O'Keeffe and Totto Family Farmland

Departing the site of Georgia O’Keeffe’s birthplace, turn right onto Town Hall Drive. As you look down the road, all the land to your right (west) was owned by the O’Keeffe family, with additional holdings further down on the left side of the road. On the right you will approach a blue sided home with a large burr oak tree in front at the top of a small rise. This was the original home of Pierce and Catherine O’Keeffe, Georgia’s paternal grandparents, who arrived in July of 1848. The home has been remodeled and many of the outbuildings and barn structures associated with the farmhouse have been removed. Although Georgia never knew her paternal grandfather, who died in 1869, she undoubtedly would have strolled down this road to visit with her grandmother Catherine during her youth.

Pierce and Catherine O’Keeffe raised four boys in the household, with Francis, Georgia’s father, being the third born in 1852. After Pierce’s death, Francis and his brothers worked the farm with Francis ultimately taking the lead role in consolidating the O’Keeffe and Totto land holdings after his older brothers passed away in the 1880s. Francis O’Keeffe’s farming interest eventually amounted to some 600 acres. Georgia would later relate, “Papa had a prize farm; there was no better one in Sun Prairie. Although he had plenty of farm help, he worked from dawn to dark.”^[1]

Orson Lyon surveyed the land settled by Pierce and Catherine O’Keeffe while running boundary lines of Native American treaty lands in 1834. Lyon's descriptive notes mentioned the gently rolling prairies interlaced with marshes, creeks, and groves of trees.^[2] The O’Keeffes had purchased and sold several pieces of property in the Sun Prairie area prior to settling in 1853 on the land along Town Hall Drive. Pierce established a farm on the site and was a strong proponent of improving roads necessary to bring raw dairy product to local creameries.

Both Pierce and Catherine were born near Kilkenny, Ireland and immigrated to the U.S. as a married couple, arriving in New York City on April 22, 1848. After settling in Sun Prairie along with Pierce’s brother and a 3-year-old daughter from Pierce’s previous relationship, the couple had four sons born in the early 1850s.^[3] When Pierce died in 1869, his sons assumed operation of the farm, ending attendance at school for the now 16-year-old Francis.^[4] After his older brothers died in 1883 and 1888, Francis consolidated the O’Keeffe and Totto land holdings.

Catherine O’Keeffe, Georgia’s grandmother, continued to live in the original O’Keeffe farmhouse. Georgia would relate that she was very kind, had a gentle voice, and loved beautiful sewing.^[7] Catherine was also a painter, focusing on still lifes of fruit and flowers, and perhaps adding spark to Georgia’s subsequent career.^[8] Catherine was Georgia’s longest living grandparent, passing away in 1897 at the age of 83.

Although Francis assumed leadership of the farm, he was also known to be adventurous in spirit. In 1883, he left to explore the beckoning west of the Dakotas, leaving with 12 horses to sell and timber to construct a barn.^[5] Not liking what he found there, he ultimately returned but Georgia would later say, “Although I received my mother’s strict kind of bringing up, I think that deep down I am like my father. When he wanted to see the country, he just got up and went. That is how it has to be at times with me.”^[6]

Francis was only modestly successful at farming and may have questioned the risks to his health after all three of his brothers died from tuberculosis. In late 1899, after 30 years working at the occupation and one year after the death of his younger brother, he sold all his livestock and began to rent out his farm. Three years later, he sold his farm holdings and moved the family to Williamsburg, Virginia where he pursued a feed and grocery business.^[9]

^[1] Pollitzer, Anita. A Woman on Paper: Georgia O’Keeffe. Simon & Schuster Inc., New York, NY, 1988, p. 55.

^[2] Lyon, Orson. Interior Field Notes for Township 8 North, Range 11 East, September 1834. Notebook ID: INT102E04. https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/SurveyNotes/SurveyNotes-idx?type=turn&issueid=SurveyNotes.INT102E04&entity=SurveyNotesINT102E000114&isize=XL&twp=T008NR011E accessed 5/28/2024, Wisconsin Board of Commissioners of Public Lands.

^[3] O’Keeffe Family: Georgia O’Keeffe’s ancestors, siblings and Sun Prairie relatives. Research compiled by Dee Theisen, Sun Prairie Historical Library and Museum, 2022.

^[4] Reily, Nancy Hopkins. Georgia O'Keeffe, a Private Friendship, Part I - Walking the Sun Prairie Land. Sunstone Press, Santa Fe, NM, 2007, p. 30.

^[5] The Countryman (Sun Prairie) August 16, 1883.

^[6] Pollitzer, p. 58.

^[7] Pollitzer, p. 59.

^[8] Reily, p. 30.

^[9] Reily, p. 76.