Historic Bremen

Born southeast of Bremen on what became the Theodore Graverson farm, Clarence Schilt (1888-1955) went off to Ontario to learn to be a veterinarian. But he returned to his home town to start a practice. It didn’t last long, however, and he moved back to Canada in 1915 to live out his career, altho he requested that he be buried back in Bremen when he passed away in 1955.

It was during his brief time in Bremen as a veterinarian that he made the purchase of a sleek new REO Roadster from the Ransom Eli Olds motor company (he of the Oldsmobile fame). The infernal contraptions were still quite new, the first in town being purchased by postmaster Jacob Vollmer in 1903.

But the 21-year-old doctor soon crossed paths with the long arm of the law when he saw fit to burn up the streets of our fair town in his 8 HP, single-cylinder monster at somewhere between 6 and 15 miles per hour (opinions differed) when the town fathers had just fixed the speed limit at 8 a few weeks before.