George & Louise Lawr Farm

Friendly farmhouse.

NPS credit

This parcel of land was bought by Thomas Kelderhouse in 1861. After his death in 1884, his son, James, inherited the property and in 1889, deeded 40 acres to George and Louisa Burfiend Lawr. Louisa was the daughter of Port Oneida pioneer Carsten Burfiend. They purchased the adjacent 80 acres and built this farm in the 1890s.

George Lawr was the son of a Scotsman and his mother was from New York. George came to the U.S. from Canada in 1871. He and his wife farmed here until 1945.

Neighbors remember Lousia as someone that loved everybody. She was known for offering large cream cookies with big raisins anytime someone entered her door. George Lawr was a skilled carpenter.

During winters, some of the Port Oneida men, including George, would live at home and go work in the woods each day. George and his brother Howard had good teams of horses, and they would partner up teaming. According to George Burfiend, Lawr's nephew, they usually had two teamsters because "they had to have help getting up the hills, and maybe help down the hills too-dad and Uncle George would have two sleighs, and one would get loaded during the day while they were pulling the other one to Cedar or Maple City or wherever, and then they'd bring that one back and drop it off, and then the next morning they'd hook onto the one that had been loaded the day before and take it over; and then they'd have one there being loaded."

Cutting Ice

For many years, the residents of Port Oneida cut all the ice they needed from frozen lakes. Shell Lake was one of the main places they harvested ice as well as Mud Lake near the Lawr place. They'd cut ice off the lakes and haul it up to what they called an icehouse, and then they would pack it all in there in one big bunch with sawdust, and then cover it all with sawdust. People would come together and help each other get their ice using huge, heavy handsaws adapted from the crosscut saws used in the woods. Gas-powered saws replaced the hand-powered ones, and, eventually electric saws came along.