Excited to attend the fair, my two daughters, Niki, Tammie and their neighborhood friend Dee-Dee, raced ahead of me through the parking lot toward the entry gate. I stopped to make sure my car was locked and was amazed that even this far from the midway, I could hear the screams of people enjoying the carnival rides. A gentle, easterly breeze carried the smell of deep-fried foods to us, but also the smell of animals that were entered at the fair. The unique combination of smells didn’t bother me because through the years I’d grown used to them.  

Of all the Marshfield fairground buildings, the first one and easiest to see from a distance is the huge red one that has a sign on it announcing that it is, “the world’s largest round barn.”  Tammie, my younger daughter, proudly informed her friend Dee-Dee, “My great uncle and his brothers built that round barn!” I smiled to hear my daughter repeating what I tell my children each year when attending the fair.

Knowing that my uncle, Henry Felhofer, and his brothers built this local landmark has always made me feel proud to be related to them. What they achieved was remarkable for so many reasons. The Felhofer brothers bid to the Central Wisconsin Holstein Breeders Association for the job was lower than any of the other bids because the brothers planned to do without using scaffolding.

Although the Felhofer brothers were thoroughly experienced in the building trade, this was the only round barn they ever built. They began to work on Thanksgiving Day, in 1915. Working through a bitterly cold winter, they cut the fingers off their gloves to keep warm and yet be able to handle the nails. Since the building had a round roof, the brothers were not sure how many shingles to order. They made an educated guess which turned out to be spot-on! They had only a handful of shingles left when they were done working. The 150-foot wide, 70-foot-tall barn was completed in the spring of 1916 and used for the fair that summer and ever since.

Henry, one of the Felhofter brothers, married my father’s sister, Ann. They lived in Marshfield and had two daughters, Carmen and Germaine. These first cousins were twenty or more years older than me.  Whenever Daddy mentioned his sister, he always had a twinkle in his eyes and called her “Tanta Anna”.  It’s strange, but I’m not sure if I ever met my Aunt Ann and Uncle Henry. I’ve seen many pictures of them and always have known they belonged to my family. When my older siblings were young, my parents visited their brothers and sisters more often. But by the time I was born and old enough to remember, my cousins were adults, and my parents were middle-aged and busy with their own quickly maturing family.

Sometime during the last thirty-four years of my writing a weekly column, first for the Marshfield Buyer’s Guide, then for the last nine years as a weekly personal blog, my cousins, Carmen and Germaine started to read my articles. It was such a happy surprise when Carmen, who no longer lived in Marshfield, wrote a letter to say how much she enjoyed my articles!

This summer, a second cousin I never knew I had messaged to tell me that Carmen, his 94-year-old mother, had passed away. Carmen’s sister, Germaine, had died in November of 2022. Carmen’s burial in Marshfield took place at the end of August. By attending her grave-side service and memorial gathering, I was finally able to meet and get to know several of Carmen’s wonderful relatives!  

Carmen’s memorial service just happened to take place on the second to last day of the 2024 Central Wisconsin State Fair in Marshfield. After the family gathering ended, my daughter Tammie and I went to the fair. Visiting the round barn built by my first cousin’s father, my uncle Henry, was especially nostalgic this year.