Thank you so much for uploading this photograph of the Boelte family farm in Mecklenburg. I had seen it in an old Columbus, Wis. newspaper story (F. W. Stare) but never expected to find a clear copy of it online. My great-great-grandfather was Christoph Boelte (b. 1839)- a nephew of the Boelte brothers who settled in Columbus, Wis. The picture you have of a "Christoph Boelte" is one of his uncles. His mother was Sophie Boelte, the eldest child in her family; she later married a Christoph Zarrs. My g.g.grandfather Christoph emigrated to the U.S. as a young man, married a Columbus, Wisconsin girl (Sophia Kitzerow), and they farmed there all his life. He died in 1905 in a farm accident, just before he was to retire.
