Date in History: 1830s
One of the founders of the village of Cold Spring was Abram Brink, who settled on Whitewater Creek in 1838 opposite a spring of pure cold water – so cold in fact as to entitle it to the name of Cold Spring. Brink was a one-man dynamo, constructing a dam and building both a sawmill and a gristmill. Another settler would later remember Brink as “the moving spirit in every enterprise” connected to Cold Spring.
In 1846 he hired Milo Jones to plat the area, and soon settlers started to arrive, along with homes, schools, and churches. Unfortunately, Brink did not get to see his little settlement grow. He died at age 35 from injuries he received when driving under an overhanging tree while on his way to Milwaukee with a load of flour from his mill. He is buried in Cold Spring Cemetery.
This historic document aired on the radio as an Historic Minute on 02/28/2005.