WAUPUN — Members of the Waupun Historical Society attended the Common Council meeting of Tuesday, October 14, 2025 to thank the City for the renovations to the Historical Museum completed over the last several years.
President of the Waupun Historical Society Steve Biever addressed the City Council along with Dylan Weber, historical society vice president, Rick Vant Hoff, society board member, and Kyle Clark, executive director.
Biever thanked the Mayor and the Council for appropriating funds for the Carnegie Library museum building roof and brick tuckpointing. He also thanked Jeff Daane and the DPW for putting up the antique lights in the museum, which were originally from the City Hall but kept in storage since the 1980s renovation.
“We should be good for at least another 75 to 100 years,” Biever said.
“We’ve been very busy the last several years—organizing, cleaning, sorting,” he said. “Kyle has been especially active in getting our collection in order and getting that stuff online. It’ll be a slow process but we’re making great strides.”
Mayor Rohn Bishop commended the Historical Society for their efforts, saying that their work has not gone unnoticed.
“I was there for a couple hours last Saturday morning going down that rabbit hole of old newspapers, and there’s a lot there,” Mayor Bishop said. “I can see all the work you’ve put into it, because there was a time that it was all stuff piled up.”
Over the last several years, the Waupun Historical Society has reformed much of the exhibits to create a much more streamlined touring experience. This included several permanent exhibits, such as Waupun business, schools, the prisons, and Clarence Shaler. The military exhibit was also reorganized to better use the space.
Dylan Weber also spoke on the changes in the Historical Society, which included a migration from the previous acquisition management service PastPerfect to the new platform CatalogIt. This migration occurred in 2023, but new items are regularly added to the catalog for online viewing.
“That switch on our part has brought people into the museum, mostly because people saw it online and want to see the real thing or are looking for more information,” Weber said. “That in itself has driven up our ‘through the door’ folks, but also some of the phone calls—and I think most important about this is that it has opened up opportunities for volunteers too.”
Mayor Bishop also added on to this, saying, “The Historical Society is also getting some old City aldermanic district maps that Jaedon Buchholz came across last week. And when we were there I brought up the idea of having them on loan to City Hall along with other historical government stuff that we thought shouldn’t be stored away in a closet when they could be on display here.”
The alderman maps in question were found at an estate sale and date to 1977 and 1989, with the 1977 map being four feet long.
“It’s an interesting point because there’s a lot of things that don’t really see the light of day that often,” Weber said. “Getting them on the computers so people can at least know we have them is a nice hurdle to get over. But also if there’s some extra space where they’re unobtrusive but the public can view them and utilize them, even better.”
Rick Vant Hoff also described many of the things that the Historical Society does in assisting people with local history research. One man from the Netherlands had come to Waupun last May looking for information about Dutch immigration to the community, and had recently returned for more. He also described another story about getting a donation of many artifacts related to the Central State Hospital while they were building the exhibit for the prisons.
“I certainly appreciate the time and partnership between the City and the Historical Society,” said Kyle Clark. “We try to be proactive and be engaged in the community as much as we can, and a lot of that couldn’t be done without the help of the City Council and city staff here, so we certainly appreciate all you’ve done to help us move forward.”
The Historical Society also reminded the City Council about the 10th Annual Historical Cemetery Walk which will be held at Forest Mound Cemetery next Saturday, October 25, with tours starting at 4:30PM and going until 7PM.
Mayor Rohn W. Bishop’s father, Rohn Bishop Sr, originally founded the Cemetery Walk and remained involved with the event until his passing in 2021, but the Historical Society has continued on with the event in his honor.
Mayor Bishop will be greeting attendees at the event, with many actors portraying characters of historical significance that are buried in Waupun.
