This anvil was forged by Walentz Raczkowski when he worked in the foundries prior to moving to Wisconsin. He brought it with him and was a blacksmith as well as a farmer in town of Chase, Oconto County.
 

Windows (these are early 1900 replacements of the originals) were on the South side to bring in light to work and warmth in winter. 
 

The north facing side had one entry door, as did the west end.
 
 

The roof of the barn was raised a few years after it was first built. The original low roof was supported by the lower row of end timbers. It was originally used for sheep, pigs and poultry. The roof was too low once cattle were added to the farm stock and a second row of end timbers shows the new, higher, roof line. Concrete was used later as chinking between the logs in the reconstruction, after the move. Original chinking was lime mortar.
 
 

The white arrows show burn marks on the outside of the logs. Harvested on the farm, this log had been exposed to a forest fire which burned through the bark and scorched the wood. The tree was later cut to use in the barn construction.
 
 
 

The 1891 log barn is still used for shelter of beef cattle and this interior view shows parts of the inside construction features. The floor is hard packed dirt covered with straw, as it was when first  built. Roof timber support beams are "swamp cedar" also known as Tamarack. It was harvested from the wetland in winter so the work could be done on the frozen terrain. The wood is naturally highly resistant to moisture and insect damage. It is very dense wood and hard on cutting equipment. The trees do not grow large and thus make excellent support beams in buildings and fence posts.

A new barn was constructed by Walentz Raczkowski and his son to accommodate the growing dairy industry in the county. The boulders were dug from local quarries left in Oconto County from the last ice age over 10,000 years ago. They were hauled by wagon and set into place, with the flattest side outward, for the foundation. Between these larger stones, field stones were set. Each side had a double wall of stone and concrete made with lime and sand. The windows were set in place during wall construction. Fine "sugar sand" was quarried and hauled in to fill the space between the two stone walls on each side. This sand was insulation. In winter, body heat from the cattle was kept inside the foundation.

The arrow shows the year the new barn was built, 1913. Here you can also see the multicolored boulders and field stone cemented into the outer wall. Wagons were brought right up tight to the quarry walls so that large boulders could be rolled right on the bed. These heavy boulders were then rolled onto the partially finished wall right from the wagon, saving the farmers from having to lift them into place. That accounts for the large boulders used so high in the wall.