Grandpa Was a Farmer

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Until he became a preacher.


This beautiful farm, nestled in the rolling hills of Vernon County Wisconsin, formerly belonged to my Grandpa, Isaiah Butcher, when he was still a farmer. This is where my mother, her seven sisters, and one little brother were raised.

Did you catch that? Yep - - - a family of 9 children, 8 girls and only one boy!! Here they are, in the order of their birth (The fact that it makes a cute little poem is purely a bonus):

Mama, Papa,
Ferol, Aileen,
Vetra, Guida,
Doris, Verneen
Beulah Mae, Clinton,
And Janet Doreen.

Beulah Mae was my mom.

I don't know WHY I never saw this farm when I was a child. True, Grandpa no longer owned it then as by the time I was born he had long given up farming and gone to preaching, but it's just a stone's throw off one of our regularly beaten paths. And as strong of an influence as it was in the lives of my mom and her siblings I find it incredible that we never took the little detour required to traverse down this memory lane.

But we did not.

After my mom passed away, it was my dad who guided me to this site of family origin.


It appeared to me that the barn was the only original building left on the site.

We Butcher cousins grew up on stories whose setting was right here - - - in this barn, on these hill sides, and in this valley. My mom had memories of playing on a "sand hill" behind this very barn. She also told the tale of falling in the milk cooler one evening when she was so tired she sat on its wall only to fall asleep and tumble in.

(A "milk cooler" back in THAT day was a large stone walled trough filled with icy spring water much like the "spring houses" I mentioned in last week's post.)

Just down the road a piece from the farm was the little one room school house where mom and her siblings walked to school.

It now serves as a storage building (barn!) behind someone's house.


Oh, but I got right out of the car, walked down their driveway, and took these photos. Yes I did, because you know - - - I needed to connect with my roots just a little!!!!

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