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.

Amherst Township Tax Rolls (1863): Ole Fredricksen and A. H. ROE

Detail from Malcolm Rosholt, Our County, Our Story: Portage County, Wisconsin (Stevens Point, WI: Portage County Board of Supervisors, 1959), p. 245.


Detail from Malcolm Rosholt, Our County, Our Story: Portage County, Wisconsin (Stevens Point, WI: Portage County Board of Supervisors, 1959), p. 246.

Family Bible pages: Anders and Elsa RAAE (Dec 1867)

Family Bible page 1. Anders RAAE. (Dec 1867). Image courtesy of Lyla Brown.

In remembrance
From Asbjørn and Ragnilde Raae
To Anders and Elsa Raae
December 1867

The greatest wish for you is that this book would not be left unused in a chest, not read, nor be disputed, but most of all that it enlightens all who hear God's truth themselves or others. But that it could show you what is most important is to believe in Jesus Christ. With this wish _____ in God's name. Amen!

Asbjørn H. Raae
Translated by Solveig Quinney
Norwegian American Genealogical Center & Naeseth Library


Family Bible page 2. Anders RAAE. (Dec 1867). Image courtesy of Lyla Brown.

Anders Roe born the 13 September 1844. Baptized the 29 same month. Confirmed the 15 September 1859.

Elsa born the 9 November, baptized the 25 December 1844, confirmed Palm Sunday 1859.

Married the 27 November 1866.


Family Bible page 3. Anders RAAE. (Dec 1867). Image courtesy of Lyla Brown.

Enterprise, August the 12th 1871

Augustus Julian born the 15 August 1868. Baptized the first November same year.

Alfred born the 2nd February 1871. Baptized the 5th May same year.

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

---

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 David L. ROE to Anders ROE (28 Dec 1871)

Letter. David L. ROE to Anders RAA (28 Dec 1871). Images courtesy of Verla Williams.
 
St. Lawrence, Dec. 28th/71

Dear Friend! Anders Raa and family.

After such a long time I must take my pen and try to write you a few lines but it has been so long and I am so ashamed.

I must then first tell you that we are all healthy as of now and hope we hear the same from you. I don't have any news to tell you. At this time it is cold and we have from 10 to 18 inches of deep snow. I have stayed home almost the entire time other than eight months starting in spring when I was at a sawmill up by Stevens Point and earning $26 a month. Anders and Johannes were also there.

There is now quite lively Pinery works here and the pay is about $30.00 a month but I am not going to go there since we have cleared about 6 acres and have worked almost the entire winter to get rid of all the trees. We had quite a miserable year, the wheat was so miserable that many did not want to harvest it. We planted 16 bushels and got back 33 but the winter wheat was what we would call good we planted 7 acres and got back 85 bushels. Oats 139, rye 29, grain and potatoes were somewhat good. The railroad is running and going to Stevens Point also Green Bay and the Lake Pepin track is finished to New London, about 25 miles east of here.

I must end my disjointed writing with a sincere greeting from all of us and to wish all of
you a wonderful New Year.

Your devoted David L. Roe
Write back soon.

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

Letter from Asbjørn to Anders ROE (1 Mar 1872)

Letter. Asbjørn to Anders ROE (1 Mar 1872). Images courtesy of Verla Williams.

Dear Son Anders Raae with wife and children,

Now is gone by so long a time since we heard news from you and have sent to you 2 letters, one 4 weeks before Christmas and one other after Christmas, but still no answer has arrived so I will then send you some more word in hope that you, if you still are in this life, without delay must write to us. We have been and become more and more worried and especially your mother when we fear that you are not well, we console ourselves also thereby that perhaps the letters are lost enroute.

As far as existing circumstances are concerned, so we have been and still are healthy in body, thank God who controls everything well by his powerful Word. There has been and is much illness around in the settlement.

Many are sick from the so-called spot fever and some dead. Villiam Olson married to Gudmund Martha has been near death of this sickness and is still severely ill and his wife lives in “child-bed” so we have had to entrust Anna and Ole to them. The so-called small pox goes also in the settlement, so it works much with vaccination which in many cases is not effective.

We have had to live in the little log house which you helped me to build on the new land. The winter came so severe that we with difficulty got on the old and the winter has been _____ then not so severe after Christmas, average snow with good sleighing.

Ole Fredrikson is by his same sickness has not been in bed for a six weeks time, his sickness is such that he can seldom lie in the bed or can for a short time, but must sit by the bed in a _____ inner scaffolding, can now and then go over the floor with help of cane. He consists for the most with pain in the stomach with coughing, shortness of breath and nausea so it has been especially difficult for them now for ten months _____. I hope it has improved him on the soul’s behalf.

Closing is you with family many loving greetings from us all wishing that we all must by the heart seek the grace in the grace’s time so that the creed and confession which we confess us to should not become us to the great judgment and death, but to life and salvation. Amen!

Amherst the 1st March 1872

Asbjørn H. Raae

Write soon

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 Asbjørn to Anders ROE (10 Nov 1873)

Letter. Asbjørn to Anders ROE (10 Nov 1873). Images courtesy of Verla Williams.

Dear Son Anders! in our Lord Jesus' name God's grace and peace.

Your letter of 13th last month is received in which we see that you have a little damage on your farm. This has saddened us on the one hand and on the other it is regarded as a sign of God's goodness there to discipline you to _____. When I think back on my 60 years course so has it been more and more periods where almost everything relating to occupation has turned out badly so it has often appeared as if I was supposed to fall into complete poverty, this has neither not happened and neither has it done me other damage than that I have with great seriousness sought my God by Jesus Christ and in him remission of sins, peace with God in addition light and power to overcome all pain. These earthly and in themselves useful and good things lie so near our longing and desire in as much as they are necessary for livelihood. Not it alone but it is strange to have something to display and flaunt with in the world. When now God sees everything this redounds us only to destruction, he begins to demolish our idols so we must _____ to our land, creation, own capability and everything and therefore forces to believe that God rules all things with his powerful word. Then can the word "seek first God's Kingdom and his righteousness so shall all these things be added to you" get entrance to our house (among us).

You seek after high offices, this can be good enough if it does not give cause to keep you away from the highest of all offices, namely God's Kingdom. You think that changing place or changing your occupation for fate's sake is _____ for me because God rules everywhere but if God Himself will alter your position it is another matter. So far I know there is not like spiritual awakening in Jackson and uplifting meetings held there ? visit these frequently and allow it not to anger you if it appears (pitiful), is conflict and dissension among the restored, and very unsociable in daily life, there are some who have followed in more or less degree continuous if (in case) the Lord has had _____ he calls _____.

As far as our situation is concerned so it is approximately about the same. No sickness of consequence has, thank God, afflicted us except your siblings have the cough severely in our house as almost over all. They say it is whooping cough.

This year's crops were as follows: timothy hay very good; spring wheat according to common opinion has not stood so good for 4 years, winter wheat more questionable on account of the hard last winter, corn enough ripe, but small. A drought during August gave it a setback, the same for the potatoes. Wheat harvest we have 247 bushel, rye 108 ditto, 44 ditto oats. The wheat has varied from 90 to 100 _____ price at the depot. With regard to milk and butter in previous summer was it, the least we have gotten since we came here. As will come there of _____ to _____ the pasture is very scant now to that we had only 1 old cow and 2 goats that milked.

Then I sold 3 milk cows last year in order to help me not to come into debt because of the considerable outlay I have had to have to build up a new place. This year I must absolutely attempt to build a granary and besides in debt to Johannes Olsen Raa for a "grubb" job 40 dollars. We got grubbed over 8 acres this summer but we could not get cleared and broken more than 5 of them.

How unfortunate that we are not able to help you very much, we then wishing it, but we know the Lord helps all who fear and await his mercy. The worse is when work animals are away on a farm. You have perhaps steers which can come to _____ is good reason to raise cattle there or perhaps you will have to sell them in order to help you.

Concerning around us here is it approximately about the same. The people became alarmed at cattle festival this fall, when Mrs. Blasker and Hartman lost each 5 pieces horned cattle in short time. Hoffman is supposed to also have lost some but we have not since heard more about it.

Ole Fredricksen has been a little better this fall so he has gotten up and has worked a little. We have recently buried their middle child Olina who died of whooping cough. She was a miracle of intellect not full three years old could she also pray to God in her sickness. It is remarkable how a small child can humiliate the wise and great. I had often occasion to talk with her when she lived how sensible this little and wise girl could talk though not always clear. Lars Johnsen was also here for the funeral. We were then also in our store keeper Johan Hole and some with him. It appears that they will join our church organization. Amherst have we also had meeting. There are some converted? from the Trom-- who live there.

Of the rest it is the same as usual with the others known here and are past well in the body. Lars Rowe was also here and also greetings from him can I say the same. We have had already snow for 14 days so we have been able to use sleigh a little but it looks like it will dry off again now. I can and tell that we have planned a little fruit orchard and produced for first time 1/2 bushels apples, we have now 40 apple trees which are ready to bear and other different berry kinds in addition to a couple red grapevines which still not have begun to bear.

Finally I will close my long letter with a loving greeting to your wife and children from me, your mother and siblings plus all known. O. Fredrikson likewise many greetings, their youngest child Fredrik suffers also of whooping cough and their oldest child Carl to a lesser degree. Your mother will try to send a little remembrance in the mail consisting of a pair of gloves and two scarves all home worked. She greets Elsa especially.

Amherst the 10 November 1873
Asbjørn H. Raae

Write back soon as possible that we can know if the package is arrived.

I Anna greet Elsa and ask to write back soon so will get letter for Christmas.
Anna