Walnut Grove Farm

Walnut Grove Farm is a working farm of about 360 acres one mile north of Knoxville, Illinois, named for two stands of walnut trees at the edges of its building clusters. The land was deeded to George A. Charles by the U.S. government in 1835, and his family grew the holdings into a cattle operation of nearly 2000 acres by 1887. The surviving farmstead includes a three-level bank barn of about 1865 with a sandstone foundation and hand-hewn pegged framing, a 1916 middle barn, an east barn, a hog farrowing house, a tenant house, a brick water storage building and a Second Empire farmhouse with a mansard roof. The prairie soils supported corn and cattle feeding, and nearby sandstone quarries supplied building stone. Members of the Charles family also served on county boards and in farm organizations. The layout of buildings, groves, pastures and fields has changed little, though the balance has shifted toward corn.