Stellwagen Farm

Font Size: + -

Feedback Print

History of Stellwagen Farm

In 1840, Philip Stellwagen landed in New York City from Germany. He travelled to a German settlement in Pennsylvania, where he worked for two years as a shoemaker. In 1842, he returned to Germany to retrieve his wife, Anna, and three sons -- Mathias, Jacob, and William – to take them back with him to America. The journey across the Atlantic took 11 weeks.

The family settled in Pennsylvania for two years. In 1844, they travelled west through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. In Illinois, one of their wagon axles broke; they stopped in Homer Township to find a blacksmith to fix the axle, and, once there, they decided they liked Illinois enough to start a life.

The Stellwagens bought 80 acres of land in Frankfort Township, a German settlement in Will County. There, they built a log cabin along St. Francis Road, east of LaGrange Road. At the time, there were not any schools or stores in the area, but plenty of wildlife, including deer, wolves, and rattlesnakes. In 1846, Anna passed away and she was buried in a plot on the corner of the farm.

On June 2, 1859, Mathias Stellwagen married a woman named Margareth Stellwagen (two separate families, same last name). Soon after their wedding, Philip purchased two 80-acre tracts in Orland Township for them to start a family and farm. The exact date of the purchase is unknown because the property record was destroyed in the 1871 Chicago Fire; however, according to family records, Philip purchased the farmland with a farmhouse already on the property not long after his son’s marriage.

Mathias made many improvements and additions to the original house over the years. This is the present- day Stellwagen Family Farmhouse. At his death in 1888, his probate estate listed the following assets: 320 acres in four different parcels, 4 work horses, 2 three-year colts, 1 one-year colt, 12 cows, 5 two-year-old heifers and steers, 2 yearlings, 12 head sheep, 15 head hogs, 2 wagons, 1 buggy, 1 double buggy, 1 bob sleigh, 1 reaper and binder, 1 mower, 1 hay rake, 2 plows, 2 harrows, 4 cultivators, 1 feed cutter, 1 wood saw and 40 chickens.

Mathias and Margareth had six children together. When Mathias died in 1888, his second oldest son, John, took over farming the land. John was born in the farmhouse on August 23, 1861. He married a woman named Mary Schiek on October 27, 1886. Soon after they acquired the farm, they purchased an additional 80 acres to the east.

John and Mary had two children, Ralph in 1890 and Earl in 1892, who were born and raised on the farm. They attended school at a one-room schoolhouse located on the southeast corner of 179^th Street and 108^th Avenue. Ralph farmed with his father, John, and married Mabel Cooper in 1916. That year, John and Mary moved to a Sears house built on the southwest corner of the farm. This house was demolished years later.

Ralph and Mabel had one son, Harwood. He attended the Maue School through eighth grade then went to Joliet High School, commuting in a Model A. Harwood married Alma Handorf in 1940 and raised seven children.

Around 1950, the farm no longer had horses or pigs. The farm was a dairy farm until 1969 when the cows and equipment were auctioned off. Crop production did continue. Around 1980, the farm no longer had chickens. Suburban development reached the farm in the 1980s and the Stellwagens sold off 100 acres to developers in the 1980s and 1990s. Harwood and Alma continued to live on the remaining 60 acres.

In 2002 the remaining 60 acres were sold to the Village of Orland Park through the Open Lands Program for preservation. Alma and Harwood died in 2002 and 2011 respectively, and their children have worked on restoring the farm buildings since. Two of the children, Betty and Jim, are founding members of the Stellwagen Family Farm Foundation. In total, eight generations of the Stellwagen family have lived or worked on the farm and they continue to do so today.

The property includes:

Farmhouse (c. 1860)
- The original farmhouse is the two-story structure that faces 108th Avenue
Milk house (c. 1950s)
- Milk was placed in wooden vats to keep it cool
Windmill reproduction (2007)
- Used to circulate cold water into the milk house
Cow shed (c. 1800s)
- An open, shaded building that allowed for free-grazing cows to drink water and eat
Silo (c. 1920s)
- Storage for silage (chopped-up corn plant)
Main barn (c. 1860s, additions added later to the barn)
- The lower side was used as a shop and for tool storage. At the south side, there were stalls for horses.
Toolshed (c. 1920s)
- Used to house large horse-drawn equipment and farm implements
Wooden corn crib (c. 1880s-1900)
- Corn was stored in this building during the winter
Wire corn cribs (c. 1975-1985)
- Additional corn storage
Coal house (c. 1950s)
- Used for fuel storage for the farmhouse’s cook stove and heat
Pig barn (c. 1940s)
- Housed the piglets and pigs
Brooder house (c. 1940s)
- Used for raising chicks after the eggs hatched
Carriage house (c. 1860s)
- Used to store the family’s carriage
Chicken coop (c. 1900)
- Housed chickens and laying hens