Thomas V. Axtell Farm, 1992

When the Axtells purchased their farm just north of Janesville in 1854, the town was in its formative stages. Janesville, though, grew steadily, and shortly after the Civil War supported three churches, two general stores, two grain elevators, flouring and saw mills, millinery and tailor shops, a cooperage and a blacksmith shop. As Janesville developed, so too did the region's nearby farms generate a sense of permanence. Like other successful farms in the area, the value of Thomas Axtell's holdings increased from a reported $5,000.00 in 1860 to $13,750.00 in 1870.7 At the time of Axtell's death in 1883, the farm encompassed 280 acres, ranking among the region's larger acreages.8 After Axtell's death, the Axtell farm was maintained by his widow, Sophia, and by their children. Their son, Thomas W. Axtell (born in 1861), eventually took over control of the farm until its ownership passed from the family in 1896