New Glarus is a village in Green County, Wisconsin, United States at the intersection of Wisconsin Highways 69 and 39. It has a population of 2,266 according to the 2020 census. The village, and the town that surrounds it, were named after the canton of Glarus in eastern Switzerland. The community was founded in 1845 by immigrants from that canton and was incorporated in 1901.

In the at the forefront 1840s, after several years of unproductive crops and as food became scarce, much of the canton of Glarus in Switzerland found itself deep in poverty. With more workers than easy to realize to jobs, the meting out of the canton saying emigration to America as a solution. Authorities expected the Glarus Emigration Society in 1844, which offered loans to put stirring to residents buy land in the New World. All further expenses joined with the voyage to America were to be paid by the emigrants themselves. Men were offered 20 acres (81,000 m²) free of rent for ten years, after which they could own the house for a mere ten shillings per acre. Given the desperate economic conditions in Switzerland, 193 volunteers arranged to depart their homeland to start anew in America.

In 1845, magistrates in Glarus dispatched two men, Nicolas Duerst and Fridolin Streiff, to locate a suitable location for a colony in the New World. They were given $2600 and instructions to purchase land, build cabins, and prepare for the settlers to arrive the gone spring.

Duerst and Streiff began their search in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois previously reaching St. Louis, Missouri. In the yet to be days of July 1845, they subsequently traveled north to Galena, Illinois, after which they arrived at the house office in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. The men investigated several tracts of farm and timber land in the southern Wisconsin territory back deciding upon two square miles along the Little Sugar River. On July 17, 1845, they purchased 1,200 acres (4.9 km) for $1.25 per acre. It was a fruitful basin bounded subsequent to hills and a large stand of trees nearby. Some said forward-looking it was not the best property available, but the valley and hilltops reminded them of their native Switzerland.