Page 70

OCTAGONAL           BARNS
Built almost three quarters of a century ago, strong and at,
octagonal barns of Ozaukee County are monuents to one family of
From the Milwaukee county line to Port Washington, they follow r
highway 14i and the lake shore. Nowhere else are there so many
unusual type.
Frederick Clausing, ancestor of the Clausings who built the
to Wisconsin In 18I6 and settled on land in the wooded area alond
At this time there were many families coming into the state from
In the beginning, as the settlers cleared their fields of t:
up log houses and barns. They sowed their wheat by hand between
If they were fortunate, they had oxen for the heavy work. They:
and some chickens. Cows were hard to keep because of the amoun,
needed. But gradually as more and more acreage was cleared, the,
herds. Most commonly the cows were milking shorthorns. Many fw
had a following of customers in Milwaukee, taking in butter, eggi
vegetables every two weeks.
Cheese factories, two of them, were built in the area and tJ
creased their herds. Later the factories became creamerigs.
As the dairying operations grew, the log barns proved inadei
barns, more suited to sheltering a dairy herd and storing feed f(
were needed.
Hard working, progressive, the Clausings were in the fore wl
improvements and inovations. The family had early shown an intei
registered stock and were among the charter members of the Gurns
association.