Ozaukee County News Articles

In September of 1949, the Ozaukee Press newspaper began publishing aerial pictures of different farms in the area and asking the owners to identify the pictures. When an owner came forward, a short history of the farm was printed in the newspaper and the owner was given a free enlargement of the photograph.

Below are the transcribed histories of these Ozaukee County farms as they were published.

The air photo of the Besch farm, which is the first farm on highway 57 north of the cloverleaf, or "Pretzel park," showed Edward's (Besch) 11 room house, the large barn and silo, the old home and several sheds. It also shows Ed standing on the back porch looking up at the plane that was taking the picture.

The farm has been in the family 96 years, Ed explained. It was started by his grandfather and then operated by his father, Mike, until Ed took it over in 1930. It consists of 113 acres, but Ed operates only 63 and is renting the others out. he keeps six Holstein cows and grows hay and grain and corn.

The barn was built in 1903 and Ed helped his father to build the large home in 1912. The older family home, built 80 yrs. ago, still stands in back of the newer house. It was the first frame house built in that prt of the county, according to Ed.

Since Mrs. Buchholz at present is in Bismark, N.D. visiting her brother, Peter Oberst, the free photograph of the farm was presented to her daughter, Mrs. Norbert Augustine.

The Buchholz farm was purchased by Nic Buchholz from Valentine Hartmann in December, 1904. Nic married Barbara Oberst in 1905 and they operated the farm until he died in May, 1948. Since then the land has been rented to Oscar Rathke.

The farm was easily recognized by the octagonal barn, one of the 14 in the county. The unusual style of barn building gives more storage space for the hay, according to Roland Clausing, who claims that most of the barns are owned by members of the Clausing family.

The 136 acre farm, located on highway 141 about 10 miles south of Port Washington, has been in the family for over 100 years and is farmed by Roland and his brother, Milton. The house is about 75 years old and the octagonal barn was built in 1898.

Most of the acreage is in hay and oats and silage and is farmed by tractor, so that other than the cattle, one dog and a few chickens for eggs for the family completed the list of livestock.

The "Mystery Farm" pictured in last week's Ozaukee Press turned out to have four owners. They are the Irwin Bros.: Ray, William, Clarence & Harold.

Their farm is located a block west of highway 57 two miles from the cloverleaf intersection of 141 and 57. Or, to get technical, it's "the northeast 132 acres of the northeast quarter of section 6, town of Grafton," according to Ray Irwin.

The Irwin farm is one of the oldest in the county, having been purchased by Thomas Irwin from a relative about 100 years ago. Thomas' son, William H., took over about 60 years ago when Thomas retired. William operated the farm with his four sons until he died in 1931.

The boys remained together on the farm until 1936 when Clarence and Harold got married and moved to Milwaukee and Port Washington. Ray and Bill have been keeping it going ever since.

In addition to farming, they have a machine shop and do welding for neighboring farmers. They cultivate 85 to 90 acres and keep three horses, 24 to 30 head of Guernseys and four purebred Chester White sows. "We've got every type of soil in the state on our farm," Ray claims, "including three types of clay, three types of sands, muck and quick sand."

The Horns live about a mile and a half out of Newburg on Highway 33 on their 48 and 3/4 acre farm purchased from Ben Verhaalen about 39 years ago.

The Horns are proud of the neat white house shown in the picture. They built it six years ago when the old farmhouse burned down. Another fire occurred 20 years ago, taking with it the old barn and necessitating construction of the one shown in the picture.

One son, Robert, 23, lives with the Horns now and does much of the farm work with a tractor. The other five children are all married and have moved away. They are Mrs. Leslie Schaefer of Kewaskum, Mrs. Frank Gafney of Plymouth, Bill Jr. of West Bend, Mrs. Bill Donnelly of Milwaukee and Mrs. Vernon Mueller of Fredonia.

Beside the tractor, Mr. Horn has a team of horses for some field work. A herd of eight cows and a flock of chickens (averaging 12 to 13 dozen eggs a week for market) and a cat and dog complete the list of livestock.

A kitchen garden and a fine young orchard of 30 fruit trees provide all the fruits and vegetables the family can eat and keep Mrs. Horn busy canning for winter.

The claimant for the sixth Press "Mystery farm" photo was Joseph Rohl, a retired farmer who liveed on the farm for 61 years. The 75 acre farm, on the Ozaukee - Washington county line is about nine miles northwest of Cedarburg and was sold in 1945 to Herbert Nieman.

Mr. Rohl was four years old when his family purchased the farm from Joe Gall. Ulrich Rohl, Joseph's father, farmed the place alone until Joseph was old enough to help. While he ran the farm, Mr. Rohl says, he never had hired hands, although 50 acres is cultivated. The remaining 25 is wooded land.

"Hay, corn, potatoes, everything you can grow on a farm," was his smiling answer when asked what crops had been grown on the place. A half acre of garden and 20 fruit trees supplied the family's needs while the flock of 150 chickens was maintained, producing eggs for market. He always kept three horses too - a team and a single - with nine Holstein milk cows. The farm had five cats at all times too, he added "for mouse prevention."

In 1908 Mr. Rohl was married to Margaret Waldkrich and their two daughters are Mrs. Milton Thielen and Eleanore Rohl. He is now living in Saukville with Mr. and Mrs. Thielen.

The Rohls were remarikably fortunate in never having any fire or storm losses. About 15 years ago a tornado ruined two barns about half a mile west, but didn't lift a board on the Rohl buildings.

The house on the farm has an interesting history. The front section is over 100 years old and has been remodeled twice by Mr. Rohl and by his father. The white clapboard finish was put over the old log cabin in about 1926. The back section of the house was added in 1895.

The barn shown in the picture was built in 1901, but the modern silo was added in 1937. The plantings shown behind the barn are tomatoes grown this summer for the Nieman Canning Co.

The seventh "Mystery Farm" photo showed the John F. Lindner farm on highway 141.

The 32 acre farm, which John bought from his father in 1915, is about a half mile south of Wood's restaurant. The old family homestead was across the road where the Arthur Lebau Sr. family now lives, and the land has belonged to the Lindner family since 1889.

In 1915, John was married to the former Adelia Schober of Thiensville. Their three sons are all married now. Carl lives in Grafton, Harold in Riverland subdivision and John Jr. lives with his parents.

Well known throughout the county, John was town treasurer in Mequon from 1917 to 1918 and has done custom baling all over the county. His pickup baler, which he bought in 1940k, was the first of its kind here.

Besides the baler, John now keeps two tractors in the garage. He has farmed with machinery since 1928. He has no cows and uses the barn only for hay storage.

In 1932, John started a wholesale milk route, selling to dairies in Milwaukee. He operated it until last year.

Though the other farm buildings were built in 1915 and 1916, the garage is a 1945 addtion since the old garage burned down in 1944 taking two cars with it.