| Additional Information: | 1995- "Aluminum or vinyl siding on vernacular, ca. 1850, side-gabled farmhouse of small size. The asymmetrical location of the front door and of the two flanking windows, and the high, blank wall above, along with the small size of the house, are classic indications of log construction. The distance of the curtains from the sash also suggests that the walls are thick enough to be log. The house is covered with a standing seam metal roof.
The earliest plat maps, from 1868 and 1877, do not show a house on this site. The 1868 plat map shows two houses on this farm, one on the south end of the property and one near this site, but much farther from the road. The 1877 plat map only shows the southern house. The owner at that time was a c. Klar, Sr. Klar is listed in the 1860 census as Christian Clare, a 69-year old farmer from Prussia. His wife, Catharine, was also 69 and born in Prussia. They lived with a 34-year old man, probably their son, Christian, and his family. Their farm was of lesser value than most. Whether or not this farmhouse was part of that farm cannot be ascertained from the records checked to this point. From before 1895 to after 1931 the farm was owned by George Speese, about which nothing is known. The house appears in its current location on the 1895 plat map.
The Wisconsin Inventory of Historic Places identifies 24 log structures in Grant County (see also the surveyed log building, in the Town of Paris). Some of these are probably gone by now. on the other hand, there are no doubt several more hiding, as this one might be, underneath later siding. The questions raised by this building -- is it log? how old is it? was it moved to this site from elsewhere on the farm? -- are enticing, but whether or not a log structure underneath modern siding is eligible, nevertheless, is questionable."
-"USH 151, Dickeyville to Belmont", WisDOT# 1209-02-00, Prepared by Katherine Hundt Rankin (Preservation Consultant) for Rust Environment & Infrastructure Inc, 1995. |
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