Town of Holland
Brown County, Wisconsin
A Dutch immigrant community rooted in faith, farming, and tradition
Hollandtown is an unincorporated community in the Town of Holland, located in the southeast corner of Brown County, Wisconsin, where the township meets the borders of eastern Outagamie and northern Calumet counties. It was settled in the summer of 1848 by Dutch Catholic immigrants who emigrated from the Netherlands, drawn by the promise of affordable farmland and the opportunity to build a new life grounded in their faith and traditions.
St. Francis Seraph Catholic Church, founded in 1848, became the spiritual and social cornerstone of the community. The settlers brought with them distinctly Dutch cultural practices, including the Schut — a traditional marksmanship competition — which remained a beloved community celebration for generations. The surrounding agricultural landscape, shaped by generations of dairy farming, reflects the hard work and deep rootedness of the original Dutch families.
Many of the family names established by the first settlers — Van Abel, De Bruin, Van den Heuvel, and others — can still be found in the area today. The Town of Holland Area Historical Society is actively collecting photographs, church records, ledgers, and personal documents that tell the story of Hollandtown's founding generations, and we invite anyone with connections to the community to help grow the archive.