Brown County Courthouse on September 7, 2013
Brown County is located in the northeastern part of Wisconsin. It was created in 1818 by the Michigan territorial legislature, which makes Brown County one of the two original counties (the other original county is Crawford County) in what is now the state of Wisconsin. The new county was named after General Jacob J. Brown who was one of the more successful general officers of the US Army during the War of 1812. The original Brown County covered the eastern half of Wisconsin.
Green Bay is the county seat and it’s located where the Fox river flows into Green Bay. It’s hard to say exactly when Green Bay was founded, but its history goes back to the trading post that was established by Jean Nicolet. He was the first European to explore what is now Wisconsin when he landed at Red Banks in 1634. The French called both the small settlement and the body of water “La Baie Verte” which was literally translated to “Green Bay” when the area came under British control in the 18th century. Green Bay was incorporated as a city in 1854.
The Brown County Courthouse is located at 100 South Jefferson Street in Green Bay, a few blocks away from the Fox River. The Green Bay City Hall is located nearby at 100 North Jefferson Street, and the WBAY-TV studios are located just across the street at 115 South Jefferson. The courthouse building was built in 1908 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also on the Packers Heritage Trail, which is a walking tour of sites associated with the Green Bay Packers.
I have a lot of memories of Brown County, which is not surprising because I grew up in Outagamie County which is adjacent to Brown County. Most of my memories concern the Green Bay Packers: I grew up during the Lombardi years after all. I remember going to the Packers “intra-squad” game with my father and some friends when I was in first or second grade. I don’t remember much about the scrimmage except that it rained heavily during the game. This was the first time I visited Lambeau Field (technically it was still called City Stadium then; it was renamed in 1965 after Curly Lambeau passed away). My second visit was in October 2007 when I watched the Packers lose to the Bears on a freakishly warm Sunday night. This was during Brett Favre’s last season with the Packers.
I also remember driving through Brown County to go cherry picking in Door County with my family in the 1960s. We would usually stop at the wayside with the statue of Jean Nicolet to get out and stretch our legs. Brown County relocated this statue when the highway was expanded to four lanes and the wayside was paved over. One of my mother’s friends from her nursing school class lived in Green Bay and we would occasionally visit until they moved away in the early 1970s; she and her husband had two children who were roughly the same age as my sisters and myself. On some of these visits we would go to the National Railroad Museum, but usually we would stay at their house and play shuffleboard in their basement.
- Brown County links
- photos of Green Bay
- Jean Nicolet statue at Wequiock Falls County Park