Deep concern for people in the wilderness brought the Rev. E. J. Homme from Winchester, Wisconsin, to this location in 1879 to pursue his vision of social services for orphans, the aged, and Indians in an atmosphere of peace and tranquility. He persuaded the Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Railroad to rename its station from Carbonero to Wittenberg, then recruited friends and former parishioners to settle there. By 1885, forty families lived in Wittenberg. Within a decade, Homme had built a church, a home for the aged, and an orphanage. The orphanage, built just south of this point, served homeless children of all ages from the Upper Midwest. To meet the financial demands of these service programs, Homme ran a farm, published three newspapers, operated four schools, raised and sold garden seeds, and sold a patent medicine of his own making called "Wittenberg Drops." He also dammed the Embarrass River to power his sawmill, creating the pond at this site. Homme died June 22, 1903, at the age of 59 and was buried in Wittenberg.