Homestead

By MITCH MAERSCH

Ozaukee Press Staff

Like many families, the Decker descendants from the Town of Belgium took an interest in their history.

And like many families, nobody really had the time or energy to put the pieces together to develop a full family tree, not to mention organize a reunion.

Until now. Shelley Decker Nadolski for the past year led a research effort that took      her back to 1847 when Nicholas and Cecilia Decker and their four young children immigrated to America from Heinstert, Luxembourg.

The family bought 160 acres of land near highways A and KW just east of Holy Cross for $525 on June 18, 1847— one year before Wisconsin became a state.

That parcel at 5380 Farm Road is still in the family — five generations and 177 years later.

Nadolski’s brother Jeff, his wife and two daughters live in the house today.

The family was honored as the longest tenured at the Wisconsin State Fair through its Sesquicentennial Farm Program. It was a special accolade, but for Nadolski the journey was much of the fun. Visits from hobos riding the train on nearby tracks, city folk from Milwaukee coming via trolley to buy food and farm goods and a murder were among her findings.

“It was so fun to know everything,” she said. “The whole history of the land and what it all stood for – just the passion all my relatives had for the family name. They never had other people work the farm. It was always family members.”

Nadolski, who lives in Stillwater, Minn., got help from her sister Lynn Grossenbach of Oostburg and their second cousin John Schoenknecht of Waukesha, who is passionate about family history.

Nadolski and Lynn spent an entire afternoon at the Ozaukee County Register of Deeds Office, getting help from an employee to navigate the records and find the original plot.

“We saw the original deed for the house in 1847,” Nadolski said.

“Even though their penmanship was so beautiful, it’s really hard to read. It’s so light.”

Nicholas left his homeland after a church next door wanted his property for a cemetery. He sold it and bought an $11 ticket for a 28-day trip from Antwerp, Luxembourg, across the Atlantic Ocean to come to the new world.

“It was a pretty big steamship back in the day,” Nadolski said.

Nadolski said it was a rough time in Europe since kings and queens weren’t giving much land to farm, triggering a flux of immigration to America.

“They were really struggling there. Everything was hard for them,” she said.

Upon arrival in New York, there was no Ellis Island-system of processing.

“They just landed on a little island in New York,” Nadolski said.

The family assumes the Deckers traveled on what is now the St. Lawrence Seaway before landing in southeast Wisconsin on the advice of a Luxembourger named Watry who came years before and determined it was a prime spot to settle.

The area was thick forest, just like the wooded areas of Harrington Beach State Park. Nadolski said dynamite and oxen were used to pull out tree stumps.

Eventually, the farm drew shoppers.

“It was a big stomping ground for people from Milwaukee. We had everything from strawberries to asparagus to farm goods,” Nadolski said.

A nearby train line also brought homeless people, especially during the Great Depression.

“Great-great grandma and great-grandma would feed the hobos who would come. Grandpa gave them work. They were always looking for work and a meal,” Nadolski said.

Nicholas had eight more children, and one of his sons John took over the property. Then it went to his son Clarence — Nadolski’s grandfather, then her father David and her uncle Milton, before her brother Jeff bought it.

Once, a mentally ill Black man tried to steal her grandfather’s horse. The man pushed Clarence into a manure pile, and his son Michael hit the man with a pitchfork handle and killed him. The case went to court and was ruled a justifiable homicide, Nadolski said.

The family was told to bury the man.

“To this day, there’s this buried man on the other side of the tracks,” Nadolski said. “It was never marked but we know the general area.

“Back in the day, that was the big thing, the murder on the Decker farm.”

Jeff was fascinated that the story was verified.

“We always heard stories about it growing up and to actually have black-and-white proof was pretty interesting,” he said.

Nadolski grew up in a house just around the corner, where her parents Dave, 80, and Mary still live.

“Grandpa just gave everybody a plot of land to stay close to the farm,” she said.

The family didn’t tell Dave they were doing research and surprised him with the State Fair announcement last Christmas.

“He was so excited,” she said.

They also held that long-desired family reunion on the property Aug. 3, drawing nearly 180 people. A silent auction raised about $3,000 that will be split between Future Farmers of America and the American Cancer Society. Dave recently beat prostate cancer.

The house Nicholas built had been rented, but Jeff, a 1993 Ozaukee High School grad, wanted to keep it in the family. He arranged a deal to buy it from his father and uncle Milton in 1997.

“It drove me nuts to see renters in the house,” Jeff said.

Last year, he bought some more of the original farmland, a purchase that came with an epiphany.

“That’s when we discovered it had been in my family so long,” he said.

The 3,300-square-foot house has 24-inch thick fieldstone walls and fieldstone basement. It once had nine bedrooms housing Jeff’s father and his 11 siblings.

“Originally, there was one bathroom. Now there’s three,” Jeff said with a laugh.

Bedrooms have been reduced to four. An addition was added in the late 1800s and it has been remodeled a few times.

“It’s a modern house with an old frame,” Jeff said.

Historian Kevin Wester, who wrote a book on the history of Lake Church and helped the family with its research, said the house is a rarity.

“It is one of the few Luxembourg stone houses still standing in the Town of Belgium and still being lived in,” he said.

Two barns and two sheds are on the property, and Jeff built a workshop to fix farm equipment when he’s not helping run Oldenburg Metal Tech in Saukville.

Jeff recently tore down an old granary.

“She was leaning pretty good,” he said.

The property had been used as a horse farm, then grain and dairy. It switched to cash crops only in 2013. Jeff owns about 350 acres and rents another 350, growing corn, soybeans and wheat.

Jeff and his relatives hope the farm will remain in his family for years to come.

Nadolski, who has bought land and plans to move back to the area in a couple of years, will eventually pass the family history torch to younger Deckers. Nieces and nephews have expressed interest.

“I’m looking for the new generation,” she said. “When I get older, I’m going to give the file to them. I want them to have it.”