Between 1840 and 1890, Wisconsin was a major center of Dutch immigration. Dutch immigrants to Wisconsin were easily divided into two basic groups based on religious affiliation--Protestants and Catholics. The Protestants were the first to arrive in Wisconsin and settled mainly in Sheboygan, Fond du Lac, Columbia and La Crosse counties. The Catholics preferred the Fox River Valley.  The first general influx of Dutch began in 1844 with the "Seceders," Dutch who had broken from the Reformed Church of the Netherlands and came to Wisconsin seeking religious freedom. This first group established the town of Alto in 1845, one of the first Dutch communities in the Midwest. Until the 1850s, few Dutch lived in Milwaukee as the city was seen as a temporary stop on the way to agricultural lands further west. Father Theodore Johannes Van den Brock was an early promoter of Dutch Catholic immigration to Wisconsin and beginning in 1848, he helped to bring 40,000 Catholic Dutch to Wisconsin. Most Dutch immigrants to the Fox River Valley followed the Erie Canal-Great Lakes route, landing in Green Bay where many chose to remain. Later Dutch settlements in Wisconsin were generally small agricultural communities.

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