Brokaw Credit Union was originally chartered in 1952 as Wausau Paper Mills Employees Credit Union, serving the employees and family members of Wausau Paper Mills, located in Brokaw, Wisconsin. This employee group desired a local, cooperative financial service where individual resources would be pooled in order to provide affordable loans for those in need. The first "office" was located on the person of the credit union treasurer, who took deposits and made loans out of his shirt pockets. Disclosures and paper work were later completed at his home, where records were stored in sturdy shoe boxes. (Today it seems, one would need a shoe box just to distribute the disclosures!)