Portage County’s only octagon barn has uncertain history

The town of Amherst octagon barn in 1965, when it still stood relatively straight. (Photo courtesy of Lou Ann Floistad Sather)

By WENDELL NELSON
Special to The Gazette

Portage County has had many rectangular barns and a few round barns, but only one – as far as I know – octagon barn. It used to stand in the town of Amherst, but fell down about 15 years ago.

Back in 1976, while I was looking for interesting old farmhouses, I happened upon this barn, and photographed it. Now that the building has collapsed, the only records of its original appearance are photos, personal memories, and – now – this written history.

(First in a series)

It had at least two pairs of large doors, which took up most of two of its eight sides, and a number of small doors and windows.

According to Carl and Lou Ann Floistad Sather, the current owners of the farm (she has lived there all of her life), one pair of big doors opened onto a grass ramp that led to the main floor of the barn, which was the haymow; below that, the cows were kept and milked. (The Sathers said they sold the cows in 1990; in other words, the barn was still standing then.)

It also sported a cupola with eight shutters or ventilators. And it had a steel roof, which was probably not original, but replaced an earlier cedar-shake or shingle roof. (Despite the fact that the barn has fallen, the metal roof looks shiny and rust-free; the Sathers said they regularly repainted the roof.)

So far, no photos of the barn in its prime – freshly painted, at least – have surfaced. But a photo from about 1965 shows the building still standing relatively straight, albeit weathered gray, as is the small milk house that stood in front of it. (The Sathers said that they never remember the barn being painted, but the milk house now has a bright coat of white paint.)

A photo from February 1969 shows the barn leaning, but also shows a silo to its northwest. That silo was made of staves – vertical wooden boards – but gradually was blown apart and knocked over by the winds, according to the Sathers.


The octagon barn in February of 1969, showing it beginning to lean. Note also the stave silo to the left side of the barn. (Photo courtesy of Lou Ann Floistad Sather)

When I took my photos, seven years later, the barn was more rundown and darker gray. It leaned more, its doors were slightly askew, and a few siding boards had fallen off the walls.

Successive photos show the barn leaning more and more. One, from the mid-1980s, shows five-or six-foot-wide lower-wall sections splayed out more than they were in my 1976 picture.

Finally, a photo from the early 1990s shows the barn decidedly slanting to the northwest, and it probably fell over in the next year or two. (Carl Sather said that in about 1935, one sagging wall was jacked up and stabilized with cement.)

Now the barn lies on the ground, with the walls mostly concealed under the roof, which projects here and there in sharp angles.

When the barn was built is a mystery. Lou Ann Sather said a date-stone – or inscription in the foundation mortar – gave 1889 or 1898 as the construction year. She wasn’t sure which – nor even if those were the only choices.

The foundation is buried under the barn wreckage, and the stones have been whitewashed over so many times, she said, that the date is illegible – ironically, when the wooden walls, more vulnerable to time and weather, were not painted for many years.

If the barn was built that late – even in 1889 – Ole Roe would have been the first owner, not his father, Asbjorn, who probably homesteaded that farm, as we shall see. In 1889, Asbjorn was 75 or 76 years old, and apparently lived in the village of Amherst with another son, Knudt.

We can, however, estimate the age of the farmhouse from its exterior and interior architecture. According to Carl Sather, the house was built in stages, because the first owners didn’t have much money. (That was true of many frontier American houses.)


The Roe/Peterson/Floistad house in the Town of Amherst, viewed from the southwest corner. (Wendell Nelson photo)

The back – east – part, a one-story gabled wing now, was built first, if we judge from the its window- and door-moldings (casings). Some are mere 1-inch x 4-inches plain (unmilled) boards – very simple and utilitarian.

Others are wider, decoratively and longitudinally milled boards typical of Greek Revival houses, most of which – in central Wisconsin – were built from the 1850s to the early 1870s.

Further evidence dating the house to those years, is one of the kitchen doors: it has vertical panels, a porcelain knob and a lock assembly attached to the inside exterior of the door, rather than mortised inside it, as most later locks are. A similar door leads north off of the living room; it has four vertical panels but a mortised lock.

The front part of the house, or main upright, is more or less a cube, but a very plain, unornamented cube. Outside, the tops of the second-story windows are only about 18 inches from the eaves of the house, suggesting that the upstairs had rather low ceilings, but also that the first owners, again, did not have money to waste on high ceilings.

Further evidence of scarce money is the flooring in both the kitchen and living room: six-inch boards, probably pine (not small strips of oak or other hardwood), and painted (not stained and varnished). Those in the center of the living room are now (in 2010) covered with old linoleum, which is in turn covered by a rug.

Moreover, the Sathers said, even the front cube was built in two stages. It started as a one-story house, and later the second story was added.

The woodwork in the living room is later – from the 1880s or possibly early ’90s – than that in the kitchen. It features decoratively milled boards, but they are narrower than those of the more ornate kitchen window.

Moreover, each corner has a rosette, a little square of wood, with an ornate pattern carved in it. And the lower walls have baseboards and plinth blocks (pedestals). This is added evidence that the front cube was built later – added onto the original or at least earlier east part.

Further, a door on the south outside wall of the house has two Roman (round-headed) windows, which would likely date from the 1870s or early ‘80s, and the front door has a segmental-arched (slightly round-headed) window, from the Italianate period of (in Central Wisconsin) of 1870-1885. (These dates might be a little later here, because this is a farmhouse; architectural styles debuted on the East Coast and came West with settlement. They first tended to appear in big cities, later in towns, and finally on farms.) But that same front door also has a white porcelain knob, which would, again, date it earlier rather than later – 1860s or ‘70s.

Outside, a veranda adorns the south third of the front (west) wall, and the west half of the south wall, of the house. It has turned posts and spindles, which means it was probably constructed in the 1880s or early ‘90s. (The veranda looks largely intact, so it has survived probably over 100 years fairly well.)

Likewise, a rather large, three-sided bay – probably also a later addition – adds a touch of class to the south wall of the house, beyond the east end of the veranda. But its walls are of wainscoting (bedboard), lumber that was often used – besides for covering the lower portions of interior walls – for porch ceilings. In other words, the bay may be a fancy addition for this house, but it was made of rather cheap materials – perhaps left over from some other building project.

Finally, the age of the house may have little to do with the age of the barn. When most farmers homesteaded land, the first building they built was a house – some sort of shelter for their families. Then they built outbuildings, as money allowed. But there are stories of farmers building granaries and barns first, and of their families living in those future outbuildings until crops could be put in and harvested – and until cows and other livestock could be purchased and their products sold – to bring in money. And sometimes the family shared those buildings with the animals. Only later could those families have the luxury of a house that they alone occupied.

In other words, just because we can more or less date this house, doesn’t necessarily mean we can very accurately date the barn. First, the two buildings may have been built in the same year, or they may have been built years apart. Second, we don’t know for sure that this was the first barn on the property; maybe there was an earlier one that became too small, or that burned. Then the house is square, but the barn is octagonal; do those disparate geometric shapes give us any clues as to when each was built?

The constructions of both the house and barn may be mentioned in the old newspapers, especially the gossipy columns from outlying areas of the county. Correspondents — often farmer’s wives — sent in news of births, deaths, weddings, trips to Stevens Point and Waupaca city, barn-raisings, house fires, disease outbreaks, and other occurrences. In this case, the Town of Amherst columnist may have reported on these buildings going up, especially the barn, because it had an unusual shape. But so far, those reports have not surfaced, and searching for them, issue-by-issue, in the old newspapers, would take many hours.

SOURCE: Wendell Nelson, "Portage County’s only octagon barn has uncertain history," Portage County Gazette (12 Mar 2010), 14, 18.

Octagon houses and barns were part of fad

The octagon barn possibly built by Asbjorn Roe or his son, Ole, in the town of Amherst in winter 1876. (Wendell Nelson photo)

By WENDELL NELSON
Special to The Gazette

Old houses are fairly easy to categorize and date by style, but barns are more idiosyncratic and therefore more problematic.

Octagon houses, for example, were a fad that swept the United States beginning in 1848, when Orson Fowler published the first edition of his A Home for All or a New, Cheap, Convenient, and Superior Mode of Building. He proposed an eightsided house whose shape was inspired by nature, and that had its own natural ventilation.

(Second in a series)

Also, it was made of grout: a combination of "coarse sand, gravel and lime," according to Madeleine B. Stern’s introduction to the 1973 Dover reprint of Fowler’s book (it went through at least nine printings in various editions).

Stern wrote that the material was the result of his acquaintance with Joseph Goodrich, who built a six-sided house in Milton, Wis., in 1844. That house, which still stands, has grout walls. Partly because it was a station on the Underground Railroad before the Civil War, the Goodrich House is an official State Historic Site.

As the result of Fowler’s book, octagonal houses – and eccentric variations – sprang up around America; the small city of Elkhorn, in Walworth County, Wisconsin, has three. The Richards House, in Watertown, with four stories and a four-story, cantilevered staircase, is said to be the largest house in Wisconsin. (No, the rooms in most octagon houses are not wedge-shaped.)


The Richards House in Watertown, Wis. Built in about 1854, it is one of the finest examples of the octagon fad of the mid-19th century. (Wendell Nelson photo)

We also don’t know where Asbjorn Roe or his son, Ole, got the idea to build an octagon barn in the town of Amherst. Most of the early barns in Portage County were "Yankee barns" – simple, gabled, single ridgepole buildings.

Did Roe see an octagon building somewhere in Wisconsin, or did he read about octagon buildings in a newspaper? Might he have even seen a copy of Orson Fowler’s book, which does have a short section on “Octagonal Barns, Carriage-Houses, Etc.”? Or did he only talk to someone who had seen such a building?

Most of the dated octagon houses that I am aware of were built in the 1850s and ’60s, but a few date from the 1870s. Many octagon houses, like this barn, had cupolas, which were probably copied from Italian country villas, the inspiration for Italianate and Italian Villa houses of the 1870s and ’80s; for the same reason, probably, they often had ornate brackets under their eaves. But this barn had no brackets – at least not in the extant photos of it.

However, eccentrically shaped barns — at least in Wisconsin, and probably elsewhere — seem not to have been directly inspired by Fowler, or if they were, they were a long time incubating.

Portage County’s two round barns that can be definitely dated, for example, were built in 1901 and 1905. Of course, round barns were also built all over America, from Vermont to New Mexico, beginning in at least 1862, according to Nancy Mohr’s book, The Barn: Classic Barns of North America (2001), including the famous, huge Shaker stone-barn in Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts.

According to the website, www.octagon.bobanna.com/WI.html, Wisconsin has – or at least had – 26 octagon barns, besides 10-sided, 12-sided, 14-sided, 16-sided, 20-sided, and even 13-sided barns. Some were built as early as the 1870s, and others as late as the 1920s.

In any case, we don’t know when the octagonal barn in the town of Amherst was built. All we can say is that it was probably built by some member of the Roe family. The father of the family, Asbjorn, bought his first piece of land in Portage County on Sept. 1, 1858, according to Vol. 49, page 139, of Portage County Land Patents. But that was for 80 acres in the wrong section, Section 9 of the town of Amherst.

He bought at least one other parcel in Section 9, and a very small one in Section 10, but he didn’t buy the parcel that his house and this barn later stood on, until 1865, according to Vol. O, page 548, of Warranty Deeds, dated Dec. 6.

He paid “Four Hundert” dollars for the 80 acres – $5 an acre, in other words. (The parcel was and is the southwest one-quarter of the northeast one-quarter and the northwest one-quarter of the southeast one-quarter of Section 10, Town 23, Range 10 East – again, the town of Amherst.)

The $5 an acre price suggests that the land was unimproved – that it had no buildings on it. If that was the case, then Asbjorn Roe was probably the first owner of the house, if not the barn, that came to stand on it.

The 1876 wall plat-map shows no buildings on any rural properties, but the 1895 county plat-map identifies "A. H. Roe" as the owner of that 80 acres in Section 10 and shows a tiny black square representing a house on the property.

Interestingly, Roe bought that 80 acres from a man who lived in Norway at the time of the purchase. Vol. O of Deeds gives the grantor (seller) as "Olref [Oluf?] Pedersen of the City of Mandal in Norway."

The agent who handled the sale, was "Theodor Nielsen of Winnebago County Wisconsin his attorney." Had Pederson been to America, and then for some reason returned to Norway? Or had he somehow inherited land in America, and then decided not to move onto it?

According to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, Mandal is now a city of 13,840 at the southwestern tip of Norway. So its major industry is fishing, but it also is the home of "the largest wooden church in Norway, with 1,800 seats…" It was also the home of the sculptor Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943) and the painter Adolph Tidemand (1814-1876).

The mystery is partly solved by an even earlier deed, Vol. E, page 157 (dated April 2, 1855 – received for record on Sept. 13, 1856). That deed recorded the sale of "One Hundred & Sixty acres at $1.25 per. Acre" or "the Sum of Two Hundred Dollars" for the West Half of North East Quarter & North [H]alf of South East [Q]uarter of Section No. Ten" in Town 23, Range 10 East (once again, the town of Amherst).

On the same day, Oluf Pederson (sic) also bought 40 acres in Town 24, Range 10 East (the town of New Hope) for $1.25, for a total of $50.

Both transactions, Numbers 4856 and 4857 respectively, took place at the "(Land) Receiver’s Office at Stevens Point Wis," and both were signed by "Albert G. Ellis Receiver," the same Albert G. Ellis who published Portage County’s first newspaper, The Wisconsin Pinery, and after whom Ellis Street in Stevens Point and the community of Ellis in the town of Sharon were named.

For our purposes here, what is also important about these two deeds, is that the grantor or seller was the United States Government. That fact, plus the $1.25 purchase-price, proves that Olref or Oluf Pederson or Petersen was the first private individual to own those parcels. In other words, the white man’s history goes back no further; any buildings on those parcels could not have been built before his 1856 purchase.

Also, he lived in "Waupaca County Wisconsin" when he purchased this Portage County land – not in Norway. So sometime in the nine and one-half years between buying the land in April of 1855 and selling it in December of 1865, he returned to Norway.

By so doing, he left us with another mystery: why did he go back? Was he homesick? Was he ill? Did a family member – his wife especially, or a child – die here and sufficiently discourage him to give up homestead-farming in the New World? Was there some other reason? (The 1860 U.S. Census for Wisconsin shows no one named Oluf/Olref Pedersen/Pederson living in the state in that year, so he must have returned to Norway between 1855 and 1860.)

Whenever it was built, and who ever had it built, the barn is now a wreck. But because it existed, we need to try to learn about its history and the identities and histories of its owners. Every barn, like every house and every person, has a story.

SOURCE: Wendell Nelson, "Octagon houses and barns were part of fad," Portage County Gazette (30 Apr 2010), 32, 35.

Was Asbjorn Roe first owner of octagon barn?

The octagon barn in the mid-1980s, showing its further deterioration. (Photo courtesy of Lou Ann Floistad Sather)

By WENDELL NELSON
Special to The Gazette

Asbjorn Roe, the first owner of the town of Amherst site of the octagon barn, was born in Norway, according to the U.S. censuses of 1860, 1870, and 1880. He was 46 in 1860, 57 in 1870, and 66 in 1880, which means he was born in about 1814.

His total financial worth (real estate plus personal property) was $1,200 in 1860, and $1,500 in 1870; the 1880 census does not list residents’ wealth or lack of it.

If we extrapolate from numbers in Scott Derks’ The Value of a Dollar: Prices and Incomes in the United States 1860-2004 (2004), Roe’s $1,200 would be worth about $25,000 today, and his $1,500 about $35,000.

(Third in a series)

Roe died in July of 1890, according to the July 12, 1890, Stevens Point Journal. But so far, as with his wife, no death certificate seems to exist for him.

Even that Journal obituary is very short and uninformative: "Mr. Roe, father of Knud Roe, died at his son’s residence here (in Amherst Village) Tuesday night. He was 77 years of age."

The first two censuses list his wife (or at least a woman aged either four or six years younger than he; the censuses disagree), and her occupation, as is usual in census records of the time, is given in the 1870 census as "keeping house."

Her name is a mystery; the 1860 census handwritten rendition looks like "Ragiel," while that in the 1870 seems to be "Rachema." But she is not listed at all in 1880, suggesting that she had died in the intervening decade, but, again, so far no death certificate or obituary for her has surfaced.

An e-mail from Laurel Holland on ancestrylibrary.com says that Asbjorn's wife's name was "Ragnhild," which the Web site babynology.com/meaning says means – in Old Norse – "wise counsel in battle." The same site says that Asbjorn means "divine bear" or "bear god" – a holdover from pagan, pre-Christian Norway.

There is equally sparse information on most of Asbjorn’s children. The 1860 census lists, apparently (again, the census taker's handwriting is hard to read) Anders, a son aged 16 (?) and Ann, a daughter aged 9.

The 1870 census lists Ole, aged 16, "at school"; Anne, whose name now has an "e" in it, and who is now identified as a "domestic servant," but her age is given as 19, the same age as the “Ann” of 1860. (So: another mystery.) Other children in 1870 included Knudt, age 13, and at school; Andreana (?), aged 11 and at school; and Martina (?) Roe, born in Norway, aged 67, and retired (who was she, and when and why did she enter the family?). Absent is the Anders who was 16 in 1860; what became of him?

By 1880, the family had shrunk to four: the father, aged 66, "farmer"; Ole, aged 26, "works on farm"; Knudt, aged 24, "works on farm"; and "Andrena" (?), aged 22, "keeping house."

We don’t know much about what became of Ole’s siblings. However, we do know a couple of facts about Knudt (or Knud or Knute).

According to the Amherst-news column in the Feb. 10, 1925, Stevens Point Daily Journal, he was "Killed by a Switch Engine":

“Word has been received here by relatives, announcing the death of Knute (sic) Roe at his home in Staples, Minn. Mr. Roe was employed as a section foreman, at Staples, and died shortly after being struck by a switch engine, in the Staples yards. He was a member of the Lysne and Roe firm, which operated a general store here on the C.J. Iverson corner (southeast corner of Main and Mill streets) for a number of years. He was also a brother of Ole Roe of Nelsonville."

(The 1920 U.S. Census for Todd County, Minnesota, tells us that Knute was 62 years old in that year, and that his wife, Hattie, was 51. When they moved there from Wisconsin, is unclear. It is interesting to speculate whether he would have lived into old age had he stayed in Amherst.)

Laurel Holland summarized the Asbjorn Roe family’s history:

My Roe family is from Laerdal, Norway. Asbjorn Raae (Roe) (1813) and wife, Ragnhild Raae had 5 children (:) Anders, Ole, Anna, Knute and Andrina. All the children but Anders were born in Wisconson (sic). Born between 1844-1859.

The names of other families on the Roes’ page of the 1860 census imply that in that year, Asbjorn Roe lived in or very near the – very small – village of Amherst, because those families lived in that area then.

Some of them are: Gardner Harvey (whose namesake and great-great-grandson recently died in the Veterans Home in King, Wisconsin, according to the Stevens Point Journal of Jan. 12, 2010), William Loing, Peter Grover, and William Williamson. (Malcolm Rosholt wrote in Our County Our Story (1959) that the village was not incorporated for another 40 years, in 1900.)

For Roe's name to be listed on the same page as those of these men, means that he certainly did not live three miles northeast of the village.

But then we already know from the deeds that he did not buy his future homestead until 1865.

At the moment, the only other fact we have on Asbjorn Roe is reported in Malcolm Rosholt’s book, From the Indian Land: First-Hand Account of Central Wisconsin’s Pioneer Life (1985).

True to his indefatigable perseverance, Rosholt found that A. H. Roe attended a large convention of many Norwegian Lutherans at the Scandinavia (Waupaca County) Lutheran Church from Nov. 15-21, 1888.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the controversy over the doctrine of “election” or predestination – the idea that God arbitrarily chooses some people for salvation regardless of their faith or works.

This dispute threatened to split the local congregations, the Norwegian Lutheran church in the United States, and even, Rosholt says, the national churches in Denmark and Norway, whose newspapers and magazines carried bitter arguments on the subject.

One of the differences of opinion sprang from the fact that the only training center for Lutheran ministers in America for many years was the Concordia Seminary, in St. Louis, Mo. (hence the "Missouri" Synod Lutheran Church).

But Concordia was not only in a North-South border state (Missouri was the scene of bloody Civil War battles), and so had some pro-slavery sentiments. It was also founded by German immigrants, who like Martin Luther leaned more toward predestination than many Norwegians were comfortable with.

The upshot over this theological hairsplitting was schisms between synods, congregations and families.

The Lutheran church in Scandinavia split in two, as did the New Hope Lutheran Church, which became the North New Hope and South New Hope churches, each with its own cemetery.

Rosholt summarizes the long-term effects:

“The attempt to spell out highly controversial doctrines was an exercise in futility that left scars on the hearts of two generations of men and women not only in Scandinavia and New Hope but in Lutheran communities across the Midwest.

“It went so far that some of the participants in the struggle refused to be buried with their old neighbors and when the (new) Norwegian Synod groups built new churches, they also laid out new cemeteries. As a result, husbands were often buried apart from wives because they could not abide the tombstones in the 'old cemetery.'"

We don’t know what Asbjorn Roe's opinion was on the issue of predestination.

SOURCE: Wendell Nelson, "Was Asbjorn Roe first owner of octagon barn?" Portage County Gazette (7 May 2010), 17.

Ole Roe smoked his pipe in cupola before selling barn

By WENDELL NELSON
Special to The Gazette

The octagon barn in the town of Amherst is noteworthy not only for its shape, but also for the stories about Ole Roe, the second owner of the farm and, maybe, of the barn. They concern the cupola.

One story is that Ole was a "slavedriver," in the words of Arlyn Peterson, nephew of Edwin, and gave his wife orders to do various farm chores. While she was doing them, he climbed up into the cupola and smoked his pipe.

(Fourth in a series)

The other story has it that, according to Lou Ann Floistad Sather, Ole climbed up into the cupola to escape his nagging, scolding wife. However true or untrue the stories are, they give the barn a depth and character beyond geometric shapes and building materials.

We know more about Ole than we do about his siblings, partly because he took over and stayed on the home farm, and partly because he lived further into the 20th century.

Vol. 51, pages 81, 82, 83 and 84 of Portage County Quit-Claim Deeds (all dated in September of 1890) record the selling to Ole of the family farm by his siblings and their spouses. (It consisted of 160 acres: 80 acres each in sections 9 and 10 of the town of Amherst.)

He paid his brother Anders and wife, Else, who lived in Jackson County, Minnesota, $133.33; an apparently single sister, Drina or Drena, who lived in Lake County, South Dakota, $133.33; his brother "Knut" and wife Hattie Isabella Roe, who still lived in Portage County, $500; and another sister, Anna, and husband Eugene Berry, who lived in Martin County, Minnesota, $133.33. It is not clear why he paid Knut and Hattie Roe so much more than he did the other siblings.

Ole Roe’s life appears to have been ordinary enough, except that he apparently had no children. He operated the farm from, as we have seen, 1890, until 1911, when he sold it to Edwin Peterson for "Thirty Hundred" dollars ($3,000), according to Vol. 97, page 355 of Portage County Warranty Deeds, dated Jan. 25, 1911.

Besides running his farm, Roe was active in at least one farmers’ organization. The March 28, 1896, Journal reported that "The Nelsonville Creamery and Cheese association has been incorporated with a capital of $2,500. The incorporators are W. T. Waller, C. O. Doxrud and Ole Roe."


Clara and Edwin Peterson were the second family to own the farm with the octagon barn.

But by the time Roe sold his farm to Edwin Peterson, he and his wife had, three years earlier, already bought a house in the village of Nelsonville, a purchase recorded in Vol. 94, page 429, dated June 11, 1908. The deed describes the property as "Lot Number One (1) in Block Number Ten (10) of Nelson’s Second (2nd) Addition to the Village of Nelsonville."

But the town of Amherst – Nelsonville was not incorporated until 1913 – tax rolls describe the plot as "Lot #1, Block #10, 1st Addition." The village's plat in The Standard Atlas of Portage County (1915), shows that the First Addition did not have 10 blocks, so Ole Roe's property had to be in the Second Addition.

(That lot is vacant now, so what the house looked like, and what became of it, are mysteries. This error, however it happened, shows once again the importance of accuracy in land records and historical research.)

Roe bought the plot and house from "H. Stoltenberg," according to the tax rolls. The warranty deed calls him "Henry Stoltenberg." He lived from 1865 to 1930, and his ancestors were unusual in the town of Amherst for being immigrants from Germany, not Norway.

Stoltenberg owned and ran a succession of businesses: a blacksmith shop, a farm implement dealership, and a restaurant, his obituary in the Sept. 10, 1930, Daily Journal says. He also was Nelsonville’s village clerk from 1913 to 1917.

When the Roes moved off the farm is unclear, but the 1910 U.S. Census lists them as already living in Nelsonville – a year before they officially sold the farm.

Also, according to Malcolm Rosholt’s Our County Our Story, Ole Roe was elected assessor of the newly incorporated village of Nelsonville in April of 1913.

Roe’s obituary appeared in the Oct. 20, 1927, Amherst Advocate:

Ole Roe passed away at his home in Nelsonville (on) October 15th, at the age of 73 years and 7 months. He had been in poor health for about a year but up to Wednesday preceding his death, he had been able to be about town. On that day he suffered a stroke which resulted in his death the following (S)aturday.
Deceased was born at Spring Prairie (Walworth County), Wis., and with his parents came to Portage County when a boy. For years Mr. Roe and wife resided on the farm now owned by Edwin Peterson, north of Amherst, but about 18 years ago retired from the farm and moved to Nelsonville. Mrs. Roe died last January. Surviving Mr. Roe are two sisters, Mrs. Rena Hogan of Sioux Falls, S.D., and Mrs. Eugene Berry of Wadena, Minnesota, both of whom are at Nelsonville to attend the funeral. Other relatives out of state here to attend the funeral are: Mrs. Hattie Roe, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Redfield and daughter of Staples, Minnesota; and Richard and Albert Roe of Jackson, Minnesota.
The funeral is to be held this Thursday afternoon with services at the Nelsonville Norwegian Lutheran church. Rev. Swenson will officiate.

About six months later, Ole Roe’s personal property was sold at auction, the Daily Journal of March 29, 1928, reported:

AUCTION
To settle an estate, I will offer and sell at Public Auction at the former residence of OLE ROE, deceased, in the Village of NELSONVILLE, Wis., on Thursday, April 5 At 1 o’clock P.M. ALL THE HOUSEHOLD GOODS Consisting of Beds and Bedding, Chairs and Tables, Crockery and Glassware, Sofas, Couches, Rugs, Lace Curtains, a lot of Books, one Commode, one Phonograph with 14 Records, one Favorite Hard Coal Heater, one Kitchen Range, one Oil Heater, one Ford Coupe in good condition, a quantity of Chicken Wire, and numerous articles not mentioned.

TERMS, CASH. A.L. Rowe, Executor Chas. Horton, Auctioneer

As we have seen, Roe’s wife died before he did, in January of the same year (1927). But she is a mystery, because she is called by two different names in the legal records; did he have one wife or two?

The 1900 U.S. Census lists his wife’s name as "Christina B.," and gives her age as 44 (two years younger than he); the 1910 census calls her “Kristine,” and gives their ages as 55 and 57 or even 37 (the censustaker’s handwriting is unclear); and the 1920 census lists her name as "Bertha K.," and gives her age as 67 (two years older than Ole). Both wives were born in Norway, the censuses say.

The mystery may be solved (or not) by her gravestone – in the Nelsonville Lutheran Cemetery – according to the Portage County Cemetery Locator (accessible through the Portage County Public Library’s Web site).

That stone gives her name as "B. Christine," which may explain the two names, but also gives her birth year as 1852, which may or may not jive with her ages as given in the censuses.

Her obituary, in the Jan. 20, 1927, Amherst Advocate, gives us no helpful details.

DEATH OF MRS. OLE ROE
Mrs. Ole Roe, for many years a resident of the town of Amherst and for the past several years a resident of Nelsonville, died in a hospital at Oshkosh last week Wednesday after a long period of ill health. The remains were taken to the family home at Nelsonville and the funeral was held Friday, with interment in the Nelsonville cemetery. Deceased is survived by her husband.

Edwin Peterson, who bought the farm from Ole Roe, was born in the town of Amherst of Norwegian immigrant parents on Dec. 19, 1870. His obituary in the April 2, 1947, Daily Journal continues:

He was married at Arkdale (Adams County), Wis., March 20, 1902, to Clara Larson. They lived on a farm at Sheridan (near the Portage-Waupaca county line) nine years, then moved to a farm in the town of Amherst, in the Lysne (School – southeast corner of county highways T and SS) district. After a residence of 30 years there the Petersons moved to Amherst eight years ago (1939).

The octagon barn stood on that Lysne District farm. Clara Peterson died in 1963, the April 15 Daily Journal reported.

Circumstantial evidence suggests that the Petersons lost their farm to the Great Depression. The Portage County Tax Rolls show that the time for them to pay their property taxes was extended in 1935 and 1936, and the 1936 taxes were paid, on May 17, 1937, by the Federal Land Bank of St. Paul.

The land bank paid them again (for 1937) on Feb. 24, 1938, but in the following year they were paid by Carl E. Jacobson. From 1940 on, they were paid by Clifford Floistad, though he is not listed as the owner of the farm until 1947.


Clifford and Gladys Barden Floistad in about 1955. (Photo courtesy of Lou Ann Floistad Sather)

Between those years, it was owned by three other parties. First was the land bank. According to Portage County Warranty Deeds Vol. 123, Page 631, it sold the farm to Carl Jacobson.

The deed is dated Feb. 21, 1939, and the "consideration" (the price Jacobson paid) was $2,200.

But he owned the farm for only two months, and then sold it to Anna Skowen Johnson of Cook County (Chicago), Illinois, according to Vol. 165, Page 258, of Warranty Deeds, dated April 20, 1939. The consideration was a common one: "One ($1) Dollar and other good and valuable consideration."

This term was used to conceal the actual purchase price, or when some sort of a trade was involved, or when a property was willed or deeded over to a relative or friend.

Clifford Floistad finally and officially became the owner of the farm as of April 30, 1947, according to the Warranty Deed of that date (Vol. 192, page 37). He paid $2,575.00. But the fact that he had paid the taxes for eight years before that, suggests that he had been allowed to occupy and work the farm for that period.

The connections among these people are not entirely clear. Carl E. Jacobson, his obituary says in the May 27, 1955, Daily Journal, owned and managed a furniture and funeral business in Nelsonville. But of chief importance here is the fact that his wife was the former Louise Skowen, a sister of the Anna Skowen Johnson who was the next owner of the farm.

But what is not clear is the relationship between Anna Skowen Johnson and Clifford Floistad.

Was he part of their extended family, or was he only a poor young man in the neighborhood, who wanted to farm but couldn’t afford to buy a place without help. (His wife was born Gladys Barden in the town of Buena Vista; in other words, she was not part of the heavily Norwegian area of northeastern Portage County, so it was unlikely that she was related to the Jacobson or Mrs. Johnson.)

Gladys Floistad died in April of 1960, 41 years before her husband did. According to her death certificate (Vol. 35, page 422), the immediate cause of her death was "Pulmonary congestion," which she had for 24 hours; the cause of that was "Respiratory center arrest," which she had had for 48 hours; and the cause of that was "Ascending Paralysis (Landry’s) of the (spinal) cord," which she had had for two years.

According to the on-line Health Encyclopedia, Landry’s Paralysis is "a form of GBS (Gullain Barre Syndrome) that spreads very quickly." Landry’s was named for the French physician "who first described a variant of it in 1859." Her occupation was given as "housewife," and she had no Social Security number.


Clifford Floistad in 1966. (Photo courtesy of Lou Ann Floistad Sather)

Clifford Floistad died on March 8, 2001, at the age of 95, his obituary in the Portage County Gazette of March 16 reported. He had been born in the town of Scandinavia, in Waupaca County, in 1906, and was married to Gladys Barden in 1935 "at the Benson Corner(s) (Lutheran Church) parsonage."

That church still stands at the northwest corner of Highway 161 and County Trunk T in the former hamlet of Benson Corners, also known as New Hope, not to be confused with the name of the town.

According to Portage County Marriage Records, Carl and Lou Ann Floistad Sather (present owners) were married on Dec. 19, 2002, almost two years after Clifford Floistad died.

This, then, is the story, as far as we know at the moment, of the octagon barn of the town of Amherst. Somewhere, again, there is probably some information on its construction, and perhaps that of the house, and it may come to light in the future. But for now, we will have to be content with what we have.

SOURCE: Wendell Nelson, "Ole Roe smoked his pipe in cupola before selling barn," Portage County Gazette (7 May 2010), 31, 39, 43.

1870 US Federal Census: Asbjørn ROE Family

Detail of 1870 US Federal Census. Asbjørn ROE family. Image courtesy of Ancestry.com.

Roe, Asban [Asbjørn] / 57 / M / W / Farmer / Norway
_____, Richoma [Ragnhild] / 53 / F / W / Keeping House / Norway
_____, Ole / 16 / M / W / At School / Wisconsin
_____, Anna / 19 / F / W / Domestic Servant / Norway
_____, Knut / 13 / M / W / At School / Wisconsin
_____, Andrina / 11 / F / W / At School / Wisconsin
Roe, Mattie [?] / 67 / F / W / Retired / Norway

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Source Citation: Year: 1870; Census Place: Amherst, Portage, Wisconsin; Roll: M593_1732; Page: 64B; Image: 132; Family History Library Film: 553231.

Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. Minnesota census schedules for 1870. NARA microfilm publication T132, 13 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.

Letter from Ole to Anders ROE (23 Oct 1872)

Letter. Ole to Anders ROE (23 Oct 1872). Images courtesy of Verla Williams.

Albert Lea
Oct. 23, 1872

Dear Brother,

I take now my pen and write some word to you and tell that I am healthy and live well. I have had letters from home, they are all healthy, except mother who is about the same. I can tell that Haagen Petersen is dead. He died the 2nd of Oct., 1 1/2 hrs. after midday. He was to Albert Lea the day before and was as usual. He was completely sober, he became sick in the night and died the next day. He was buried the 9th of Oct. It was supposed to be heart sickness he had. I am supposed to greet you from father's brother and family. They are all healthy. He will "take you after the eyes" if you do not write to him. I must then close for this time with a hearty greeting to you all. Greet all known from me.

Ole Roe
Write back soon.

Letter from John O. ROE to Anders ROE (14 Feb 1876)

Letter. Johan O. ROE to Anders A. ROE (14 Feb 1876). Images courtesy of Verla Williams.

Le Roy [MN], February 14, 1876

Dear Friend,

After being so terribly long in neglecting to respond I take my pen to send you some words to let you know how I am living. I am and have been to date healthy and find myself well. And I have to tell you that the weather has been very good. Haagen O. Grøthe that you know, and I have bought some land. Plowed and all planted with wheat and we harvested 972 bushels of the same. Your brother Ole, as you probably know worked in Minnesota this summer. He stopped by on his way home, stayed here about a week and left two days before Christmas and continued on his way in the company of David L. Roe and Cristina Monson. The latter two mentioned came back a long time ago. What was acquired and witnessed and ratified or if nothing was done, I don't know.

This is a really old and moldy settlement. There is no entertainment, marriages or any activity happening here. They are all, as I must say, like sheep in this muggy atmosphere and I have no news to report. So I will now end my simple writing with a dear greeting to you Anders A. Roe, your wife, and children from me, Johan O. Roe.

Write back.

Translation: Solveig Quinney, Norwegian American Genealogical Center & Naeseth Library

Letter from Knut to Anders ROE (18 Dec 1876)

Letter. Knut to Anders ROE (18 Dec 1876). Images courtesy of Verla Williams.

Amherst Dec 18/76

Dear brother,

We have received your letter of 12 Nov for which thanks. As an answer I can relate that we are all well to date except mother who is often poorly. Anna is not home, she works for Dr. Guernsey. Otherwise everything is the same as usual; there seldom happens anything new around here. I see by your letter that the "hoppers" have held a large banquet out there this year. I believe it is better that you sold all your livestock and came back again so you could either be here on the farm while I was out working or have your family stay with us and hire yourself out until the hoppers have moved from there.

Concerning the religion so everything is about the same here. Since Lars Jonson died we have not had any steady minister. Andreas Nilsen has been here 2 times, Marcus Samson 1 time, and H. S. Haakensen of Augustana synod several times and we expect him again in some days.

You ask why Wisconsin is going so democrat. There are no doubt many democrats in Wisconsin but the Republicams won. Nevertheless this year Cate was not reelected to the Congress. He did not get more than about 50 votes in Amherst out of 350. We had a large political meeting in Amherst this fall, a parade of 2-300 men with torches and music marched through the streets and one Pratt from Ohio how was personally known by Hayes gave a brilliant speech.

I have not gotten any letters from brother Ole for a long time. I believe he is coming to be in Freeborn over the winter. I have to finish my simple writing for this time with a loving greeting to you from your brother.

Knut Roe

Mother greets you all, Andrina likewise. When you write again then I should like to know if you became County Judge or not. Write soon.

P.S. Herewith sends a little help to you from our parents.

Letter from Anna to Anders ROE (4 Mar 1879)

Letter. Anna to Anders ROE (4 Mar 1879). Images courtesy of Verla Williams.

Amherst March 4th 1879

Dear Brother,

I have received your letter of 3 Feb for which thanks. I see thereof you all are healthy, the same I can also tell. I am now come home and will be home a while. Drina shall move away to serve. I have no news except that Jørgen Skogen is married to an old bachelor whom they call Long Ever who lives in Amherst. In addition, that Asa Mitchem is married to a Norwegian girl by the name Kornene Oleson. I can also tell that Dr. Guernsey has broken his leg for the second time but is now improving and goes on his crutches. It will be desirable if you will send me a hair lock of each of you. I have intentions of learning to make hair flowers. So I will make a hair wreath which shall contain hair of our entire family. We have had a passably good winter without many cold days. We did not get sleighing conditions before the end of Feb. but now it appears that we lose our snow. It is very mild. Ole is home. Father has been away at a quarterly[?] meeting in Tremplo. There were many ministers of different groups [synods?] but most of our own, so I close for this time with a loving greeting to you all from me.

Anna Roe

1880 US Federal Census: Asbjørn ROE Family

Detail of 1880 US Federal Census. Asbjørn ROE family. Image courtesy of Ancestry.com.

Roe, Asbjorn / W / M / 66 / Farmer / Norway / Norway / Norway
_____, Ole / W / M / 26 / Son / Works on Farm / Wisconsin / Norway / Norway
_____, Knudt / W / M / 24 / Son / Works on Farm / Wisconsin / Norway / Norway
_____, Andrena / W / F / 22 / Daughter / Keeping House / Wisconsin / Norway / Norway

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Source Citation: Year: 1880; Census Place: Amherst, Portage, Wisconsin; Roll: 1442; Family History Film: 1255442; Page: 32B; Enumeration District: 134.

Source Information: Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints © Copyright 1999 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Letter from Ole to Anders ROE (16 Apr 1884)

Letter. Ole to Anders ROE (16 Apr 1884). Images courtesy of Verla Williams.

Amherst Apr. 16, 1884

Dear Brother,

Mr. Boe has now be[e]n to St[evens]. Point and settled with the Probate Judge and divided the Personal property and the income of the Farm for the year 1883. A copy of his figures wil[l] be seen on page 3 & 4 after all expenses wer[e] paid, the personal property amounted to $189.29. Elsa's share being $94.14, but Mr. Boe charged $4.00 for the feather bed that you got. I think it is to[o] high but he says no, and that leaves you $90.14. The income of the farm for last year amounts to $49.25. Carl reseves [sic] 1/4 more than Else leaving her $18.09. Then there is some feed and Wall[?] curbing sold of which Elsa's share amounts to $7.58. Total amount $115.81 for which send me rece[i]pt the money sent by Express to your address to day [sic]. In line of news I can tell that our cousin Mrs. C. K. Anderson (Olena Roe) died in child birth last Sunday 8 o'clock a.m. and was berid [sic] yesterday, the child is also dead.

Ole Roe

Our best respects to you all.

Children of Asbjørn and Ragnhild ROE

Asbjørn and Ragnhild ROE's Children (Bef. 1913). From left: Anders, Anna, Ole, Andrina, and Knudt. Image courtesy of Verla Williams.



Asbjørn and Ragnhild ROE's Children (Bef. 1913). From left: Anders, Anna, Ole, Andrina, and Knudt. B/W copy of the above image courtesy of Verla Williams.

1895 Plat for Amherst, Portage, Wisconsin

1895 Plat for Amherst, Portage, Wisconsin. Image courtesy of Portage County Public Library.

Note that Ole Roe now owns 80 of the acres in Section 10 that his father, Asbjørn, who died in 1890, previously owned on the 1874 plat.

Gravestone: Ole A. and B. Christine (Mjoldo) ROE

Gravestone. Ole A. (1854-1927) and B. Christine (1852-1927) (Mjoldo) ROE. Nelsonville Lutheran Cemetery, Portage Co., WI. Image courtesy of Verla Williams.