As part of the thirty buildings in the 1900 town replica of Stonefield Historic Site, this church has a little different look with the two doors, one for men and the other door for women. It is said that one reason to have the men seated on the one side and the women on the other side was that there would be less distraction from the opposite sex and more focus placed on reason for being at church.
Stonefield’s Church
One type of barn style common in the last century was the bank barns, which are two-story structures built into a bank or hill. If a bank wasn’t available, landscaping was done to create access to drive into the top story of the barn where feed and hay was often stored. The lower level, which typically had three sides available for door access, housed the livestock. This bank barn is located on the Stonefield Historic Site.
Bank Barn
On a warm day, an ice house would be a place to cool down, although this structure is fancier than most ice houses in 1870. After his second term in office, Wisconsin’s first governor Nelson Dewey moved to Grant County and in the late 1860s, work began on a brick house and outbuildings designed in the Gothic Revival Style. The family only lived in the house for less than five years before fire destroyed the house, but the outbuildings like the smokehouse and this ice house survived and are now part of the Stonefield Historic Site.
Elaborate Ice House
A doctor’s office today has a different feel than one from a rural community in1900 where the doctor’s office was often in a house which may have a waiting room plus the examining room where the doctor saw the patients and with living quarters upstairs. The replica doctor office in Stonefield Historic site is one of the 30 buildings in the town. There is also the furniture maker store which had a backroom for coffins for the ones the doctor couldn’t save.
Old Doctor’s Office
The oldest surviving tractor in North America is on display at the Wisconsin State Agricultural Museum at the Stonefield Historic Site. The 1898 Auto Mower was a prototype constructed by McCormink engineer Edward Johnson that featured a cast iron frame with a one-cylinder engine, live Power Take Off (PTO) and full reversing transmission. It was forty years later before live PTO was a regular feature on tractors.
An Old, Old Tractor
The start of the work week often has people rushing to get to their jobs after a weekend, but if you take the train at Stonefield Historical Site, you will never be late as the sign by the train depot reads The Governor Nelson Dewey Line “Going Nowhere and Always on Time”.
Always on Time
Visitors to Stonefield Historical Site can explore a replicate of a turn of the 20th Century farm house that show some of the new technologies and advancements in the life of rural farmers in 1901.
Stonefield’s Farm House
After Labor Day, many museums and historic site begin to start closing for the season as summer activities wind down. Stonefield Historic Site in Cassville, Wisconsin, has the home site of Nelson Dewey, Wisconsin’s first governor, a 1900s farming village with 30 shops and factories, a 1901 farmstead and the state agricultural museum.
Streets of Stonefield
