Walloon ancestry in Wisconsin (USA)

When looking at a map of Northeastern Wisconsin, a few village names could sound familiar to most Belgians, like Brussels, Namur, Champion, Pepin, Rosiere... In the counties of Kewaunee, Door and Brown (Green Bay), there are still a few who carry the language and traditions of their Walloon ancestors. As promised earlier, let's talk about the Walloon community in the United States.

In 1852, many Walloons started emigrating on boats from Belgium because they weren't happy about the monarchy and were hoping for a better life. Yet, the timing was bad because the American civil war started a few years later and Walloons, who often couldn't even speak English, were enrolled as soldiers in the war. Other unfortunate events, such as famine or poor climate conditions, punctuated the life of Walloons in the region. Nevertheless, these people were able to maintain cultural bond with Belgium for generations to come.

Preserving a dying culture...

Today, some elderly people still speak Walloon casually, although it is almost extinct in the region, due to centuries of forced assimilation to the English language and a general lack of interest from younger generations. As most settlers came from Hesbaye and Brabant (Gembloux, Wavre, Jodoigne, etc.), the dialect spoken is Central Walloon. After 150 years, some "walloonised" English loanwords were integrated, such as "cåler" for "to call" ("å" is pronounced "aw"), but the language has remained very pure and understandable for Walloon speakers, conserving some features such as the rolled R (unlike most Belgian Walloon pronunciations nowadays).

Every year in July, Belgian Days are celebrated in Brussels, Wisconsin (Door County). The village has the largest Belgian settlement in the United States and the Walloon heritage is probably the strongest in the county. The festival is the occasion for these people to promote traditional dishes, such as Belgian trippes, pies, broth and others. Walloon settlers are known to have brought along their Catholic Church, a sense of family and fellowship, and solid agricultural knowledge. Nonetheless, the climate and landscape were very different to those in Belgium, so that inhabitants had to cope with cold temperature and build themselves log cabins, inspired by those of local natives.

It is not unusual that people there still keep contact with their Belgian cousins and come to visit the place their ancestors came from. Some of them fight in Belgium as soldiers sent from the US during World War II (imagine the locals' surprise when they heard an American GI speak Walloon!). On July 2nd 1975, members of Belgian and American Walloon communities gathered in Green Bay to celebrate "Belgians' Day" with speeches in English, French and Walloon. In addition, a book called Les Wallons du Wisconsin recently raised the interests of Belgians and Wisconsinians. It was written by two Belgian authors (F. Lempereur and X. Istasse) who travelled to Wisconsin several years ago, documenting Walloon settlements in the region and recording their testimonies.