The idea of acquiring the home used by the surgeons of the old fort originated with the Wau Bun Chapter of Portage.

In the Depression years of the 1930s, Columbia County was housing two families of unemployed people in the home. The father of one of them was a taxidermist and a high school student in the area went to him for instructions. It was a chilly day, and the taxidermist, deciding to build a fire in the kitchen stove, went up to the attic, returned with laths he had torn out of the walls, and built the fire.

The boy told his mother what had happened. She realized that the building would not be in existence long if something was not done at once. She took an option on the property, found other homes for the families, and during the next three years tried to find some organization to take over and restore it. Her search ended when the Wisconsin State Society DAR accepted the challenge.