Today, the Stellwagen Family Farm is a 60-acre rural oasis amid the suburbia that has cropped up all around the Orland Park historical site. But Betty Stellwagen Maue remembers when it was just one of many family farms near 179th Street and 108th Avenue. The families all knew each other by name.

“The farmers all worked together on a lot of things,” Maue said.

So, as much as the late summer/early fall tours the family offers are a trip down memory lane for the seven children of Harwood Stellwagen, keeping the legacy alive is what the farm represents, said Jim Stellwagen, one of seven siblings who were the last generation to live on the property.

“We take pride in it,” Stellwagen said.

Over the years, the Stellwagen family sold off pieces of the property to developers hungry to build. They would have happily gobbled up more, said Diane Stellwagen Grigus.

“The subdivision developers were definitely knocking on the door all the time and would love to have taken the last piece too,” Grigus said.

The Stellwagen farm was established in 1860 by Mathias Stellwagen. His family came from Germany in the 1840s and originally settled in Frankfort near what is now the Home Depot at Saint Francis and La Grange Roads. When Mathias settled the farm, it already had a two-story structure on 80 acres. He later acquired another 40 acres and then another 40.

The farm was reduced to just 60 acres before Harwood Stellwagen, the great-grandson of founder Mathias, decided to try to preserve a piece of Orland Park’s agricultural history.

“It was our dad’s desire that the

buildings get restored like they did,” Maue said.

Grigus said the village shared that vision.

“Thank goodness,” she said. “Otherwise, you’d be standing in another cul-de-sac right now. It’s like a little island that’s left.”

She said as the suburbs grew on what used to be farmland, their father was concerned people wouldn’t understand where food came from and how food was prepared and processed in a field. He thought it would be nice if at least one farm remained that children could visit to understand the rich agricultural history of the Midwest, Grigus said.

The village of Orland Park purchased the farm in 2002 through its Open Lands program. In 2007, a new windmill was installed to replicate the original from the early 1900s, and the family members all signed their names on the blades.

In 2008, the barn’s foundation was fully restored. The glazed block silo was restored in 2010. A five-year effort to restore the farm buildings was completed in 2013, according to a placard on the property, with the Stellwagen and Maue families doing most of the work themselves.

“My dad’s thing was: We’ll give it to them in great shape and then they’ll take care of it,” Grigus said.

The farm, at 17701 S. 108th Ave., still has its original farmhouse, which is closed for a restoration being handled by the village, and its outbuildings. Those include a milk house, dairy barn, machine shed, corn crib and multiple farm animal and storage buildings.

Sarah Stasukewicz, the village’s museum coordinator, said 100 years ago Orland Park was mostly farmland, and the Stellwagen farm serves as a working example of that era.

“It kind of allows you to step back in time and see this is what Orland Park was,” she said.

Farm life

The farm has been owned by five generations of Stellwagens, and the land has been worked by eight generations. Harwood, the owner just before the village took over, was an only child tasked with keeping up the family farm. He and his wife, Alma, had seven children — Betty, Diane and Jim among them. Those siblings were the last generation to actually live on the farm, though their experiences varied. They were born between 1941 and 1963, leaving a 22-year age gap.

“I remember it when the horses were the main power,” Maue said. “We did have one lugged-wheel tractor, but basically if you were going to go out and harvest corn or something, you hitch up the team of horses. If you’re going to spread the manure, you hitch up the team of horses.”

The tractors came later on what was predominantly a dairy farm with a lot of chickens, Maue said.

“This is basically what we knew: the farm,” Maue said. “Didn’t venture off much. Would go to church on Sunday. We walked up to the corner to a one-room grade school.”

Stellwagen said it is fun to relive some of the memories when visitors stop there. He said he spent hundreds of hours inside the barn, stacking hay, with farm life requiring a more practical approach.

“It’s more working,” he said. “Everybody worked on the farm. I did farming. I’m the current one that rents the land, and I actually made a living of farming here. A lot of my memories are not just growing up but actually working on the various aspects.”

Grigus said by the time her brother might have run the farm, the land was worth too much. It just became too hard to make a living off it.

“Sadly, when it came time that my brother would have loved to have done it, there was no longer a culture for farming in Cook County,” she said. “It depends when you’re born, what era you happen to fall in.”

Grigus recalled biking to school up a much different road than 108th Avenue is today. The entire family had one bathroom to share, and they had a bathtub but not a shower until she was in college.

Her father, Harwood, was heavily involved in Orland Park and the Sandburg school board, but the family was not particularly known for its farm because farming wasn’t such a novelty then. If anything, it just felt to some of Grigus’ friends like she lived in the middle of nowhere.

“Then, it was very much separated from the village of Orland. My bus ride to school took 45 minutes,” she said.

Coming home

“I feel blessed, I think we all do, that we’re able to come back to our original farm,” said Maue, who now lives in New Lenox. “Not too many people have that opportunity anymore to go back to their homestead.”

With the exception of Stellwagen, Maue said the siblings were married and gone by the time the farm was sold. So, their children and grandchildren do not have the same kind of connection.

“It wasn’t an area where you could pass the farm down with the growth in the area. Everybody went a different direction,” she said.

Maue said educating children there falls right in line with her values as a schoolteacher.

“To me, it was a wonderful heritage,” she said. “I wouldn’t want life any other way. It was a joy to have grown up on the farm and to be able to share a little bit of that.”

Maue led a tour Friday, explaining to adults and children how milk cans were kept “refrigerated” in a small building with cold water before they were taken for sale.

Grigus said the farm is serving the purpose her father envisioned. The hope is children may take field trips there, but they need to add facilities to accommodate that. Grigus said the driving idea is that if the village is helping to preserve the farm, residents should get to experience it.

Another chance to see it

Stasukewicz said the family’s continued contributions have been invaluable. Their restoration, in the midst of an economic recession, included replacing wood siding, sourcing Swedish linseed oil paint for the buildings and creating replica pieces. The siblings continue to help with programs.

“Having them still around, still very much a part of everything, it’s special because it’s something I can’t give visitors,” Stasukewicz said. “I never grew up on the farm. I never milked a cow. I never worked with the horses that plow the fields, but they did. So, they bring something special.”

The grounds are open from dawn to dusk regularly, though the buildings are closed outside of the tours and special events.

One such event, dubbed 1865, will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 25. The village will present actors portraying Ulysses S. Grant and Generals Ord, Custer and Meade, who will talk about their time during the Civil War. An artillery group will be in action, a blacksmith will be at work and Civil War weapons will be on display. Attendees can churn butter and make candles.

The event is free, with no registration required. Farm tours will take place, with the outbuildings once again open. Stasukewicz said there will also be cider, beer, water, snacks and a food truck for refreshments. Children will find a craft table and games.

Stasukewicz said when the farmhouse restoration is complete, the idea is to reopen it as a museum.

Bill Jones is a freelancer reporter for the Daily Southtown.