Somers, Wisconsin

History

The community was originally named Pike on April 15, 1843, by an act of the Wisconsin territorial legislature, and became Somers in 1851.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 25.274 mi2, of which 25.257 mi2 are land and 0.017 mi2 are water.

Demographics

Somers first appeared in the 2020 U.S. census after incorporation in 2015.

Neighborhoods

Berryville

Berryville is a residential and business community located in the eastern part of the village, at the intersection of Kenosha County Highway A (7th Street) and Highway 32 (Sheridan Road). The community was named for the proliferation of strawberry farms in the area. The Berryville School was a community fixture into the 1980s, when it was demolished for new housing. Adjacent to the school to the south was the Mid-City Outdoor Theatre (1948-1984), one of Wisconsin's first drive-in theatres.

Central Park

Central Park is a residential and business community within the southeastern corner of the village. It is centered on the intersection of Sheridan Road (Highway 32) and Twelfth Street (Kenosha County Highway E). The area once was the location of the namesake Central Park, a sprawling private recreational park, baseball field, and picnic grounds that was served by a stop of the Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company (TMER&L) interurban line which had installed layover sidings for its rail cars waiting to reload and return picnickers to their homes. Central Park often hosted many annual company picnics including those of the Nash Motors Company of Kenosha. The Central Park picnic grounds were later sold and renamed "Minkowski's Grove", which since has been subdivided and no longer exists for public usage.

Kellogg's Corners

Kellogg's Corners (often called Kellogg) is a residential and agricultural community in the northwestern corner of the village. It lies at the junction of Interstate 94/U.S. Route 41 and Highway 195 at the border with Racine County. Kellogg's Corners was first settled in 1837 by three Kellogg brothers - Seth, Chauncey, and Thaddeus.

By far, the most notable Kellogg's Corners landmark was the Greek Revival mid-19th century Kellogg's Corners School, an early historic one-room school of frame construction that eventually became privately owned and was demolished by its owner in 1990. The school's rustic foundation remains to mark its location.

Education

• Shoreland Lutheran High School is a private Christian high school of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS).
• The University of Wisconsin-Parkside is located within the village.

Notable people

• William H. Flett, Wisconsin legislator
• Margaret Landon, author of Anna and the King of Siam
• Drue Leyton, actress, writer, member of the French Resistance
• Conrad Shearer, Wisconsin legislator

References

References

1. "2019 U.S. Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau.
2. (October 25, 2007). "US Board on Geographic Names". [[United States Geological Survey]].
3. "U.S. Census website". [[United States Census Bureau]].
4. (May 24, 2015). "Somers Village Board gets off to rocky start".
5. United States Postal Service. "USPS - Look Up a ZIP Code".
6. "Incorporation". Village and Town of Somers.
7. (February 23, 2015). "Proposed Village Incorporation". Town of Somers.
8. "Somers Town & Village Boundaries". Village and Town of Somers.
9. [https://web.archive.org/web/20160102132944/http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/1843/related/territory_acts/43act_p58_59.pdf Territory acts. Act 43]
10. [https://web.archive.org/web/20170217210953/https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/1851/related/acts/213.pdf Territory acts. Act 213]
11. "2016 U.S. Gazetteer Files: County Subdivisions - Wisconsin". [[U.S. Census Bureau]].
12. "P2: Hispanic or Latino, and Not Hispanic or Latino by Race – 2020: DEC Redistricting Data (PL 94-171) – Mountain Meadows CDP, Texas". [[United States Census Bureau]].
13. Chicago and North Western Railway Company. (1908). "A History of the Origin of the Place Names Connected with the Chicago & North Western and Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railways".
14. "Kenosha Co. WI Placenames".
15. "Town of Somers, Kenosha County, Wisconsin".
16. [http://rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wikenosh/placenames.htm Kenosha County Place Names]
17. "Town of Somers-Kenosha County, Wisconsin".
18. (August 10, 1979). "'We prepare them for the next life". Kenosha News.
19. "Directions to Campus".
20. 'Wisconsin Blue Book 1911,' Biographical Sketch of William H. Flett, pg. 648
21. 'Drue Leyton; Actress, Member of the French Resistance,' '''Los Angeles Times,''' February 11, 1997
22. 'Wisconsin Blue Book 1923,' Biographical Sketch of Conrad Shearer, pg. 625