[3] Although most early settlers in this Black Swamp county cleared their lands, Peter Goll, Sr. and his wife Catherine preserved significant areas of virgin woodlands on their property.

[4] After immigrating to the United States from France in 1836, the Golls' first home in western Fulton County was a log cabin, approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) east of the present farmstead.

As Peter Goll, Jr. grew to adulthood, he married and established a new farmstead;[5] building a new house, he used a distinctively European method of massive timber construction derived from the vernacular architecture of the region's earliest French and German settlers.

[5] Three years after the house was completed, the Golls erected a barn to shelter their different types of livestock: horses, dairy cows, and possibly pigs.

Some local residents reacted strongly against this proposal; by working with ODNR and the Ohio General Assembly, they were able to secure grants from the state for the property's restoration, and renovation efforts began in both the barn and the house.