The Town of Cato was originally known as “Nettle Hill” and “Harrisville” but officially became Cato upon the arrival of the railroad line about 1870.  One of the earliest settlers to the small rural community was John Killen, a Scottish immigrant.  Killen was a Civil War veteran who came to Cato in1869 and opened up a General Store along the Neenah and Manitowoc Plank Road (what we know today as Highway 10). 

On Saturday morning, February 26, 1927, four men were injured and considerable damage was done when the ‘Snowflake Limited’ derailed a mile south of Two Rivers on the branch line of the Chicago & North Western Railway Co. The Chronicle reported, “The wreck was a bad one and caused considerable loss and delay.”

Following the conclusion of World War I it was difficult for the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company to acquire contracts for the construction of new ships. To keep the shops busy and thousands of workers employed, the company made modifications to their shops to allow for locomotive and car repair. Charles West was a true business leader and approached railroad companies to gauge the potential acquisition of this new business line. A number of Chicago-based rail lines and lumber companies in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota were on board. With this new business opportunity, there was enough repair of locomotives and rolling stock to keep the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company’s shops and employees busy for three years.

The written story of Branch begins with Edward Lenaville, an entrepreneur who walked from Green Bay and came to Branch in the early 1830s. To earn money, he worked at Jacob Conroe’s sawmill in the newly formed Manitowoc Rapids community. He returned to the Branch area and bought 100 acres of land and worked to build the community and attract residents. With the assistance of Conroe’s mill, a bridge was constructed over the Branch River for “1,500 feet of lumber at $7 per thousand”. The community soon became known as Lenaville.

Traditionally, Halloween is not only a spooky time of year, it’s also a time to play harmless tricks on people. But for a suspected group of young boys in Manitowoc in 1898, they set out on the eve of Halloween to put an emphasis on the trick over the treat and tallied up quite the list of damages.