The ongoing dispute between Lisbon and Sussex over funding the Pauline Haass Library has hit a sore spot in the last decade escalating to Lisbon threatening to no longer take part in the joint agreement. There is a side story to this disagreement and how Lisbon was in line to gain 76 acres from resident Ruth Lembke (1910-2006).
Born Ruth Craine on May 13, 1910, she was raised in Milwaukee and Wauwatosa, but she was related to the Charles Bixley Buck family of Lisbon, Templeton and Sussex. Her ancestry was from the Isle of Man, a small island between Ireland and England. The Buck-Braine family came to Lisbon in the 1840s. In 1864 Charles and his wife, Margaret Blackburn, paid $3,000 for a 70-acre farm that today is bisected by the Wisconsin Central Railroad and Waukesha Avenue. Today part of the land is occupied by Quad/Graphics.
Charles Bixley Buck served as Lisbon town chairman in 1878 and his son, C.B. Buck was town chairman from 1900-02 and again from 1903-04. Meanwhile the Buck family sold the remainder of the Buck farm for $5,000 in 1896.
Now C.B. Buck built a house next to the Sussex Creek which today is just west of Associated Bank. C.B. lived there and so did his father in retirement. They both died in 1916. The home became a habit of relatives, the Craine family, including Ruth, who would visit the Bucks.
Eventually Ruth, a school teacher in Wauwatosa, would marry Lisbon farmer and Milwaukee-employed Emil Lembke who inherited the Lembke 76-acre farm in Lisbon. Upon retirement, Ruth and her husband retired to the Lisbon farm. This farm was south of Richmond Road, west of Sussex Corporate Center and Highway 164.
She loved the rural atmosphere and would adopt cats that found a home on the Lisbon farm. After Emil died, Ruth became very involved in the community as she served on the Sussex Food Pantry committee. Meanwhile her friend, Pauline “Polly” Haass, a kindred spirit who was also a school teacher had willed her land in Lisbon in 1966 with some instructions on how it was to be used. The will resulted in the shared Sussex-Lisbon library in 1988.
Ruth saw that there was success in the Haass library and she joined the Friends of the Pauline Haass Library and became very involved. She drew up her own will in 1996 where she was to give the Town of Lisbon her farm upon her death. The farmland would be developed into a park. She was proud of her decision but became apprehensive 10 years later when she saw that Lisbon had not turned over the Haass land to the library. She also voiced apprehension that one particular Lisbon trustee had made a remark along the lines of “when she dies we can do what we want with the land.”
About 32 days before Ruth died, she changed her will cutting Lisbon out. Today, the 76 acres is almost the same as it was in 2006 with the Meissner family renting the land to farm corn and soy beans.
Ruth Lembke feared that her farm would get swallowed up in politics and become the site of a housing or commercial development. Before she died, she took steps to see that didnt happen. Town won’t have control of land Revision of will was triggered by differences over Haass property
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI) – Sunday, April 9, 2006
Author: DAVE SHEELEY, Staff: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Lisbon Being a city girl, Ruth Lembke would have chosen against moving to the country if her husband hadnt already bought out his siblings shares of his familys farm.
But after she was introduced to the property off Highway 164 in Lisbon, and the many cats that lived there, she came to enjoy the country lifestyle.
“She said she was really glad he did that because it was the best decision he made,” her grandniece, Ruth Basting, said of Emil Lembkes land purchase.
Retired schoolteacher Ruth Lembke grew into a caretaker of the critters on the more than 70 acres of farm and woodland, and strove to make sure its natural environs would be protected beyond her death.
Thats why years ago she willed the entire property to the town for a park or animal refuge.
But that plan changed just weeks before she died March 3 at the age of 95.
With a belief that the town was mishandling the bequest of Pauline Haass , Lembke decided against donating the property to the town, according to Basting, of Delafield, and instead left it to Basting, who pledges to keep the land natural.
“In my prior will I planned to leave the land to the Town of Lisbon,” Lembke says in a revision to her will she finalized Jan. 30. “But I am now convinced that if I did, my wishes would not have been honored and that my land will be developed into an industrial park, retail development or a subdivision.”
Development all around
Lembkes effort to protect her land amid fears that it would be developed in the hands of the town is one example of a land issue in this rapidly developing area of northern Waukesha County where commercial parks and subdivisions have sprung up on land once farmed.
Ellen Gennrich, president of the Waukesha Land Conservancy, says natural areas such as the Ruth Lembke property will become even more valued as development escalates throughout the county.
Stopping it from being developed, she said, is key to maintaining open spaces.
“Thats the ideal solution,” Gennrich said.
Haass , a retired schoolteacher who died in 1985, bequeathed cash and 65 acres of former farmland at Lake Five and Hickory roads to the town to create a public library for residents.
The town struck an agreement with Sussex to launch a joint library district, which built a library on Main St. in Sussex in the mid-1990s.
Basting said Ruth Lembke, who was a member of the Friends of the Pauline Haass Public Library, believed the town would sell the Haass land and use proceeds from the sale for non-library purposes, contrary to the wishes of Haass .
That led Ruth Lembke to worry that the town wouldnt fulfill her wishes that her property not be developed.
“She just didnt want to take the chance that her wishes wouldnt be followed,” Basting said.
Ruth Lembke was fearful her property would “get swallowed up in politics” and become the site of a housing or commercial development if in the hands of the town, Basting said.
“Everything together got her thinking it wouldnt be a good idea,” Basting said.
Town planned a park
The Sussex Corporate Center sits on the east side of the Lembke land, and housing is directly south of it off Highway K. Development is planned for the north side of the property, north of Richmond Road, as well, according to the town.
Despite Lembkes assertions, Town Clerk Jeffrey Musche said the town would have adhered to her will if it had maintained control of the land and would have banned development on the property.
In preliminary discussions, town officials had talked about setting aside the Lembke property for parkland, he said.
“We were going to maintain it as a park,” Musche said.
In all the discussions he had with town representatives about the property, “never did one person indicate any intent not to fulfill her wishes,” Musche said.
Musche acknowledged that Ruth Lembke had the prerogative to make any changes to her will. However, he said, he was surprised the town was not forewarned of the revision.
Meanwhile, Musche defended the towns handling of the Pauline Haass land.
“Every nickel of the Haass estate has gone to fund the Pauline Haass (library),” he said.
In recent months the Haass estate has been at the center of a dispute library officials have attempted to straighten out.
Late last year the Library Board voted to obtain a new legal opinion on whether the Library Board or Town Board should control proceeds from the Haass bequest. Both boards obtained attorneys opinions in 1997, and those opinions had opposing viewpoints.
Both sides said they believe the money should be spent on the library. However, the dispute centers on which agency the town or library should be in control of proceeds from the Haass bequest.
Ahead of her time
Ruth Craine Lembke, who was born May 13, 1910, was a teacher at Roosevelt School in Wauwatosa for most of her career.
She and Emil Lembke, who died in 1984, lived in Milwaukee but visited his familys property on weekends, where they strolled the farm fields and watched the cows.
Ruth Lembke was active in many organizations. She volunteered at a food pantry in Sussex and was a member of the Wauwatosa Womens Club. She also was a pilot in the Civil Air Patrol.
Eileen Collins of Milwaukee, a cousin of Ruth Lembkes, said she was an adventurer who flew a plane when few women did.
“She was way ahead of her time. When she wanted to do something, she went ahead and did it,” Collins said.
In retirement, the Lembkes moved to the Lisbon property permanently, and Ruth Lembke grew attached to the many cats, raccoons and deer there, leaving them food and drink in pans outside the farmhouse.
Cats inspired book
The cats were the main focus of the book she wrote, “Calicos Country Cats,” which was published in 1982.
She wrote: “Even though we spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars on cats during the sixteen years we have been part of their community, every minute and every dollar has been worth it.”
Basting remembered Lembke as a kind person who gave selflessly.
“She lived by that golden rule. She never said anything bad to anybody and never did anything bad to anybody,” Basting said. “She did things without wanting anything back.”
In her revised will, Lembke says Basting also wants to make sure her property doesnt get developed.
“Ruth Ann Basting understands and shares my very strong desire to see my land remain in as much a natural state as possible,” Ruth Lembke wrote.
Currently, Basting said, the portion of the property thats farmland is leased to a farmer, who will be able to farm there as long as he wants. The entire parcel is assessed at $124,800.
However, she has yet to decide what to do with the land in future years.
“I want to make the right decision,” she said.
Some options include creating soccer fields on the property or turning it over to a conservancy group to preserve, she said.
That second option is favorable to Gennrich.
“It does sound like a property that would be worth protecting,” Gennrich said, adding that the county lists a portion of the land as an isolated natural resource area.
But whichever route Basting takes, she promises to do as Lembkes will says.
“She knows Ill do what she wants,” she said. “I want to keep it natural, too, like she wanted it.”
Copyright 2006, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved.
Sussex property to be sold, subdivided for development
By Tom Daykin of the Journal Sentinel July 16, 2014
A large Sussex property is being sold and apparently will be split into smaller parcels for development purposes.
The 70-acre site, now zoned for farming, is owned by Basting LLC, operated by Delafield resident Ruth Basting, at the northwest corner of Highway 164 and Lisbon Road/Highway K, according to a village report.
Meijer Inc. is developing a 200,000-square-foot supermarket and discount store at the southeast corner of that intersection. The nearby farmland is being marketed as a commercial development opportunity, perhaps as a business park.
A request to split the property into two parcels of roughly 42 acres and 28 acres will be considered by a joint meeting of the Plan Commissions of Sussex and the Town of Lisbon, at a Thursday night meeting.
The developer who is purchasing the property, whom the village report doesn’t name, wants to create two parcels “for financial reasons with the timing of the (purchase) closing,” the report said.
The two parcels “will likely be subdivided in the future based upon a development plan proposed,” the report said.
No rezoning request yet
A request to rezone the site hasn’t yet been submitted to the village, said Kasey Fluet, Sussex assistant development director.
No additional land divisions should occur until the Plan Commission has approved a development plan for both parcels, the village report said.
The possible sale hasn’t closed yet, said Dan Scardino of Point Real Estate, the property’s listing agent. Scardino declined to identify the prospective buyer.
The parcel also is the subject of a lawsuit pending in Waukesha County Circuit Court.
Basting in May sued Keinert Family Limited Partnership No. 1, a Brookfield group led by Jay Keinert. The suit says an agreement to sell the land for $2.15 million was canceled in April by the prospective buyer because of a “title issue” created by Keinert.
Keinert couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.