From Wisconsin County Histories, Waupaca County Edited by John M. Ware 1917
Transcribed and submitted to the Waupaca County Website
by Paula Vaughan January 2002

VILLAGE OF EMBARRASS
Embarrass, a village of about three hundred inhabitants, is nearly a mile south of the northern boundary of the county, on the Embarrass River and 
Chicago & Northwestern Railway. It is one of the old settlements and lumber towns of the county.

The first settler to locate on the site of the village was Roswell Matte-son, in whose honor the township was named, and who came to the locality 
in July, 1855. In the following year the postoffice of Embarrass was established at that point, and E. D. Matteson, a son of the founder, was
appointed postmaster. In 1859, after the coming of a few settlers, a log shanty was erected for a schoolhouse, and Miss Emma Dodge was engaged 
as its mistress. Close upon the heels of the school came the minister of the gospel, Elder Sharpe, the Baptist missionary, who preached his first 
sermon at Embarrass in 1860. In 1859 J. M. White had opened a store and by 1861 enough settlers had gathered around Embarrass postoffice to 
warrant the erection of a small grist mill by Palmer & Stacy.

The present village represents the trading and industrial center of a thriving dairy district. One of the substantial cheese factories of the county is 
that at Embarrass conducted by John Krubsack and Charles Gehrt. F. G. Allen operates a sawmill; Emil Gehrt, a carding mill, and A. B. Roberts, 
a lumber yard. There are several general stores in the village and a produce (potato) warehouse. A combined garage and repair shop and a new 
bank are further evidences of up-to-date growth. The Embarrass State Bank was incorporated in the fall of 1916, with John Krubsack as president 
and William Anton as cashier. It opened for business in its new building in the spring of 1917 with a capital of $15,000.

The village school is a state graded institution, occupying a substantial two-story brick building, completed in 1905 at a cost of $9,000. Two teachers 
are employed and over 100 pupils enrolled under the principal-ship of Miss Hattie Mielke.

LUTHERAN ZIONS CONGREGATION

The Congregationalists and Lutherans have churches, the former in charge of Rev. Wade Pinckney and the latter, of Rev. G. H. Schilling. The Lutheran 
Church is noticeably strong.

The Lutheran Zions Congregation, as the society is called, was organized in 1888, among its original members being John and August Keub-sack,
Ernst Boekow, Herman Fischer and William Kriewaldt. During the year that the congregation was organized, a church edifice was erected, which was 
also used for the parochial school. In 1903 the congregation called its first permanent pastor, Rev. G. H. Schilling, Jr., who is still in charge. During his 
pastorate the membership has doubled, having in-creased from forty to eighty families. In 1912, Zions Congregation erected the handsome house of 
worship now in use, with a seating capacity of some 400. Its large basement is devoted to the parochial day school, which had become so large by 
1916 as to require the services of an assistant to Mr. Schilling, who had been conducting it in connection with his manifold duties as pastor. Since that 
year the parochial school has been directly in charge of Prof. J. T. Troyke, formerly of Chicago. It is evident that the educational advantages of Embarrass 
are of an unusually complete character for a village of its size.