Haven’t read any of the Little House books since childhood, but if memory serves, Little House in the Big Woods is about the childhood of her eventual husband Alonzo Wilder. Which took place in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin has both a Berlin and a New Berlin; both of them are pronounced as you note. My understanding is that both towns were originally pronounced burr-LINN, but changed their pronunciation during WWI, when there was strong anti-German sentiment in the U.S.
That doesn’t excuse the other pronunciations, of course. My home town of Green Bay has a number of French names of streets and such which sound goofy, because they’re pronounced in a variant Belgian accent – when I was in high school, I dated a girl who lived on Grignon (pronounced GRIG-nun) Street; a few blocks over was Beaupre (BOO-pree) Street.
Incorrect. Little House in the Big Woods was set in Wisconsin and is about the Ingallses when Laura was about 5. Farmer Boy was about Almanzo’s childhood in New York state.
Enoch Wallace in Way Station by Clifford Simak was a Wisconsinite. Not a huge surprise as Simak was a native.
Wow. I got just about everything wrong. Memory apparently does not serve. Thanks for the correction.
Back in the '90s, I co-hosted a radio quiz show. As a joke, the DJ and I were going to end the series with a scandal.
“Mike” was going to phone in with the answer to the question before it was asked.
Of course, the answer was “Wisconsin.”
Sadly, the show was cancelled before we had time to retire the series. Just my luck… 
