Schumacher Farm Park

A walking tour of historic Schumacher Farm Park highlighting the history of the farm and rural life in Wisconsin in the 1930s.

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Schumacher Farm Park

Waunakee, Wisconsin 53597, United States

Created By: Schumacher Farm Park

Tour Information

A walking tour on the grounds of historic Schumacher Farm Park, highlighting the buildings and implements used on the farm, as well as the people who called this place home. The tour also discusses aspects of daily life on a typical Wisconsin farm in the 1930s.

In 1892, Henry Schumacher purchased forty acres of land one mile east of the Village of Waunakee. Henry turned the land into a working farm in 1907 and hired Frank Schwenn to build the present-day cruciform two-story house for his future bride, Eveline Busby. The farm remained in the Schumacher family for nearly 100-years.

In 1908, Henry married Eveline Busby and in 1910, Marcella Philomene Schumacher, their only child, was born. Although all farming activity had ceased shortly after the death of her father in 1942, Eveline and Marcella continued renting the land to local farmers. As a teacher working in the Waunakee School District for many years, Marcella wanted to leave an educational legacy by creating a living history museum that documented and represented farm life during the early 20th century. In 1978, Marcella donated the property to the Dane County Parks Commission and Schumacher Farm Park was born.


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What You'll See on the Tour

The 40-acre Schumacher Farm Park sits on land donated to Dane County in 1978 by Marcella Schumacher Pendall, the only child of Henry and Eveline Schumacher. Marcella was born in 1910 and lived on the farm until her death at the age of 83. A... Read more
Gardening was much more than a hobby in the early 1900s when farm families grew much of the food that the family consumed throughout the year. Marcella recalled that: “Every farmer grew his own potatoes and vegetables, raised his own meat... Read more
Windmills had many jobs on the farm. Windmills used the power of the wind to pump water to a large concrete tank from which animals could drink. The Schumacher family also used the windmill to pump water for drinking, cooking, and other hou... Read more
Henry Schumacher owned this property for fifteen years before he decided to make this a working farm. In 1906, he hired a local carpenter named Frank Schwenn to design and build this farmhouse, one of only two original buildings still stand... Read more
The Schumacher family, like many in rural Wisconsin in the early 1900s, did not have an indoor toilet. Instead, they used an outhouse like this one. Although this building is not original to the farm, it stands in the same place where the S... Read more
Life on the farm wasn’t always work. There was time to spend playing outdoor games, going to dances in nearby Waunakee or Westport, or reading novels. For three years, the Schumacher family played host to Frank Rosa, a young Serbian man w... Read more
Marcella loved animals, especially her chickens. As a girl she was often photographed with birds from her flock. The Schumacher family usually had about fifty Plymouth Rock chickens on the farm, and grew corn, oats, and barley to feed them ... Read more
The granary was a place to store food for the animals on the farm. Farmers stored grains like oats and hay on the second floor of the building and sent these grains through chutes to the first floor when it was feeding time for the cattle a... Read more
This barn and the farmhouse are the only two buildings that remain from the original Schumacher farmstead of the early 1900s. In 1908, Henry Schumacher married Eveline Busby and built a house for her, after which he had this barn built. The... Read more
After building his house and barn, Henry Schumacher began acquiring animals, including Poland China hogs. Pigs are not native to North America, but were brought here by European settlers, and have long been an important source of meat.   ... Read more
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Marcella Schumacher Pendall hoped that the prairie on Schumacher Farm Park would become: “a laboratory for children and adults to learn firsthand about the beauty of nature, the operation of the eco system, and the necessity for preservin... Read more
The Center for Antique Machinery, or CAM for short, was built in 2023 by the Friends of Schumacher Farm Park through donations from the Waunakee community and the Madison area. It houses the antique machinery that was stored off-site or in ... Read more
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When Henry Schumacher bought this farm in 1892, its previous owner had already planted fruit trees, berry bushes, and grape vines. Local food cultivation and preservation have long been important parts of rural life, especially given transp... Read more
The Center for Rural History serves as the visitor center for the park and houses an office for park staff, restrooms for park visitors, and meeting space that is available to rent for private events and educational programs. This barn took... Read more

 

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