Sheboygan museum is home to this 1860s log cabin built by German immigrants Traugott and Karoline Weinhold

SHEBOYGAN - Dreadful economic conditions caused many Germans to immigrate to America during the mid-1800s.

People living in Prussia, which was part of the German empire at the time, found employment opportunities failed to cover common living expenses.

That is what caused Traugott and Karoline Weinhold to pull up stakes and take a gamble on America.

In 1861, Weinhold purchased a tract of 40 acres in the town of Sherman for $600, according to information from Travis Gross at the Sheboygan County Historical Museum.

That amount of money may seem small today, but for many occupations it was several years worth of wages at the time.

The couple arrived in Wisconsin at first in Milwaukee, where the couple's youngest son, Frederich, was born in 1864. Traugott worked as a laborer in the city at first. Plans were made to build a log cabin on the land that the family bought. According to the museum, tax records showed the cabin was built between 1864 and 1867 when the value of the property rose substantially.

The resulting 1.5-story cabin that was built was larger than most at 18 feet by 27 feet, or about one-third larger than most log homes during that era.

The cabin, built in what is known as the German style, utilized extensive chinking that sealed the logs from moisture and kept the home more free of germs. Chinking is the white seam between logs on a log home. Scandinavian-style log homes, by comparison, would use little to no chinking.

According to a Sheboygan Press clipping from the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center, the structure is made of beech, ash and maple logs with tamarack rafters.

The chimney to the stove was in the center of the home and its main function was for cooking and heating.

The Weinhold family would engage in farming successfully on their 40-acre piece of paradise for many years. Weinhold's family would expand to include five sons: August, Herman, Heinrich, Carl Ludwig and Frederich. The five boys would become successful farmers and entrepreneurs in their own right. Both Traugott and Karoline would pass away in 1896. Today, there are many Weinhold descendants living in Sheboygan County.

Fortunately, in 1977, the Weinhold Log Cabin, one of the last remaining log cabins left in the county, was donated by Delores Weber, the great granddaughter of Traugott Weinhold, and her husband Vernon, to the Sheboygan County Historical Society Museum.

Moving the cabin was potentially a big, expensive project for the museum, however. The homestead was moved from the Weber farm, which was on a portion of the original Weinhold property. The cabin was about 3.5 miles southwest of Adell on Indian Mound Road, about 20 miles from Sheboygan.

A 155-member volunteer team from the Sheboygan County Deputy Sheriff's Association, headed by Sheriff Vernon Boeckmann at the time, provided the manpower. Additionally, the Seabee Naval Unit and the Naval Reserves at the time also volunteered for the move.

The move was estimated to cost around $8,000. Volunteers partially disassembled the lower part of the cabin, labeling and numbering each piece for reassembly at the museum grounds.

A new slab of concrete was poured for the cabin at the museum. The cabin needed many repairs to bring it back up to prime 1860s condition.

The existing tin roof was removed and original style cedar shake shingles were installed. The wood siding was taken off the upper half of the home and replaced with new material. All of the doors and windows were replaced in preparation for the July 8, 1979, dedication in conjunction with the Historical Society's 25th anniversary.

Furnishings were donated for the cabin, which further illustrate the log cabin experience. Only one item in the cabin, an armoire, is original to the Weinhold family.

Today, the cabin serves as an educational tool for the museum at the Taylor Hill complex.

To see the slider larger, click here.

To see a virtual reality on a desktop computer of the inside of the cabin, click here.

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This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Sheboygan museum is home to 1860s log cabin built by German immigrants