NEENAH (NBC26) — Many of us can trace our Northeast Wisconsin roots back generations and generations, while some of us are newer members of the community. Now inside the walls of the Neenah Historical Society’s Octagon House, you can learn 170 year's worth of the Fox Valley’s rich history of immigration, through the new exhibit, Tracing Our Paths.
Xiong Yang, a member of the Neenah-Menasha Fire Department, will tell visitors about Wisconsin’s Hmong population, a community that sought asylum in the U.S. after the Vietnam War.
“The differences that each other has is what makes this country so great," said Yang. "And what this country is founded upon is immigrants. I know that there’s a lot of Hmong families out there who have a very exact same story as mine, but this is my story and my family’s story.”
Yang isn’t the only member of the Neenah-Menasha Fire Department with a story to share.
“I was kind of like the odd guy out in the kindergarten class," said Anthony Leiton, Neenah-Menasha Fire Department Captain. "Someone that came in from the outside, maybe didn’t look the same, sound the same. But everybody welcomed me.“
Leiton’s father came to Menasha from Costa Rica to learn English.
“Everyone’s got a story," he said. "And it’s really interesting to hear some of the struggles that people have been through, not everybody knows, and I think that it inspires everybody to become better, and if you have think you have it bad, well, somebody before you had it worse.“
From German, Dutch and welsh immigrants, to local Holocaust survivors, visitors will be inspired by the diverse stories and take pride in their own family histories, said Jane Lang, Executive Director of the Neenah Historical Society.
“It wasn’t easy for them," said Lang. "Language barriers, just the journey itself was challenging. Bringing it home and talking about the immigrants of our own community and the contributions they’ve made, that’s what I think is inspiring about this.”
Yang hopes people will appreciate just how diverse our community is.
“Everybody’s different," he said. "Everybody has a story to tell, you have to be accepting of one another.”
The exhibit is now open to the public and it will be up until fall of 2022. You can check it out for free Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The historical society is also happy to make appointments for anyone who can't come at those times.
