SOME FAMILY PHOTOS, STORIES AND HISTORY

The journey of A. Fred and Phebe Witt's first home is one of necessity and pure determination. The above map shows the twenty mile journey. Bought in Portersville, hauled one mile on land to the Chippewa River, rafted about sixteen miles down the Chippewa River then hauled three miles on land to their farm.

Here is an excerpt from the 

HISTORY OF DUNN COUNTY WISCONSIN

by F. Curtiss-Wedge, PH. D.,

published in 1925

from page 357 under A. Fred Witt...

"...At times he worked out for others but for the most part was engaged in assisting his father.  On April 30, 1891, he was united in marriage with Phebe L. Cummings, who was born Jan. 4, 1869 in the town of Spring Brook, daughter of Sanford and Martha (Brown) Cummings.  In the same year he began farming on his own account, for some years renting the Curtiss farm.  In 1902 he settled on his present farm, having come into possession of 80 acres of land before he was of age.  He later bought 20 acres more and his present farm consists of 100 acres in Section 27, west, town of Spring Brook.  When he began operations on it, there were no buildings and the land was wild.  A dwelling being necessary at once, Mr. Witt went to Portersville, a lumbering town in Eau Claire County, where he bought a house for $80, and not being able to transport it intact to his farm, he paid Eugene Wiggins $100 to take it to pieces for him, and they then rafted it piecemeal down the Chippewa River to Rumsey's Landing, from there hauled it to the farm, where they put it together again, and it was the home of Mr. and Mrs. Witt until 1915.  The present buildings on the farm are the second set.  The barn was erected in 1913 and measures 36 x 56 feet in ground plan, with a full basement; and the fine, modern eight-room residence was built in 1915.  His out-buildings, which are sufficiently numerous, are all in good condition, and he has cleared and broken 65 acres of his land..."

April 16, 1910

Note the other family members on the page too.

Etta (Cummings) Peterson is one of Phebe's sisters.

++ Most documents contained are from an Ancestry.com membership ++

***** When looking at documents and things like this from the past,

a person must keep an open mind on things like spelling of names and information.

There are many reasons for this, one of them is PHONETIC SPELLING.

This is an excerpt from  Dictionary.com  on Phonetic Spelling...

"Phonetic Spelling is the representation of vocal sounds which express pronunciations of words.

It is a system of spelling in which each letter represents invariably the same spoken sound.

Phonetic Spelling constitutes an alteration of ordinary spelling that better represents the spoken language,

that employs only characters of the regular alphabet, and that is used in a context of conventional spelling."

The Federal Government wanted the people and information recorded.

How this information was recorded was up to the individual County Governments but that wasn't uniform.

1/4 - 1/3 of all counties used phonetic spelling on records, the rest did not.

This means that a persons name could be spelled completely different from one county, or even township, to the next. *****

100 years later!

April 28, 1920

Now in the new house built in 1915.

Note the other family members on the page too.

Including Lee and Frederica now Larsen, married March 6, 1920 and in the home as well.

Also a few Cummings siblings and even Etta (Cummings) Peterson, one of Phebe's sisters

and neighbor Ada (Hillman) Eighmy who is one of Ann Hillman's sisters.

April 26, 1930

In the 1915 home.

Note the many other family members on the page.

Including neighbors Mary (Witt) French, one of A. Fred's sisters.

Neighbors on the other side are John and Alfred Hillman, both brothers of Ann (Hillman) Witt

along with her sister Ada (Hillman) Eighmy who married Percy Eighmy

 and next to them is his mother, May (Cummings) Eighmy, who is one of Phebe's sisters.

 April 19, 1940

Freddie and Ann, literally with the help of a midwife, had all six of their children within this 1915 home.

Freddie owned the farm (along with others) until 1957 at which time he sold the 100 acres and farm to Lee and Frederica (Witt) Larsen, his sister and brother-in-law, to add to their farm.

After Lee and Frederica married in 1920 and lived in the home for a short while with A. Fred and Phebe Witt, as was the custom,

they purchased the adjacent farm land to the south (still in Spring Brook Township) which was owned by Lee's uncle, Elling Larsen. They first bought Lee's father's farm, John Theodore Larsen (1864-1938), which is directly adjacent to the west but those 80 acres which included the home they lived in, are in Dunn Township. Meaning their land is partially in Spring Brook Township and partially in Dunn Township, both in Dunn County. The 100 acres they added from Freddie are all in Spring Brook Township and sit right on the border of Dunn Township.

In 1959, Lee and Frederica Larsen are listed as the owners of the land.