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Just who was Otto Hasse? If you own a piece of property in downtown Spring Grove north of Main Street or along East Street or North Street, it is likely you’ll find his and his wife’s name on the first Warranty Deed for your home.
But let’s start at the beginning. Otto was born on December 16, 1864, in Hamburg, Germany. He left Germany, where he worked as a merchant, and came to America in June 1891 at the age of 27. He married Anna Theurer on November 28, 1895, in Burlington, Wisconsin, and his first daughter, Louise, was born there in 1897.
In 1900 the family moved to Burton Township, which was also the year, when, after years of waiting and speculation, the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad was extended to Spring Grove. The family rented a house and Otto worked as a day laborer but had bigger plans in mind.
With the coming of the railroad, a building boom began in the downtown area, with not only new businesses but new homes, too. It’s hard to say what the downtown area looked like exactly in 1900, but we know at the four corners there were two general stores: Robert Esh’s and Andrew Neish’s. There were also a few homes on Main Street, the school, the Episcopal Church and town cemetery. But most of the other buildings we see today were built in 1901.
An 1897 assessor’s map shows a Mrs. Haney owned over 5 acres in the downtown area. It doesn’t appear that she was a resident of Spring Grove so may have been an out-of-town investor.
By 1901 Otto purchased Mrs. Haney’s property and had it surveyed and platted with two new streets (North & East Streets) and 24 lots for sale. The newspaper that year reported that Andrew Neish purchased a ‘fine lot” on “the new street running north and south” (East Street). Otto built a new house and moved the old house “to the back street to rent”. Lumberman William Watts received a large amount of lumber and placed it on Otto’s lot and Lewis Nulk’s new lot at 8020 East Street. Lots probably sold for around $100 as a 1906 a warranty deed that was donated to the village shows he sold Lot 16 on East Street and part of Lot 1 behind it for $115 (about $4,000 today) to Nick Weber.
In 1904, Otto joined the Spring Grove Modern Woodman of America Camp in the position of clerk. Another daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1906 when he was 42 years old and his wife, Anna, was 41. In 1907, he set sail across “the deep” to visit his old home in Hamburg, Germany and his friends threw him a surprise bon voyage party. And in 1908 the Village Board thought enough of him to choose him as the replacement for the office of Village President after John Wagner resigned, a position Otto held for one year.
The 1910 census recorded his occupation as a laborer on a dairy farm in Burton Township. He and Anna retired that same year and moved back to Burlington, WI. Perhaps always looking for new opportunities, the 1920 census showed him working at a “canning saw” in a basket factory there.
Anna died “very suddenly” on a Sunday afternoon in 1932 at age 67 in her home. Four years later Otto was in an auto accident and had three ribs broken. He then contracted pneumonia and died ten days later. Daughter Louise was married in 1921 and died at age 88 in 1985. Elizabeth lived with her parents and married in 1936 at age 30 after Otto's death. She lived until 1970. (Otto & Anna were also survived by one grandson (Louise’s) and one granddaughter (Elizabeth’s).
Although only here for ten short years, the Hasse name will live on forever in the history of Spring Grove.
Story by Laura Frumet
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