Growing hops for commercial beer making was important in Waukesha County agriculture during the 1860’s and for several decades afterward. James Weaver of Sussex introduced hops here from New York in 1837. The Beaumont hop house, a fieldstone structure covered by mortar dating to about 1875, measures 18 feet square and 32 feet high. A stove on the first floor created heat that rose through the slatted second floor, where hops were placed to dry. Ephram Beaumont (1834-1918) was prominent in local and county government and in the County Agricultural Society.