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If you see comments in violation of our community guidelines , please report them. Editor's note: This is the second part and conclusion of our history columnist's examination of Sheboygan County's reputation for houses of ill repute spanning the 's through the 's.
The first part is printed in the Feb. For years, Sheboygan County had a reputation in the Midwest for the sheer number and quality of its brothels. Estimates had them numbering about forty. By the late s, much of the county had enough of the bold spurning of the law, the sniggering jokes and the crime that surrounded the roadhouses. After years of dancing around the subject of illegal brothel activity, things began to change in , with the arrival of a newly elected district attorney, John Buchen.
Candidate Walter J. Kohler Jr. Miners working the Gogebic Range for iron ore frequented the small town beginning in the s. By the s, its popularity was waning. The mines were closed in the s. Another group of citizens who thought the wheels of justice ground too slowly organized the Plymouth Community Council in June and voted to go directly to Madison to seek action. The council was referred to a local attorney, and that led them to John Buchen and Nathan Heffernan.
