FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Jim Draeger

February 13, 2018

(608) 264-6464

Beck Farmstead in Jefferson Listed in National Register of Historic Places

Jefferson, Wis. - The Wisconsin Historical Society has announced the listing of the Michael and Margaritha Beck Farmstead located in Jefferson, Jefferson County, in the National Register of Historic Places. National Register designation provides access to certain benefits, including qualification for grants and for rehabilitation income tax credits, while it does not restrict private property owners in the use of their property.

Michael and Margaritha Beck (Bieck), immigrant farmers from Germany, established this farm in 1865.  At the time, most farms in Jefferson County raised grain cash crops and maintained a few dairy cows to provide milk that could be made into cheese and butter for their own personal consumption.  But by the 1870s, farmers sought the next stable cash crop after the demise of the wheat and hops era of the mid-nineteenth century.  Dairy farming proved to be it, as farmers realized that the sale of milk to cheese and butter factories could provide a steady income and would not require the making of these products on the farm themselves.  Farmers, especially those in Jefferson County, embraced dairying and converted many existing barns into dairy barns.  New dairy barns were constructed on almost every farmstead, along with structures related to dairy farming such as silos and corn cribs.  The Beck Farmstead followed this trend and was transitioned to dairying, which continued through multiple subsequent owners of the farm.    The farm, including a farmhouse, bank barn, machine shed, granary, milk house, corn crib, privy, and flagpole maintains remarkable integrity and quality in its organization, materials, and appearance.    The farm today is architecturally intact and an excellent example of a late nineteenth-early twentieth-century dairy farm in rural Jefferson County.

The register is the official national list of historic properties in America deemed worthy of preservation and is maintained by the National Park Service in the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Wisconsin Historical Society administers the program within Wisconsin. It includes sites, buildings, structures, objects and districts that are significant in national, state or local history, architecture, archaeology, engineering or culture.

To learn more about the State and National Register programs in Wisconsin, visit www.wisconsinhistory.org.

About Wisconsin Historical Society

The Wisconsin Historical Society, founded in 1846, ranks as one of the largest, most active and most diversified state historical societies in the nation. As both a state agency and a private membership organization, its mission is to help people connect to the past by collecting, preserving and sharing stories. The Wisconsin Historical Society serves millions of people every year through a wide range of sites, programs and services. For more information, visit wisconsinhistory.org.

###