From "History of Manitowoc County" by Dr. Louis Falge, 1912 Vol. 1, pg. 340
Meeme was one of the four original towns into which the county was divided on January 9, 1949. At the time it included the present towns of Centerville and Schleswig and the two southern tiers of the three adjoining northern towns. The name Meeme denotes pigeon in the Chippewa Indian language. The first settlers were easterners in the western part, Rhenish-Prussians in the southern part and Irish in the north and northeastern part. The first of these early settlers there is any record of was H.B. EDSON in section 14, exact date unknown. Other settlers who came in 1847 were Anton WALTERBACH, Nic DITTMAR, Michael HERR, A. HERR, James PEPPARD, John FENN, Darby and Anthony CLARK. D. NAGEL, P. PHILLIPS and C. DITTMEYER came in 1848 and J.H. ROBERTS and Martin RYAN in 1849. In the early '50s a number of Welsh settled in the southern part of the town but they gradually drifted farther west and now but one family, that of W. PRITCHARD, remains. The first town meeting was held May 15, 1849, at the home of H.B. EDSON and he was elected town clerk while John STEWART was elected chairman. This was in 1850 when the assessed valuation of the town was $51,386.93. The first child born in the town was Hubert SIMON, February 2, 1848. May 9th of the same year the first marriage ceremony was performed being that of Nic DITTMAR and Miss ECKERT. Father BRENNER held the first religious service in 1848 at the home of John MALTILOR. The first church was St. Isadore's, a log structure which in 1851 gave way to a more pretentious building. The first promoters of a better school system in that section were H. MULHOLLAND, Sr. and Patrick O'SHEA. The first death was that of James PEPPARD which occurred in 1848. Lumbering was an important branch of industry for many years and W. DANFORTH and WEEKS & Company were among the first to engage therein. The first gristmill was that built by J.F. ZINNS in section 9. This later on passed into the hands of William VITS who, after a few years sold it to August KOLWEY, who conducted the same until a few years ago when it was destroyed by fire. The early settlers experienced all the hardships of the pioneer in reducing the heavy forests and rendering the land tillable. It was no uncommon occurrence for one of these early pioneers, sometimes accompanied by his wife, to wander afoot to Green Bay or any other far-off town, for supplies. In one instance a man brought a small pig in a sack from Green Bay, only to find the "dear" porker gone one morning, it having been carried off by the wolves during the night.Osman and School Hill were the names of the other two early-day postoffices but these like the Meeme postoffice have been discontinued, free rural routes from Kiel, Cleveland and Valders now furnishing daily mail facilities for the town. School Hill, in the western part of the town is a small hamlet, containing a flouring mill, general store, two blacksmith shops, two butcher shops, and a cheese factory. The Irish that settled in the town came mostly from the states of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio where they had been employed on the Erie Canal and railroad constuction work. Along educational lines Meeme ranks among the first of the town in the count and many leading men in the professions had thier first training in that town. Population, 1910 census, was 1,504.
Mr. Dwyer has sent us a sample of wheat raised in the town of Meeme, in this County, by Messrs. Andrew Hope and Anthony Clark, which is certainly the finest and cleanest we remember of seeing. This county will yet rank with any other county in the State for growing wheat. At the Clipper City Mills, yesterday, a grist was ground, which weighed at the rate of four and a half bushels of wheat to a barrel of flour. The Daily Tribune, Manitowoc, Wis. Tuesday, July 27, 1858 P. 3