Oostburg Village Hall is located at 1140 Minnesota Avenue, Oostburg, WI 53070; phone: 920‑564‑3214.
Settlement in the Village of Oostburg [†] began in 1840. The village was initially located to the east along Sauk Trail Road. In 1870, the first three houses were built in what would become the present community of Oostburg, west of the initial location. During 1872, the “East” prefix was added to the initial location when the present community of Oostburg began growing around the railroad depot.
The Village was incorporated in 1909. At that time the Village population was 380. Population grew to 671 in 1930 and reached 1,647 residents in 1980. Some of the early businesses in downtown were the Oostburg State Bank, Oostburg Canning Company, and Oostburg Steel Foundry.
Located in southeastern Sheboygan County on Interstate Highway 43, the Village is surrounded by the rural Towns of Holland, Lima, and Wilson. There are no major waterways within or adjacent to the Village, although Lake Michigan lies just under one mile to the east.
† Sheboygan County, Wisconsin 20-Year Comprehensive Plan: Village of Oostburg, 2009, http://www.oostburg.org, accessed April, 2019.
“Forty-five percent if Oostburg residents [‡] claim Durch heritage according to the U.S. Census. Another forty-two percent are German. “Oostburg is Dutch for East‑town. Dutch settlers came here in the 1840s and the signs of the Netherlands, such as tulips and miniature windmills, are everywhere. “If you ain't Durch, you ain't much,” was a phrase I first heard at the lunch counter of Judi's Place, the family-owned diner.”
“On Sunday morning at Judi's, I saw the truest manifestation of the town's Dutch heritage, and it wasn't the diner cuisine: dozens of families streamed in to dine with their neighbor after service at one of the four rReformed churches in the village.”
‡ Timothy P. Carney, Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse, 2019, Harper Collins, New York.