Charles & Hattie Olsen Farm

History

Sugar maples still frame the west entrance to the Port Oneida Rural Historic District where the Charles & Hattie Olsen farm sits as a focal point. Charles and Hattie (Brammer) Olsen purchased this 160 acre parcel of land in 1915 from Frederick Dechow (Dago), an early Port Oneida settler from Hanover, Germany, who originally claimed the land in 1857. The Olsen’s farm was built around 1918 where they raised their nine children. Charles and Hattie’s son Everett bought the farm in 1963 and sold it to the National Park Service in 1973.

The house is a modified bungalow featuring a diamond-shaped window and sunburst details in the gable ends and in the gabled pediment, an ornamental feature found throughout the district.

Prior to the Park’s purchase of the property there were many outbuildings on the farm including chicken coop, corn cribs, two car detached garage/shop, outhouse, large two story granary and pig house. Ham, bacon and large lake trout were smoked in the smokehouse. A large storage shed was used to store equipment, ice and several horse buggies. Historic elements remaining are daffodils and poppies to the east of the house, the pine wind row west of the house, a root cellar, clothesline and the barn.

The Olsen farmstead was a working farm. Primarily a dairy operation where Guernsey cows were raised, it was one of the first Port Oneida farms designated a Class A dairy farm. The three-bay barn is the only remaining gambrel-roofed barn in the district with features reflecting the emergence of dairy production- the gambrel roof (which provides additional storage space for hay); cow stalls in the lower level; and the silo. Charles also supported the family as a fisherman by selling his catch at the Port Oneida dock. The farm produced wheat, oats, corn, green hay, potatoes and apples and was the first in the area to own a tractor. A vegetable garden was planted between the spruces and the driveway. The root cellar behind the house kept food cool in the summer and stored fruits and vegetables in the winter. In the spring, the sugar maples were tapped and their sap boiled down to make maple syrup and sugar candy. The Olsens had a pump by the driveway in front of the house for selling gasoline to passers by. They also sold milk, berries, flowers, maple syrup and other produce.

Charles and Hattie had 25 grandchildren and 45 great grandchildren.