Rediscovering the Influential Stephen Field Family (in a Very Unexpected Place) and Finding a Slice of 19th-Century Wisconsin Life

Date/Time: Thursday, May 24th, 7-8 pm

Locaiton: East Troy House – Back Stage

East Troy, WI 53120

Admission: Free

Contact: (262) 642-2642

Event Description:

Paul Reckner, archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society – Museum Archaeology Program, discusses recent archaeological excavations conducted in East Troy.  His talk focuses on ongoing research at the original farmstead of the Field family, who settled there in 1839 and became one of nineteenth-century Walworth County’s most influential families.  Stephen Field was described as “a man of substance and influence among intelligent neighbors and townsmen.”  But who was this man, and what was his family’s life in East Troy really like?  This “biography through bottles, buttons, and bones” uses archaeological evidence of everyday life in the Field’s household to shed new light on the experiences of settler families, and on the development of Southeast Wisconsin’s early farming communities.  The presentation will include images of the archaeological excavations at the Field farmstead site, artifacts recovered from the site, and rare historical documents relating to the Field family.