The Freitag Homestead is a historic farm begun in 1848 in the town of
Washington, Green County, Wisconsin
Washington is a town in Green County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 627 at the 2000 census. The unincorporated community of Schultz is located partially in the town.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the tow ...
. It is also the site of the first
Swiss cheese Swiss cheese may refer to:
Cheese
* List of Swiss cheeses (from Switzerland)
* Swiss-type cheeses or Alpine cheeses, a class of cooked pressed cheeses now made in many countries
* Swiss cheese (North America), any of several related varieties o ...
factory in Wisconsin. The farm was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 2005.
Fridolin Streiff bought the homestead's land and started the farm in 1848. He had come to the U.S. in 1845 as one of two scouts for a site for a colony of emigrants from the
canton of Glarus
The canton of Glarus (german: Kanton Glarus rm, Chantun Glaruna; french: Canton de Glaris; it, Canton Glarona) is a canton in east central Switzerland. The capital is Glarus.
The population speaks a variety of Alemannic German.
The majority of ...
in
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
. He and the other scout founded
New Glarus, but the other man returned to Switzerland, and for several years Streiff led the colony of impoverished Swiss settlers. When they were somewhat established, Frietag bought this land and began to build his farm with his wife Katharina. In their first years they built a log house and other farm buildings which do not survive. In those early years, farmers in Green County made most of their money growing wheat.
[ With ]
By 1862 the Streiffs were prosperous enough to build a nicer house for themselves. It is the oldest surviving building on the farm, but is not the house pictured at right. Their 1862 farmhouse is in
gabled ell form with the then-popular
Greek Revival
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...
-styled
cornice returns
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
, and with bay windows and
lunette
A lunette (French ''lunette'', "little moon") is a half-moon shaped architectural space, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void.
A lunette may also be segmental, and the arch may be an arc take ...
windows in the gables.
[
In 1869 the Streiffs sold the farm to Dietrich and Verena Freitag - also immigrants from Glarus, Switzerland. That same year, Nikolaus Gerber began to make Swiss-style cheese in the Streiff's old log house.][ This was around the time that chinch bugs and other factors were pushing farmers from growing wheat to other lines of business. Milk for the factory was supplied by the Freitag's herd and four other local farms. This was the first Swiss cheese factory in Wisconsin, operating in the cabin until 1877. Dietrich and the farmers took the factory over from Gerber in 1875 and operated it on the farm in various configurations until 1900.][ Swiss cheese manufacture became important to Green County's economy and remained so for decades; in 1938 the county produced a quarter of the Swiss cheese made in the U.S. Today some of Gerber's equipment is on display in the Swiss Historical Village in New Glarus.][
In 1895, Dietrich's sons Nicholas and Henry bought the farm, and Nicholas bought out Henry's share shortly after Dietrich died in 1900. Nicholas ran the farm for the rest of his life, and was also a director of the Bank of Monticello and was active in the Reformed Church in Monticello.][
Other surviving historic buildings on the farm include:
* The hog barn built around 1880 by Deitrich Freitag is a gable-roofed ]bank barn
A bank barn or banked barn is a style of barn noted for its accessibility, at ground level, on two separate levels. Often built into the side of a hill, or bank, both the upper and the lower floors area could be accessed from ground level, one are ...
, wood frame on a fieldstone
Fieldstone is a naturally occurring type of stone, which lies at or near the surface of the Earth. Fieldstone is a nuisance for farmers seeking to expand their land under cultivation, but at some point it began to be used as a construction mate ...
foundation. The hog pens were originally in the basement. A corn crib
A corn crib or corncrib is a type of granary used to dry and store corn. It may also be known as a cornhouse or corn house.
Overview
After the harvest and while still on the cob, corn is placed in the crib either with or without the husk. The ...
is built into each end of the building and a stone loading ramp leads to the center door. A ventilator sits atop the center of the gable roof - rather elegant compared with the rest of the building.[
* The dairy barn was also built around 1880. It too is a gable-roofed bank barn. Deitrich's original section is 90 by 40 feet, with the first-story walls of thick fieldstone. Above is the hay loft, with tall openings on the side filled with louvers for ventilation. On top of the ridge are two square ventilators. A milk house was added in the 1950s and other structures over the years.][
* In 1906 Nicholas and Elsbeth Freitag built a new house (pictured) in the then popular Queen Anne style. It has a limestone foundation and red brick walls, with eaves supported by ornamental brackets, leading to a gable and ]hip roof
A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...
. A one-story veranda wraps the front of the house, with a turret at one corner. Inside, the house has hardwood floors and plaster walls with varnished woodwork. Especially notable are some parquet floors and a wooden grillwork. The house has no fireplaces, as it was heated by radiators from the start. With many of the original finishes and furnishings intact, the Freitag house is one of the finest Queen Annes in Green County.[
]
References
{{reflist
Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin
Geography of Green County, Wisconsin
National Register of Historic Places in Green County, Wisconsin