Cooksville, established in 1842, had a building boom in
the 1840s, thanks to the early settlers who were eager to build and who had available
oak trees and lumber from an early sawmill, stones from a nearby quarry,
and locally-made bricks baked in two brickyards. And they had especially skillful craftsmen and women among the early settlers. The results were handsome, well-designed,
sturdy, long-lasting buildings in the village and on the nearby farms. (One
home, the earliest, the Cook House, is 177 years old this year.)
These mid- 19th-century village structures—the
houses, churches, school, barns and a store—now stand proudly in the Cooksville
Historic District and on nearby farmsteads.
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| Historic Cooksville and nearby |
Although exact construction dates for many of these early
“country” Greek Revival-designed houses are
difficult to determine—no building permits or other such official documents existed at the time—but
records of land purchases and lumber and brick purchases as well as letters and
diaries of property owners allow construction dates (or at least “circa’ dates) to be assigned.
Celebrating their 170th and 140th building-dates
this year are the following:
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| John Seaver House |
John Seaver House
(c.1849). A busy local carpenter
and relative of the owner, John Fisher, probably built this l½ story, wood-frame,
Greek Revival house for John Seaver, a farmer, the father of William “Frank”
Seaver who was building his brick home on a nearby corner in the village. The
Seavers had come from Chautauqua County, New York. The Seaver House has been
restored in the 1980s, with a new addition to the south in the 1990s.
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| Morgan House |
Morgan House
(c.1849). This 1½ story, clapboard,
Greek Revival house with brick nogging between the studs was built by Thomas
Morgan, a Welshman and a carpenter, whose brother-in-laws, Benjamin and Isaac
Hoxie, both talented carpenters, may have contributed to the building of the house.
Morgan lived here until 1905. The house was restored in the 1930s and 1940s
with a fireplace in the dining room and a south side porch added.
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| Duncan House |
Lovejoy-Duncan House
(1848-49). The Duncan House, also
known as the “House Next Door,” was built about 1848 of local Cooksville
vermilion brick in a simple Classic Revival style, reflecting both Federal and
Greek Revival elements. The first occupant was Daniel Lovejoy, the village’s
first merchant, who sold it to Henry Duncan from Vermont and the only local citizen
who listed his occupation as “Private Gentleman.” Duncan had four children at home and added
the clapboard wing. Ralph Lorenzo Warner, a school teacher from Racine, bought
the house in 1911 and spent the rest of his life furnishing the house with antiques, creating gardens, serving meals to visitors,
and attracting national attention to the house he had named the ”House Next
Door.”
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| Smith House |
Smith-Galt House (1848-49.) The Smith House is a small wood-frame house
with simple Greek Revival style detailing built by David N. Smith about 1848
next to the Cook House. The house is also known as the Galt House and the “Byhring Brothers House” for Oscar and Carl
Byhring, who lived there from about 1918 to 1959. For 20 years, George and Eunice Mattakat used
the house as an adjunct to their Red Door Antique Shop located next door in the
Cook House.
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| Richardson Grout House |
Richardson Grout
House (c.1849-50). This vernacular rural cottage east of Cooksville is an important
example of grout construction, an early form of concrete material, and is the
only grout house in Porter Township. It has a frame porch across the front and
a frame saltbox to the rear. A central chimney separates the two main rooms.
Scottish-born Alexander Richardson purchased the farm when the house was brand
new. The land was deeded from Jonathon Roby to Richardson in December, 1849.
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| Cooksville Congregational Church, photo c.1910 |
Cooksville
Congregational Church (1879). Built 140 years ago this year, it
was the first church constructed in the village. The Congregationalists vowed
that the church would be available to “all other Christian denominations and
Christian ministers to hold meetings in, and the basement to be rent free for
the regular meetings of the Good Templars and the Grange.”
The Church was constructed on the south edge of Cooksville on the corner of “Union Road,” and was designed by local resident, Benjamin
Hoxie, “Architect and Builder.” The
little brown church quickly became the center of village life for religious
gatherings and other community events. Later it served as the focus of government
as the Porter Town Hall in the 1940s and 1950s.
The building served as a church from 1879 until 1939,
although it was not used regularly from about 1910 on, because the early Congregational
New England settlers had died or relocated further west. In March 1939, a
memorial service was held for the church’s faithful caretaker and “last active
supporter,” Susan Porter, who died that year.
It was then determined that ownership of the church
property had passed to the Wisconsin Congregational Conference, which then sold
it to the Town of Porter on September 15, 1939. The town altered the building
(steeples and bell tower were removed, windows were replaced, pews disposed of,
and a large opening for the town truck was cut into the basement wall), and the
church became the Porter Town Hall.
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| The Church as Porter Town Hall, photo c.1950s |
During World War II, young men gathered in the
church-town hall to say farewell to friends before going off to war. Local resident Eddie Julseth brewed strong
coffee for the occasion, and the new recruits joked about how they’d now be
able to stay wide awake through the entire war.
Later, a painted wooden sign was erected in front of the Town Hall to
commemorate those men from the Town of Porter that were lost in America’s wars.
In the mid- 1960s, the Town Hall moved to the vacant
Wilder School nearer to the center of the township, and the old church stood
vacant until it was sold under a sealed bid process in March 1971. The winning bidder was Michael J. Saternus,
an architect whose active interest in the historic buildings of Cooksville had
begun in the late 1960s and would continue until his death in 1990.
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| Michael Saternus at work on his Church, c.1976 |
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| Church interior with the Stoughton Chamber Singers |
After Saternus’ death in 1990, his partner, Larry Reed,
continued the restoration and rehabilitation project, completing the interior
of the church in 1996. The interior was re-plastered, gray paint was removed
from the woodwork, and old pews (dated 1875) were installed. The church once
again became the scene of weddings, a baptism, a funeral, musical performances,
and many curious visitors.
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| Cooksville Congregational Church |
[The Cooksville Archives and Collections
contain information about the village’s heritage— its buildings, its people and
its everyday life.]
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