By Joann M. Ringelstetter
Back in October 1997, Ruth and I spent some time photographing in Jefferson and Waukesha Counties in southeastern Wisconsin. Near the town of Dousman, I photographed a set of small limestone buildings. This was early in our backroads adventures when we were still photographing mostly barns, but these buildings were too interesting (and fancy) to pass up.
Due to the high cost of film and processing at that time, most subjects were recorded with only one or two images. And all the images captured over 20 years of film photography must be digitally scanned to make use of them. The image below is one of the few images I captured that day of these unusual limestone buildings. It was also early in the availability of internet resources, so we didn’t know much about them.
Fourteen years later, in October 2011, we again did some photography in Jefferson and Waukesha Counties and decided to go back to Dousman. As we left Dane County and crossed into Jefferson County, we stopped to photograph a wonderful old gambrel-roof barn with a field-stone foundation.
Because buildings that are left to the elements of the weather and the way that nature tends to overtake rural buildings, we didn’t know if the limestone buildings would still be standing when we got there. To our surprise and delight, all three buildings were still intact, and the lawn was still being mowed around them. Also, some of the shrubs had been removed or trimmed back. And now, with all the resources of the internet, we have a bit of history on these wonderful buildings.
In the autumn of 1836, thirteen years before Wisconsin became a state and 175 years prior to this visit, New England pioneers, Elisha and Belinda Edgerton traveled a narrow dirt trail in an ox-drawn wagon to the Dousman area. Locals called this area "Bullfrog Station" because of the surrounding bogs and marshes. Elisha cleared the land, which included a natural spring, and built a log cabin and several farm buildings. Some of these buildings, including the three we photographed, were built from locally quarried limestone.
The largest and loveliest of these three remaining buildings was a Gothic Revival carriage house, built by Elisha in 1856 to house his horse-drawn carriages and wagons. But his wife, Belinda, had a hand in making it a most unusual carriage house because she persuaded Elisha to turn the upper floor into an Episcopal chapel. In this little chapel, which Belinda named St. Maria’s, students and faculty from the Nashotah mission, an Episcopal, Anglo-Catholic seminary located an eight-mile walk from the chapel, conducted Episcopal services for the early settlers. And it was there that the congregation of the current St. Mary’s Episcopal Church of Dousman originated.
According to a publication entitled “Transactions of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society” for the year 1860, the building next to the carriage house was a dairy building of some kind. A 1930 survey identified this building as a storage barn.
The third building was identified as a smokehouse in the 1860 publication and as a smokehouse and toilet on the 1930 survey. There had also been a fourth and larger limestone building that was identified as a granary in the 1860 publication. And, according to the Architecture and History Inventory of the Wisconsin Historical Society, up until the late 1970s, these four limestone buildings had been connected by a shed roof arcade.
In 1860, the State Agricultural Society recognized the Edgerton farm as a Wisconsin Premium Farm. They described the farm as 820 acres of excellent land. And they said, “In the management of this farm, and in all its appointments, we see the practical, the skillful, and the systematic farmer. Mr. E. does everything upon a perfect system, keeping an account of every action, and its result. He is now, while in the prime of life, reaping the full benefits of having devoted his early years to the thorough cultivation of his own soil, and of his own mind. May he long live, and may his example and success stimulate the young men of the State to go forth, take up the rich, uncultivated lands, and do likewise.”
Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes by clicking on the photo. You will be taken to the gallery website where you will see a big blue "BUY" button. Or to see all photos available, click on the "Browse Galleries" button on the menu at the top of this page. Thank you for your interest!
Shunpiking To Heaven Backroads Blog
Thursday, March 26, 2020
Thursday, February 27, 2020
American Gothic Barn, Gomer, Ohio
By Joann M. Ringelstetter
In April 2017, after having taken four previous trips to the southern and central parts of Ohio, we decided to return with a focus on northern Ohio. On the afternoon of our first full day in that beautiful state, we traveled the Lincoln Highway to the small rural town of Gomer. In her research, Ruth had discovered a large American Gothic barn and we knew we had to go find it.
As we drove through the small residential section, we noticed the town hall for Sugar Creek Township. In front of this old-fashioned town hall building was a historical sign. It said, “1833, Gomer, Ohio, A Welsh Settlement. A village settled by the Watkins, Roberts, and Nicholas families, bringing with them their Welsh traditions and establishing a community in honor of their native land.”
Next to the town hall was a small commercial building, tucked tightly between the town hall and a large house. In front of this small building, between the sidewalk and the curb, was an old Coca Cola sign. We wondered if it had been a small grocery store. At the bottom of the Coca Cola sign was a hint, in very faded letters, of a later purpose: “Gomer Dad’s Club.”
We left these two interesting buildings and started looking for the barn we had come to see. But it was sitting a long distance back from the Lincoln Highway and we couldn’t really get a good look at it. So, we drove into a church parking lot hoping to find a good place to view the barn. The parking lot was lined with large evergreen trees, so it wasn’t looking good. I got out of the car and walked to the edge to peer between the trees. And there it was, a good view of the farm but, again, it was quite a distance away. In the photo below, you can see the view I had, with a pump house on the left, the barn in the center, and what I thought was probably a granary on the right.
I figured the only option I had was to use my biggest zoom lens and take just a couple of photos due to only one angle being available. But there was an angel on my shoulder, as there often is when I am photographing. As I stood there desiring to get closer to this gorgeous and historical barn, a lawn tractor came zooming across the lawn near the barn. I quickly walked towards it to see if I could get permission to photograph the barn up close.
The man on the lawn tractor saw me walking toward him, so he stopped and shut off the mower. I introduced myself and he, in turn, said his name was Bill and that he was the owner of the barn. He gave me a bit of information about the barn and permission to walk around and photograph it and the other farm buildings. The lawn surrounding the buildings was huge, so I let him get back to work. As I walked around taking photos, I had to keep waiting for Bill and his tractor to move out of my frame as he crisscrossed the lawn.
Bill had told me that the roof of the barn was made of slate and that the tiled turret that rose above the various lines of the roof was the top of an interior water tower. I had seen water towers on a few farms but had never seen one that was built into a barn.
As I prepared to write this blog, I spent a couple of hours trying in vain to find out more information about this beautiful barn, but I couldn’t find much. But then, another angel landed on my shoulder and one last search turned up some detailed information written by Ohio-born artist Robert F. Kroeger, who recently visited and created a beautiful painting of this unique barn. According to Mr. Kroeger’s research, the barn was built, circa 1890, by Richard E. Jones, Gomer’s first physician. Dr. Jones had come to Gomer in 1848 at the age of 14 when his family immigrated from Wales.
Dr. Jones had stored the grain from his crops in this barn. He also kept his horses and buggies in the barn, taking them out when he traveled or made house calls.
The three dormers of the barn were covered in expensive circular slate tiles. And one of the three, pictured below, has a large circular vent in the center of it. According to Mr. Kroeger, slate tiles often came from Wales and this allowed American barn and house owners to bring a bit of their native country to their new homes in America.
In the photography log that we use to record information about the photos we take, we had called this a Gothic barn. But I wasn’t sure if that was an accurate description of the architectural style. Before finding Mr. Kroeger’s history of the barn, I searched in one of my often-used reference books called “The Old Barn Book: A Field Guide to North American Barns & Other Farm Structures.” Imagine my surprise when I discovered a photo in this book of the building that was next to this barn, which we assumed was a granary. Mr. Kroeger’s document said this building was a granary and the doctor’s farm office. The field guide said this building was a carriage house, done in Victorian style. It was probably all these things at one time or another.
The field guide also explains that this type of cupola, with louver ventilators on all four sides, is typical for the Victorian Gothic style.
One final note about the little building next to the town hall that I mentioned at the start of this blog post: Bill said that it had been a barber shop in its heyday. He also told me that they used to make hamburgers in the back of the barber shop. You really have to talk to the locals if you want the little details that you’ll never find in books or on the internet!
Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes by clicking on the photo. You will be taken to the gallery website where you will see a big blue "BUY" button. Or to see all photos available, click on the "Browse Galleries" button on the menu at the top of this page. Thank you for your interest!
In April 2017, after having taken four previous trips to the southern and central parts of Ohio, we decided to return with a focus on northern Ohio. On the afternoon of our first full day in that beautiful state, we traveled the Lincoln Highway to the small rural town of Gomer. In her research, Ruth had discovered a large American Gothic barn and we knew we had to go find it.
As we drove through the small residential section, we noticed the town hall for Sugar Creek Township. In front of this old-fashioned town hall building was a historical sign. It said, “1833, Gomer, Ohio, A Welsh Settlement. A village settled by the Watkins, Roberts, and Nicholas families, bringing with them their Welsh traditions and establishing a community in honor of their native land.”
Next to the town hall was a small commercial building, tucked tightly between the town hall and a large house. In front of this small building, between the sidewalk and the curb, was an old Coca Cola sign. We wondered if it had been a small grocery store. At the bottom of the Coca Cola sign was a hint, in very faded letters, of a later purpose: “Gomer Dad’s Club.”
We left these two interesting buildings and started looking for the barn we had come to see. But it was sitting a long distance back from the Lincoln Highway and we couldn’t really get a good look at it. So, we drove into a church parking lot hoping to find a good place to view the barn. The parking lot was lined with large evergreen trees, so it wasn’t looking good. I got out of the car and walked to the edge to peer between the trees. And there it was, a good view of the farm but, again, it was quite a distance away. In the photo below, you can see the view I had, with a pump house on the left, the barn in the center, and what I thought was probably a granary on the right.
I figured the only option I had was to use my biggest zoom lens and take just a couple of photos due to only one angle being available. But there was an angel on my shoulder, as there often is when I am photographing. As I stood there desiring to get closer to this gorgeous and historical barn, a lawn tractor came zooming across the lawn near the barn. I quickly walked towards it to see if I could get permission to photograph the barn up close.
The man on the lawn tractor saw me walking toward him, so he stopped and shut off the mower. I introduced myself and he, in turn, said his name was Bill and that he was the owner of the barn. He gave me a bit of information about the barn and permission to walk around and photograph it and the other farm buildings. The lawn surrounding the buildings was huge, so I let him get back to work. As I walked around taking photos, I had to keep waiting for Bill and his tractor to move out of my frame as he crisscrossed the lawn.
Bill had told me that the roof of the barn was made of slate and that the tiled turret that rose above the various lines of the roof was the top of an interior water tower. I had seen water towers on a few farms but had never seen one that was built into a barn.
As I prepared to write this blog, I spent a couple of hours trying in vain to find out more information about this beautiful barn, but I couldn’t find much. But then, another angel landed on my shoulder and one last search turned up some detailed information written by Ohio-born artist Robert F. Kroeger, who recently visited and created a beautiful painting of this unique barn. According to Mr. Kroeger’s research, the barn was built, circa 1890, by Richard E. Jones, Gomer’s first physician. Dr. Jones had come to Gomer in 1848 at the age of 14 when his family immigrated from Wales.
Dr. Jones had stored the grain from his crops in this barn. He also kept his horses and buggies in the barn, taking them out when he traveled or made house calls.
The three dormers of the barn were covered in expensive circular slate tiles. And one of the three, pictured below, has a large circular vent in the center of it. According to Mr. Kroeger, slate tiles often came from Wales and this allowed American barn and house owners to bring a bit of their native country to their new homes in America.
In the photography log that we use to record information about the photos we take, we had called this a Gothic barn. But I wasn’t sure if that was an accurate description of the architectural style. Before finding Mr. Kroeger’s history of the barn, I searched in one of my often-used reference books called “The Old Barn Book: A Field Guide to North American Barns & Other Farm Structures.” Imagine my surprise when I discovered a photo in this book of the building that was next to this barn, which we assumed was a granary. Mr. Kroeger’s document said this building was a granary and the doctor’s farm office. The field guide said this building was a carriage house, done in Victorian style. It was probably all these things at one time or another.
The field guide also explains that this type of cupola, with louver ventilators on all four sides, is typical for the Victorian Gothic style.
One final note about the little building next to the town hall that I mentioned at the start of this blog post: Bill said that it had been a barber shop in its heyday. He also told me that they used to make hamburgers in the back of the barber shop. You really have to talk to the locals if you want the little details that you’ll never find in books or on the internet!
Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes by clicking on the photo. You will be taken to the gallery website where you will see a big blue "BUY" button. Or to see all photos available, click on the "Browse Galleries" button on the menu at the top of this page. Thank you for your interest!
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Street Running
By Joann M. Ringelstetter
Last June, we took a two-day trip to our neighboring state of Iowa. We spent the first day photographing farms in the Dubuque area, which were on the Iowa Barn Foundation’s spring tour. The area along the Mississippi River is one of our favorite places to photograph, with its rolling hills and verdant valleys. We started our second day in the St. Donatus area, which we will cover in a future blog post.
After spending the entire morning near St. Donatus, we headed to the beautiful small town of Bellevue, which is situated along the Mississippi River. The main reason for our visit there was to capture some photos of the railroad tracks that run down the center of the street, with one lane of traffic on each side of the tracks.
After locating the tracks and a place with historic buildings to add to the ambiance of the photos, I parked the car alongside the tracks and took my equipment out of the car. It had been raining on and off for the past hour and a big black cloud loomed overhead.
After hurrying to capture several photos of the tracks, I began to focus on a large two-story limestone building that was on the corner near where we had parked. It was a beautiful building with large doors on the front of both floors of the building.
Beside the building, near the corner, was a stop sign and railroad crossing sign. A smaller sign at the bottom of the stop sign said, “STOP – LOOK – LISTEN – BEWARE OF TRAINS.”
On the side of the building opposite the corner, there were two attached buildings that were both very interesting. The largest one was sided with pressed tin and the smaller one was tile. I only wish I could figure out the purpose of each of these buildings from long ago.
As I stood there wondering about these buildings, I heard a train whistle in the distance. So, I turned my tripod around and hurried to point my camera lens down the tracks. The train was moving very quickly.
As the train approached the corner where I was standing, the engineer blew the whistle, which was ear-splitting. And the train was moving so quickly that I only had time to capture two photos of the diesel engine.
As Ruth sat in the car and I stood beside the tracks, the ground shook and the wheels bumped, squeaked, and squealed along the tracks. We should have counted the freight cars because they continued to pass by us for a very long time.
At the time, I didn’t know what the term was for this type of railroad track. So, I needed to do a little research before writing this blog. According to Wikipedia, “On-street running or street running is the routing of a railroad track or tramway track running directly along public streets, without any grade separation. The rails are embedded in the roadway, and the train shares the street with pedestrians and automobile traffic.”
As I reviewed my photos to put together this blog post, I lamented the fact that I didn’t take a short video of this interesting experience. And then Ruth reminded me that I didn’t do that because I was too busy plugging my ears to avoid hearing loss. My hearing is one of my most precious possessions, so I guess it’s okay that I ended up with my hearing intact rather than a video!
Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes by clicking on the photo. You will be taken to the gallery website where you will see a big blue "BUY" button. Or to see all photos available, click on the "Browse Galleries" button on the menu at the top of this page. Thank you for your interest!
Last June, we took a two-day trip to our neighboring state of Iowa. We spent the first day photographing farms in the Dubuque area, which were on the Iowa Barn Foundation’s spring tour. The area along the Mississippi River is one of our favorite places to photograph, with its rolling hills and verdant valleys. We started our second day in the St. Donatus area, which we will cover in a future blog post.
After spending the entire morning near St. Donatus, we headed to the beautiful small town of Bellevue, which is situated along the Mississippi River. The main reason for our visit there was to capture some photos of the railroad tracks that run down the center of the street, with one lane of traffic on each side of the tracks.
After locating the tracks and a place with historic buildings to add to the ambiance of the photos, I parked the car alongside the tracks and took my equipment out of the car. It had been raining on and off for the past hour and a big black cloud loomed overhead.
After hurrying to capture several photos of the tracks, I began to focus on a large two-story limestone building that was on the corner near where we had parked. It was a beautiful building with large doors on the front of both floors of the building.
Beside the building, near the corner, was a stop sign and railroad crossing sign. A smaller sign at the bottom of the stop sign said, “STOP – LOOK – LISTEN – BEWARE OF TRAINS.”
On the side of the building opposite the corner, there were two attached buildings that were both very interesting. The largest one was sided with pressed tin and the smaller one was tile. I only wish I could figure out the purpose of each of these buildings from long ago.
As I stood there wondering about these buildings, I heard a train whistle in the distance. So, I turned my tripod around and hurried to point my camera lens down the tracks. The train was moving very quickly.
As the train approached the corner where I was standing, the engineer blew the whistle, which was ear-splitting. And the train was moving so quickly that I only had time to capture two photos of the diesel engine.
As Ruth sat in the car and I stood beside the tracks, the ground shook and the wheels bumped, squeaked, and squealed along the tracks. We should have counted the freight cars because they continued to pass by us for a very long time.
At the time, I didn’t know what the term was for this type of railroad track. So, I needed to do a little research before writing this blog. According to Wikipedia, “On-street running or street running is the routing of a railroad track or tramway track running directly along public streets, without any grade separation. The rails are embedded in the roadway, and the train shares the street with pedestrians and automobile traffic.”
As I reviewed my photos to put together this blog post, I lamented the fact that I didn’t take a short video of this interesting experience. And then Ruth reminded me that I didn’t do that because I was too busy plugging my ears to avoid hearing loss. My hearing is one of my most precious possessions, so I guess it’s okay that I ended up with my hearing intact rather than a video!
Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes by clicking on the photo. You will be taken to the gallery website where you will see a big blue "BUY" button. Or to see all photos available, click on the "Browse Galleries" button on the menu at the top of this page. Thank you for your interest!
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