ROE Farm: Portage County, Wisconsin

Roe Lane and County T intersection. Image courtesy of Verla Williams.


Asbjørn ROE farm, Portage County, WI. Image courtesy of Verla Williams.


Asbjørn ROE farmhouse. Image courtesy of Verla Williams.


Octagonal barn, ROE farm. Image courtesy of Verla Williams.

Verla Williams sent this letter along explaining the above pictures:

. . . your dad and I went up to that area of Portage County, WI to look around. Going by the plat map, which marks the A. H. Roe acreage, we saw the road sign Roe Lane. And then following the road we came upon this old house and old barn. We wondered if they indeed were the original Roe buildings.

Sometime later, in one of the Christmas cards I got from a Helene Furst, who is descended from Lars Roe (they took the spelling of Rowe) and who I met once in Decorah at a Nordic Fest, mentioned something about the round barn on the Roe land in WI. . . .

. . . This is what she penned at the bottom -- "Haven't done very much family history this yr. but have made contact with some more of my mother's family. Also a Rowe relative sent me a newspaper article about Asbjorn Roe's octagonal barn in Amherst. Have you seen those news stories?"

. . . P. S. On the plat map in the Roe book -- the 1876 Amherst township, Portage County, look in section 9 -- you will see A. H. Roe on a couple of 40 acres, maybe, and the little ) of a road. That is the one we think we were on.

I would say you found it beyond a reasonable doubt.