In the 1850s, amid Wisconsin's lumber boom, a large migration of Germans from Pomerania, a former Prussian province in present-day northern Germany and Poland, helped settle Marathon County. Immigration continued for the next several decades, with the largest movement occurring in 1867, when Wausau merchant August Kickbusch returned home to persuade his former neighbors of Wisconsin's opportunities and more than 700 immigrants followed him there. Pomeranians spoke PlattDeutsch, also known as Low German, and established several Lutheran churches. Members of today's Pommerscher Verein of Central Wisconsin work to preserve the language and traditions that helped shape the culture of the region.