't forget to visit www.duanemurphy.com for all of the local listings and also other great tips on buying and selling a home.

Don't forget to check out www.duanemurphy.com for all of the Appleton- Fox Valley - Fox Cities WI Real Estate listings and other useful information!

Testimonials from some of my Buyers and Sellers

Dear Duane-

I just wanted to thank you for all of the hard work you put into getting me my first house! I know I'll probably be the longest and lowest paying job but I really do appreciate it! It is so amazing to have my first home. I almost have the tenant side fixed up. You will have to stop by and see it sometime. THANK YOU!

Sincerely,

Jeanie

Duane-

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Without your help I would have never been able to buy my home!

Darlene

Mr. Murphy,

Your professionalism was above and beyond what I could have expected. Even though my home was for sale for over 2 years. You took over the listing and had it sold in no time! I would recommend you to anyone who has a home to sell. You truly know how to sell a home!

C. Wunch

Duane-

WOW! I can't believe that it took you only 8 days to sell my home. It took you another 4 days to then find my dream home! PS I have given your name and number to several co-workers!! Thanks Again!

-Matt K

Duane-

After 2 years I didn't think my home would ever sell. Then after only a few months of being listed with you it's now SOLD! Thank you!

Miss K

Need more proof that Duane is the right agent for you? Give him a call and ask to talk to some of his clients. He will be more than happy to let you talk to as many as you need to make your decision.

www.duanemurphy.com

Links & Misc Stuff About Appleton WI and the Surrounding Areas

Click Below for Local Links!!!!!!!!! Appleton Post Crescent Fox Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau AHS Home Warranty Fox Cities Chamber Appleton Public Schools Menasha Area Schools Little Chute Area Schools Hortonville Area Schools Freedom Area Schools Outagamie County Website Winnebago County Website Calumet County Website Brown County Website Town of Grand Chute City of Kaukauna City of Menasha Town of Menasha City of Neenah Village of Kimberly Town of Buchanan/Darboy Town of Greenville Village of Hortonville Village of Little Chute Town of Freedom All High School Sports Schedules Appleton P.A.C. Fox River Mall City Data Website Appleton WI Fox Valley Home Search

When it's time to buy, or time to sell, or time to invest, call Duane. As a licensed real estate agent and Kimberly resident, I take the time to really get to know you and your real estate wants and needs. I strive to stay on top of the real estate market - always looking for the best opportunities, the best match, so you don't waste your time looking at properties that just aren't right for you. It is my goal as your full time real estate professional specializing in the Appleton - Fox Valley, areas, to provide you with unparalled service at all times. My local expertise and extensive real estate experience will benefit you whether you are serious about buying or selling a home at this time, or are a returning client checking out the many homeowner resources I offer.

Buying a home? I look forward to helping you select the home of your dreams by taking time to listen to your needs and desires.

Selling a home? My real estate expertise and many effective marketing programs will give you the exposure and edge you need to sell your home in the shortest amount of time and for top dollar.

Returning Client? I appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve you and hope you take advantage of the valuable resources I provide. Come back to visit often!

I consider the Fox Valley area an excellent place to reside and would love to share with you my enthusiasm for the many neighborhoods that encompass it. I pride myself on providing unparalleled service and look forward to developing a long-term relationship with you. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss how I can best assist you with your real estate needs.

Sincerely,

Duane

Here is a favorite quote from Vince Lombardi that everyone should read!

Winning is not a sometimes thing; it's an all-the-time thing. You don't win once in aWhile, you don't do things once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is ahabit. Unfortunately, so is losing.There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game and that is firstplace. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay and I don't ever want to finishsecond again. There is a second place bowl game, But it is a game for losers played by losers.It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do and to win and to winand to win.

Every time a football player goes out to play his trade he's got to play from the ground up-from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys playwith their heads. That's O.K. You've got to be smart to be No. 1 in any business, but moreimportant, you've got to play with your heart- with every fiber of your body. If you're luckyenough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second.

Running a football team is no different from running any other kind of organization- anarmy, a political party, a business. The principles are the same. The object is to win- to beatthe other guy. Maybe that sounds hard and cruel. I don't think it is.It's a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive games draw themost competitive men. That's why they're there- to compete. They know the rules and theobjectives when they get in the game. The object is to win-fairly, squarely, decently, by therules- but to win.And in truth, I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in hisHeart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline and the harsh reality of head-to-head combat.

I don't say these things because I believe in the ‘brute' nature of man or that man must be brutalized to be combative. I believe in God, and I believe in human decency. But I firmlybelieve that any mans finest hour-his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear-is that momentwhen he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle-victorious.

Local History of the Communites I Serve.

APPLETON

Appleton shares it history with Lawrence University, for the two grew simultaneously. The close relationship established in the early years continues to exist.

Appleton shares its history with Lawrence University, for the two grew simultaneously. The close relationship established in the early years continues to exist.

Fur traders seeking to do business with Fox River Valley Indians were the first settlers in Appleton. Hippolyte Grignon built the White Heron in 1835 to house his family and serve as an inn and trading post.

With the financial backing of Amos Lawrence, the Lawrence Institute was chartered in 1847. Samuel Appleton donated $10,000 to the newly founded college library, and in appreciation, his name was given to the community.

Appleton was incorporated first as a village in 1853 (John F. Johnston, the first resident, village president) and later as a city in 1857 (Amos Storey, Mayor).

Among the 36 individuals who have served as the city's chief elected official, John Goodland, Jr. had the longest tenure, with 18 years in office. Dorothy Johnson, Appleton's first female mayor, was elected in 1980 and served for 12 years. Timothy M. Hanna is the current mayor.

Education was, and continues to be, a priority in Appleton. In 1850, Daniel Huntley taught in the first free public school. The St. Mary Catholic Church opened the first parochial school in the community in 1864. The first 4 year high school began operating in 1876 in the Hercules School and Kindergarten was initiated in 1898 in Lincoln School. With population growth came the need for additional facilities. Today there are 24 public and 13 parochial schools.

Lawrence University's 84 acre campus, with 32 instructional, recreational and administrative buildings, 1200 students drawn from 45 states and 38 foreign countries, and a faculty of 114 men and women, lies east of the city's attractive, lively downtown. Students and faculty members supply the community with an endless array of music, drama and sports activities.

Appleton traditionally has had a commitment to vocational education. The Vocational School was established in 1912, and the first facility in the United States to be built exclusively for this purpose was erected here in 1917. When the State of Wisconsin was divided into vocational, technical and adult education districts in 1965, the local program was expanded and the Fox Valley Technical College was established.

Area business has been responsible for Appleton's economic prosperity and progressive attitude. The paper industry, beginning with the building of the first paper mill in the city in 1853, has been at the forefront of the development of Appleton, In order to provide electricity to this industry, the nation's first hydro-electric central station began operation in Appleton on September 30, 1882. Not too long afterward, in August of 1886, Appleton was the site for another national first, the operation of a commercially successful electric streetcar company. Electric lights replaced gas lamps on College Avenue in 1912.

Our community also made history when Alfred Galpin put together his own telephone in 1877, connecting his bank and his residence. Later, a druggist installed several phones in his store, linking them with those in other offices. The Wisconsin Telephone Company purchased this exchange in 1881.

Retail trade has also contributed to the area's progress. Because stores have always been concentrated on College Avenue, businessmen actively cooperate with city government in downtown redevelopment. A major convention center, the Paper Valley Hotel, was opened in 1982 and a shopping complex, The Avenue, commenced operations in March of 1987.

From its beginnings in 1853 as the Appleton Crescent, now the Appleton Post Crescent, the newspaper has provided coverage of the political, educational and industrial arenas of the community.

Cultural growth was encouraged early in Appleton. Central to that development has been public library service. Beginning in a reading room above a grocery store on College Avenue, the Appleton Public Library has developed over the years. Today it is housed in a modern 2 story facility on North Oneida Street. It offers a 240,000 volume book collection, audiovisual equipment and software rental, as well as computer database searching. In 1986, the APL was designated among the 50 outstanding libraries in the nation.

The preservation of Appleton's history has been the work of the Outagamie County Historical Society. Its museum contains artifacts of Appleton's famous native son, escape artist Harry Houdini and author Edna Ferber, who grew up in Appleton. The museum showcases Appleton's heritage as a progressive, industrious community in Wisconsin's Fox River Valley.

The residents of our community are proud of Appleton's past and present, and they manifest a great confidence in its future and a dedication to its ongoing betterment.

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© Copyright 2009 City of Appleton. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

NEENAH

Neenah began in 1835 as an industrial and agricultural mission for the Menominee Indians. Its early white settlement, attracted by the water power of the Fox river, started a few years later. This beginning was complicated by internal strife and the death of a major land owner.

As a result, Neenah's growth lagged behind other villages in the area until after the Civil War. At that time clear titles, rail transportation and renewed economic vigor encouraged a boom in local industry. Neenah's role in Wisconsin's paper industry began during this period and resulted in the formation of the Kimberly-Clark Corporation in 1872.

The phenomenal success of this and other later paper companies in the area produced a dichotomous social structure dominated by some of the most influential families in the Fox River Valley and the state. This social structure and the industry that sustained it reached a plateau around the turn of the century, when labor activism and community consciousness began to emerge.

After World War I, industry turned from manufacturing commodities to products, creating more jobs and greater wealth. This continued industrial expansion provided Neenah with a stable economic environment throughout the Great Depression and created a strong professional middle class which ultimately has assumed community leadership.

The Neenah Lighthouse

The lighthouse on the shore of Lake Winnebago in Neenah, Wisconsin has stood for the last 50 years in a place where Indian Tribesman met for pow-wows 150 years ago at the mouth of the Fox River. Also near the lighthouse site was once an enormous elm tree called the Old Council Tree by the Menominee Indians. The tribesmen would hold councils under its sheltering arms prior to the 1830's. The tree was cut down in the 1880's by the Federal Corps of Engineers when the river channel was dredged and widened. Today, the Old Council Tree stands as the City's Logo.

In 1929, Mrs. Helen Kimberly Stuart (of Kimberly-Clark fame, makers of Kleenex brand tissue) donated land to the city of Neenah which was named Kimberly Point Park.

In 1944 Mr. J. C. Kimberly (also of Kimberly-Clark fame) realized there was the need of a light for boaters to mark the entrance to the river. He donated the funds to have the lighthouse built. The lighthouse, which was also designed as a comfort station, cost $7500 to build. It was made of brick and Haydite block and rose 40 feet above the water and first began guiding boaters into Neenah Harbor in 1945.

The famous Old Council Tree is no longer there having been torn down in the 1880's by the Federal Corps of Engineers when the river channel was dredged and widened.

The beautiful cherry and other blooming trees around the lighthouse are there thanks to Mrs. Stuart. One of the Elm trees is a shoot from the original Old Council Tree. Today there is a marker there in commemoration of the Old Council Tree and the American Indians who met under its branches.

Neenah is Named

How the name "Neenah," came to be attached to the locality is attributed to Governor Doty, who meeting with a band of Indians one day, pointed to the river and asked, "what is that?" The Indians answered, "Neenah" being their word for water. Doty liked the word and applied it to the region.

When land in Winnebago Rapids was opened for sale in 1846, settlers trickled in purchasing land lying outside the Reed-Jones tract. The name "Neenah" came into common use and became attached to the village and eventually to the city.

OSHKOSH

Historic Oshkosh

Since its settlement in the mid-1830's, Oshkosh has grown from a sleepy country village to what it is today.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Oshkosh was second only to Milwaukee in population in the state. It was the largest city in the Fox River Valley. The Inland Lakes Yachting Association held its annual regatta at the Oshkosh Yacht Club on Lake Winnebago and, following its construction in 1883, the Grand Opera House was visited by many of the biggest stars in the theater, vaudeville and lecture circuits, making Oshkosh the cultural center of the Fox Valley.

From a village built upon the lumber industry to the present day city based upon manufacturing and retail, the City of Oshkosh has a great history. To learn more, visit The City of Oshkosh Landmarks Commission site. Click here.

GREEN BAY

In the 17th century, woodland Indians, French voyagers, fur trappers and Jesuit missionaries at one time or another traveled the historic water highway called the Fox River.

A natural stopping place for them was where the Fox emptied into the bay. This stopping place became Wisconsin's first settlement.

The bay of Green Bay was shaped by a series of glaciers, which moved through the region thousands of years ago. Through time, a bay was formed which is presently 199 miles long and covers approximately 3,000 square miles.

The river and bay were a vital link to all who lived on or near its shore. Each spring and fall, enormous flocks of geese, swans, canvasbacks and other waterfowl species would blacken the skies on their ancestral migratory flights. Fish could be heard splashing in the marshy edges of the bay. Wildlife thrived on the abundance of food and shelter. Indian villages were scattered along the bay. Here they caught fish, hunted, farmed and gathered food. The bay formed a natural barrier affording them protection from enemies.

Beaver hunting

Archaeological findings establish the region as a seat of primitively sophisticated culture many centuries before the white man's arrival. The dense woods were alive with bear and deer, wolf and raccoon. Thick furs, especially from bear and deer, provided protection from the long winter's cold, and small water animals like beaver, and otter provided delicious meats as well as pelts. The bay's water gave bountiful perch, bass, walleye and northern pike, whitefish, trout, musky and sturgeon.

About the Village of Kimberly

Founded by the paper industry, the Village of Kimberly still draws its economic strength from paper manufacturing and related industries. The community was created in 1889 as a company settlement for the pulp and paper mill built there by Kimberly, Clark and Co., now international consumer products manufacturer Kimberly-Clark Corp. The mill, which is presently closed is owned by New Page corporation. Between K-C's and New Page,s ownership, the coated paper mill was owned by Canadian-based Repap Enterprises among others. The village celebrates the prosperity it has derived from the paper industry with an annual community festival called Paperfest.

Kimberly, population 6,292, blends seamlessly into the metropolitan area of nearly 180,000 known as the Fox Cities. It lies adjacent to Appleton on the south bank of the Fox River about 100 miles north of Milwaukee and 30 miles south of Green Bay. Together with the City of Kaukauna and Villages of Little Chute and Combined Locks, it is part of the "Heart of the Valley" area of the Fox River Valley.

The village has developed an industrial park. Another major employer is U.S. Oil, which has its headquarters for its convenience stores, motor oil and plumbing, heating and air conditioning operations in Kimberly. Most of the retail is centered in strip shopping centers. Sunset Park opens up the Fox River to recreation and has served as host multiple times for the International Softball Congress annual World Tournament and home to its Hall of Fame.

HISTORY OF KAUKAUNA
(Information Obtained from City of Kaukauna Budget Book)

Kaukauna is one of Wisconsin's oldest communities. The first white explorer to see Kaukauna was Jean Nicolet, who pushed his birch bark canoe up the Fox River from Green Bay in search of a water passage to the Orient. Nicolet made allies with the Winnebago Indians that he found in the region. Trappers, hunters, missionaries, and merchants soon followed with additional expeditions to the new territory.

Because travelers had to carry their boats and cargoes over the three waterfalls at what is now Kaukauna, that spot was destined by nature to become a way-station and settlement on this important waterway. When Father Claude Allouez paused there on April 18, 1670, he noted in his journal, "we passed the portage called by the natives KeKaling, our sailors dragged the canoe among the rapids: while I walked on the Riverbank, where I found apple trees and vine-stocks in great numbers."

Thousands of bales of furs were carried over the KeKalin Falls during the ensuing fur trading period and log dwellings were erected at the site to house the portagers and travelers. By 1760, Charles de Langlade had a fur trading post at the falls.

Dominique Ducharme was the first permanent white settler and built a substantial log house in 1790 in KeKalin (Kaukauna) and began trading with the Menomini and Chippewa Indians. At the time, 1,500 Indians lived in the village of Kaukauna.

The north side of the City was the first to be settled, with Dominique Ducharme's land deed of 1793. The Ducharme deed was Wisconsin's first recorded deed in which he obtained several hundred acres of land for the initial payment of two barrels of rum. In 1818, Augustin Grignon moved from Green Bay to take up residence in Kaukauna on a government grant of 1,000 acres of land on the lower rapids. On this property, but closer to the river, Augustine's son Charles built the "Mansion in the Woods" in 1837. The Charles A. Grignon Home is the oldest home in Outagamie County and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

A settlement known as Statesburg began on the south side of what is now Kaukauna. The Stockbridge tribe had fought on the side of the Americans in the Revolutionary War, and were rewarded with western land to be held with the native American groups already in the area.

In 1831, a new series of American treaties resulted in the relocation to the Stockbridge settlements. The departure of the Stockbridge from Statesburg substantially reduced the population. The Grignons were left in the wilderness in the company of a small group of French farmers.

Two factors led to immediate growth: the 1836 Treaty of the Cedar opened the Fox Valley settlement through U.S. territorial land offices, and George W. Lawe arrived in 1850 to create the first plat on the north side of town. The plat of about 17 blocks created the "diagonal" French-oriented street system which still prevails on the near north and south sides of Kaukauna.

A small north side business district developed during canal building activities in the 1850's. The Chicago and Northwestern Railroad's north side line encouraged local industry such as flour milling and lumber processing in the 1860's and 1870's, but before 1880, the north side remained a modest settlement and the south side had reverted to scattered farms.

The second railroad boom of the 1880's brought Irish and German workers who created the south side Village of Ledyard. In 1881, Milwaukee Lakeshore and Western Railroad relocated its district office from Manitowoc to Kaukauna's south side. First Street was vacated and the railroads sprang up. Company housing for the railroad workers was developed in the south central area known as "Yankee Hill."

In 1885, the Village of Ledyard joined with the north side to form the City of Kaukauna. The 1880's railroad developments coincided with the creation of new water power canals to supply Kaukauna industry. The men who built the railroad and power canals stayed to create the paper industry which is so important to Kaukauna today. The construction of five municipal hydroelectric generating plants gave Kaukauna its nickname, "The Electric City."

Today, the City of Kaukauna is a growing community of 12,743. The City has its own Police, Fire and Rescue service available to our residents. Kaukauna is well-maintained with regular garbage collection, street cleaning, well-lit and well-paved streets and other services vital to keeping our community safe and attractive. Kaukauna boasts a 350 acre Industrial Park Network, complete with rail and heavy truck access. Kaukauna also affords its residents with numerous recreational opportunities such as the Historic Grignon Mansion, the 1000 Islands Environmental Center, fourteen private parks, eight sports fields, a public swimming pool, and a public library. Annually the City hosts River Days - a weekend-long, family-oriented event and a segment of the Fox Cities Marathon. With such a variety of activities available, it should not come as a surprise that Kaukauna is also known as "The Friendly City."

SOURCES:
Walking Tour Through Old Kaukauna, Dept. of Planning and Community Development, City of Kaukauna (1983).

Charles A. Grignon Mansion Pamphlet, Outagamie County Historical Society (1988).

Combined Locks

HISTORY

In the beginning it was Native American land. High on the bluff, across from the rapid, swirling waters of the little chute in what was to be named the Fox River, stood an immense and dense mass of hardwood trees. Trails criss-crossed through the tall, colorful timber that crowned the south shore of the river.

Here the Native Americans tapped the sturdy maples and set up their sugar camps; here they took the saplings from the oak, basswood, beech, elm, ironwood, or hickory to bend into the elliptical framework for their wigwams. The bark of the trees was used to make the large patch matting to cover the wigwam frames. It was here the Native Americans cleared small areas of land on which to plant and grow their corn, often near the sugarbush or cluster of wigwams.

In the bay at the foot of the high, wooded bank came the animals to drink--the deer, bear, fox, and smaller animals of the forest. Numerous sulfur springs in the area gave the Native Americans and woodland creatures a year-round supply of water. The creek tributaries of the Fox and the fast moving, rippling river itself provided the Native Americans with superb fishing. Here they caught the wily sturgeon, the fighting pickerel, pike and black bass in the swift running water. During the seasons of high water, the pike and pickerel were known to swim up the creeks for miles.

This was the scene at present-day Combined Locks when the first white man came to the land called Ouisconsin in the 17th century. The river became the highway for the fur traders and their voyageurs; it was used by the French missionaries the Native Americans named "the Black Robes" and welcomed into their villages. Eventually, the landmark bay on the south shore of the Fox River beckoned to its first settler and got its first name--Garner's Landing.

Roland Garner (or Gardner), according to pioneer records, cleared and worked his farm on the hill in the 1830's and 1840's at the time the French from Canada were establishing homesteads in the present Town of Buchanan. These early fur traders-turned-farmers were Joseph, Charles and William LaMure, the Beaulieus and Porliers.

Then 10 German families plus a few bachelors came to the Landing to settle as a group in 1842. There were the families of John Dietzler, Peter Dietrich, Jacob Pauly, Michael Klein (or Kline), John P Heinz, PH Rausch, JP Schumacher, John Kloepfel, Anton Heuser, and the three young men, Mathias Klein, and John and Jacob Snyder.

Later Germans to settle in the area as pioneers had the family names of Rademacher, Jonen, Heinz, Brill, Renn, Palm, Haupt, Hopfensperger, Strause, Weiler, Stroup, Zink, Kohler, Orth, Zeigbein, Wiedenhaupt, Surges, Uitenbrook, Wundrow, Mau, and Schubring, among others.

The first Hollanders arrived in 1848, brought to the new country by the Reverend Theodore VandenBroek, missionary priest at La Petite Chute (Little Chute). He had worked among the Menominee people since 1836 and returned to his native land to recruit workers for the building of the canals on the river. He also saw in his journey a chance to offer freedom and the promise of a future to his fellow countrymen with the Fox River Development Company assuming all the expenses of the long journey.

While in Holland, the priest wrote so eloquently of his wilderness home in Brabant parish circulars that instead of one boatload of families ready to emigrate he found he had recruited two. This is how it happened that many Dutch families settled in Buchanan and the Town of Holland (Brown County) as an overflow to the original Little Chute settlement. Letters sent back home by the pioneers themselves brought more settlers. Among the earliest Netherlanders in Buchanan were the families named Berghuis, Hammen, Welhuis, DeBruin, Speel, Hartjes, Sanders, Kemkes, Williams, Beelen, Jansen, Van Ooyen, Coonen, Van Domelin, Timmers, Menting, Van Wyst, Smits, and Tillman.

The third large group of settlers, most of whom came as canal workers, were the Irish. Some married here and settled down; others sent for the families they had left back east while they worked to earn enough for a homestead and a new start. Records show the surnames of Ryan, Glasheen, Finnigan, Ringrose, Moffet, Collighan, Henchy, Hinchey, Luftus, Condon, Farry, Powers, Keating, Clune, Maroney and Maloney, Slattery, Leddy, Rohan, Davy, McGrath, Heardon, and Cooney.

Together these people of different culture backgrounds worked to build a strong farming community. Today, descendants of these sturdy pioneers still live in the village.

The actual Village of Combined Locks had its origin as a mill town, linked to the pioneer paper industry of the Fox River Valley. The farming community changed into a village when the present Combined Paper Mills, Inc was organized as the Combined Locks Paper Company in 1889. The first dam at this place in the Fox River, along with the original pulp mill buildings, was built that year.

Both village and mill were named for the combined boat locks that skirted the river shoreline. Small, tidy homes were built by the company for workers; these were located along the winding road in the eastern end of today's village. The paper firm also built a frame boarding house type hotel for workers without family ties.

It was in 1916, when the original Combined Locks Paper Company was organized, that the idea of village incorporation got started. The village then was mainly on the east end of town and it had become a self-sufficient village that had outgrown its "mill town" image. Its leading citizens were aware of the mill's flowering prosperity. They spoke out for incorporation as a means of keeping the industry's tax benefits within the growing village. There always was a threat of annexation by neighboring communities.

Thus it came about that a petition for village status was sent to the Outagamie County Circuit Court April 21, 1920, all legally drawn up and signed. On the petition were the names of Herman Janssen, Nicholas Lom, Henry Maas, Theodore Van Cuyk, and John Van Cuyk.

Village records show that considerable preliminary work had been done before the petition was filed. A survey was made of the 810 acres for the proposed village; this included 705 acres of land and 105 acres of water. Albert E McMahan made that survey.

It was August L Beatz, paper mill foreman, who offered to count heads in the proposed village area during his off hours. This he did, walking from house to house to make the canvass. He came up with 467 persons in 74 families. This census included the August Mauthe family of six, the Mauthe's ran the hotel, and the 13-room and board mill workers. His report read, "Said census exhibits the name of every head of a family and the name of every person or resident in good faith in such territory."

The survey map and the census were both posted in the usual place for villager inspection. This was in the post office room in the home of Mrs. Peter Vanden Brant, village postmistress.

Three residents were against the incorporation move and said so, but their protests were turned down. Instead, the court authorized an election to be held on the next August 3. Inspectors were appointed by the court for the occasion. Named were Daniel J Ryan as clerk, Herbert J Sullivan and Theodore Williams.

Notice of the election was posted for the three weeks demanded by the court prior to the election. Handbills went up on the village "bulletin boards" of the day, well remembered by old-timers in the community.

The west wall of Mrs. Vanden Brant's front parlor post office got one as did the south wall on the outside of the yard office at the Combined Locks Paper Mill. Various telephone poles in the community, located in strategic spots, also were used for notices. One went up on the pole in the front of the Christian Hartjes home that overlooked the river; another was tacked on the telephone pole east of John Doyle's house on the road to Darboy; the pole near Malachi Ryan's house got one because it was on the well-traveled Kaukauna-Menasha plank road. Another was posted on the telephone pole east of Paul Smith's home on the road leading to the mill.

When election day arrived, the event was held in the schoolhouse (District 7 school later turned into the first St. Paul Catholic Church). The outcome was favorable for incorporation with 54 votes for the move and only two against it. The papers for incorporation were filed officially August 5, 1920, with the Secretary of State in Madison.

Less than two weeks later, August 16, at a 7:30pm meeting at the school house, the electors met again to pick a slate of village officers. This election was held again in the old school on August 31, 1920.

D J Ryan, a farmer, was chosen as the first village president and county board supervisor. F C Schuler, a tavernkeeper by occupation, was elected as clerk. Mill pipefitter Herman Janssen was elected as treasurer. Real estate man William Van Zeeland was named assessor. Mill foreman and census taker A L Beatz was elected as constable. Finishing room mill worker Chris Kindler was named Justice of the Peace. The trustees were depot agent George Smith, farmer John Berghuis, who also worked at the school, expert papermaker Albert Piepenburg, mill worker Theodore Williams, farmer Chris Hartjes, and farmer-poundmaster Malachi Ryan.

The first village board meeting was held September 8 at the school house, where the village fathers were to meet the last Tuesday of every month until the Village Hall was built in 1924.

The first tax rate for the village was set at 12 mills or $12 per $1,000 in a day when hand labor brought a man 35 cents an hour and a man plus his team commanded a high 75 cents for every hour he worked.

The village certainly has grown over the last eighty years and continues to grow. As of January 2002 there are approximately 2,552 people living in Combined Locks with approximately 1,000 homes. The founding fathers used great insight in establishing this village.

History information taken from the "Golden Jubilee" book that was published in 1970 to celebrate Combined Locks' 50th birthday.