KAUKAUNA — Kay Peters, the great niece of iconic cap creator Stormy Kromer, will give a presentation Wednesday at the Town of Kaukauna Historical Society.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2024 at W780 Greiner Rd., Kaukauna.
Peters has documents and books to share as well as many stories about her great uncle.
Please wear your Kromer caps.
The Stormy Kromer cap is perhaps winter’s most iconic piece of head gear, and it began right here in Kaukauna.
According to an episode of the radio program, “Wisconsin Life,” The cap was created in 1903 when a cantankerous railroad engineer and semi-pro baseball player named George “Stormy” Kromer began the Kromer Cap Co., in Kaukauna.
After ordering-and selling-1,200 caps out of a factory in Milwaukee, the Kromers decided to set up their own shop in Kaukauna. That “shop” consisted of a run-down brick building and three women. A few more when orders jumped in the fall, according to the Historical Marker Data Base.
By 1918, the ladies could no longer keep up with the desire for Kromer Caps, and Stormy Kromer Mercantile moved back to Milwaukee. Kromer ran the business himself until the 1960s, expanding it more than a few times, and when his health began to fail, he passed the hat, if you will, to the next generation, according to the Historical Marker in Ironwood.
The cap currently is made in Ironwood, Michigan.
