| Additional Information: | Information from report prepared for WisDOT ID4249-09-00, CTH J Reconstruction, STH 57 to CTH M, Sheboygan County, Prepared by TES Historical Consulting, LLC (Schnell), October 2023.
This farmstead, which is divided by CTH J, consists of a circa 1875 house, along with five frame outbuildings on the north side of the roadway and a bank barn, silo, and an additional outbuilding along the south side. Regarding the two-story, clapboard-sheathed house (AHI#246231), it is largely side-gabled in form but also includes a slightly projecting, front-facing gable. A shed-roof porch enclosed with double-hung windows projects from the ell space on the east and continues west, connecting with a one-story bay projection along the front-facing gable. A pair of wall dormers break the roofline which is covered with asphalt shingles. Windows throughout the remainder of the house are largely double-hung sash examples, with a few single plate-glass openings.
East of the house is a gabled shed/workshop (AHI#246231, at right) covered with board and batten siding and topped with a metal roof. Immediately west of the house is a single-car, clapboard-sheathed, 1920s-era garage with a metal-clad, clipped-gable roof, next to which is a side-gabled, machine shed with vertical board siding and a metal roof. A smaller frame shed with wood siding is located behind the larger machine shed, while a small, modern garden/utility shed completes the outbuildings on the north side of the road (all buildings west of the house are recorded as AHI#246232). Assessor’s information provides a 1950 date of construction for all of the outbuildings; however, a 1937 aerial would suggest that at least the building to the east and the garage to the west were in place by that date.
The parcel on the south side of the roadway is now no longer associated with the house. It includes a bank barn that has a fieldstone foundation and board and batten siding. The gabled roof is covered with metal. A single-story, shed roof wing extends from the north end of the barn and is covered with vertical board. To the west of the barn is a concrete silo, while a small, square frame outbuilding with board siding and a metal-sheathed hipped roof is located to the east (all south side buildings are included in AHI#246233).
Although assessor’s information ascribes an 1880 date of construction to the house, plat maps suggest that a house was located on the parcel by no later than 1875, when it was owned by Anton and Agnes Kappelen. Both natives of Germany, the Kappelens immigrated to the United States circa 1859 and shortly thereafter settled in the town of Sheboygan Falls where they would engage in farming. As of 1870, the family included six children. By no later than 1889, Anton’s son Cornelius had taken over the family farm, which he maintained until 1907, after which he and his wife Dorothy moved to Plymouth. The farm was then sold to Philip Sinner. Born in 1874 in the town of Herman, Sheboygan County, Philip married Lena Muth in 1900 and they had one son Roland, who took over the property following Philip’s death in 1947. In 1967, the re-routing of CTH J to south of the unincorporated community of Johnsonville, included the construction of a new segment of the highway which divided this parcel in half. In order to proceed with construction of the new road segment, a condemnation order was issued for the outbuildings on the south half of the farm and 35 feet of the north end of the bank barn had to be removed. Although not fully confirmed, a comparison of 1937 aerial images, along with a 1967 newspaper photo of the property would seem to suggest that the two sheds now located to the west of the house were originally south of the house and east of the bank barn. An additional barn west of the bank barn appears to have been taken down. Roland, along with his wife Verna, remained on the farm property until his death in 2000. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Citations for the 2023 information provided below in Additional Comments:
Assessor’s information, Town of Sheboygan Falls, Available online at http://accapp.accurateassessor.com/, Accessed October 2023; 1937 aerial image of the farm available online on Wisconsin Historic Aerial Image Finder, Available online at https://maps.sco.wisc.edu/WHAIFinder, Accessed October 2023.
Illustrated Historical Atlas of Sheboygan County Wisconsin (Oshkosh, WI: G.A. Randall & Co., 875); Plat Book of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin (Minneapolis: C.M. Foote & J.W. Henion, 1889); Illustrated Atlas of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin (Sheboygan, WI: Joerns Bros., 1902); Plat Book of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin (Rockford, IL: W.W. Hixson & Co., 1930(?)); Geographical and Historical Atlas of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin (Sheboygan, WI: The Jerry Donohue Engineering Co., 1941); Farm and Land Ownership Plat Book of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin (Milwaukee: Marathon Map Service, 1951); U.S. Federal Census, Population, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1940; “Cornelius Kappelen,” Obituary, The Sheboygan Press, 10 May 1939; “Philip Sinner,” Obituary, The Sheboygan Press, 22 December 1947, 10; “Johnsonville Citizens Oppose ‘J’ Relocation,” The Sheboygan Press, 8 March 1966, 3; “Court Upholds County in Negotiations For County Trunk J Land,” The Sheboygan Press, 7 March 1967, 11; “County Trunk J Progress,” includes photo of Sinner farm with bridge built but the Sinner outbuildings still standing in the way of the proposed roadway, The Sheboygan Press, 9 September 1967, 3; “County Board Supervisors Inspect Highway Projects,” 11; “Roland A. Sinner,” The Sheboygan Press, 14 January 2000, 2. |
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