History of your homestead

[flatwater]

My place was always called the old rose place. A few years ago I decided to see if they were still alive. I was able to locate them and found them to be very interested in the fact I wanted to know the history of my place. Both were in their late eighties but still had great memories. I found out that my place was built in 1932 from the logs that they removed to clear the land and was originaly a one room cabin with 400 acres. The Roses moved in , in 1934 and built the small dairy barn and equiptment shed and turkey shed. They raised rabbits , milk cows , Beef , chickens a couple pigs and they did it using the same spring I still use today. Originaly it consisted of two 55 gal. drums sunk in the spring. Now it has two 700 gal. cisterns that still produce 32 gal. a minute.I asked them why the out buildings only had one side covered in metal. With a twinkle in his eye Mr. Rose said because his wife didn't like the shine on a metal roof so he only put it on the back side of the buildings and shingles were put on the front. You see in those days they only had a choice of shiny galvinized steel. Firestorm of 91 took out my big barn. the chicken house rotted away but I was able to re-roof the garrage , equiptment shed , turkey shed, and the old milk barn. The House has a finished attic, indoor bathroom , laundry room , and a pantry. I replaced most of the windows and added a 8X14 front porch. I,m down to 20 acres and their starting to build too close to me so my wife and I are planning to build an underground house on the 20 we own up north by the Canadian boarder. So with that said what's your homesteads history.
flatwater

[fnfredux]

my place we built on 40A we bought from old Worth Miller when he sold out his 300A farm. Therfore, it's the "old Worth miller place". This 40A nobody else wanted because it was full of Locust (thorn trees) and hedge(more thorn trees) blackberry brambles, briars, poison ivy, poison oak, wild grapevines and rosa rugosa various and sundry types of scrub and brush. And it was rugged land with a big hill and ledge. Thing is that's what made it beautiful. It was a mess for one crop farmers. There were no buildings on it. I don't know the history of this place, but we did know Worth's grandson who told us as a kid he had found many arrowheads here, there is a big creek (Raccoon Creek)real close by and many little tributaries one of which runs across my farm. . We have several springs (not a real good thing since they have begun running heavier and year round) and the seasonal creek has now turned into a year round stream, between the road and my house.
I have found some "ruins" on my property. No one remembers anyone having lived here, but there must have been a house here at one time. There is a shallow hand dug well, rock lined, and about fifty feet downhill from that, what appears to be the remnants of an old stone foundation.
This area is called either "Tater Hill" or Wilson Hollow depending on wether you're coming down the road from the east or the west. The Wilson farmstead complete with tumbled down barn (the house burned many years ago) is across the road from me, leased out for a grass farm. I stopped to speak with a man that had grown up about half a mile from me. They family still owns the land but there is no house ther. He was working there the day I stopped. He told me when he was young (70 years ago at least) there were three schools within three miles of here and many families with small acreages like my 40A. Times got tough and the small farmers couldn't make it. Sold out and moved. There are still houses on many of the parcels in various stages of decay. The farms have pretty much been consolodated into 1000A+ parcels for monoculture by a few "family farms".
My homestead is back to good pasture thanks to my goats, mainly what I am attempting to do is provide a place of safety for my family after I'm gone. I don't see things going well in this country. Maybe it's time to go back to the smaller "homestead".

[mom]

Where do you live is the question most often asked. "The Old Barton House". Only an acre in our small village - right in the middle of a 700 populatin community. Right next to the phone company. LOL, when I bought the place 16 years ago, that was still the legal description at the gas and electricity company - "White house next to the phone comany". The house was originally built in 1913 - never fancy. The first telephone switchboard was in this house - in what is the living room now. I guess the phone company finally modernized and put their switching stuff in their own building about 1950. The Bartons bought in the late 50's and added on the house - added on very poorly. DH has about fixed all their construction errors. The Bartons had a huge garden and a chicken yard - supplied all the eggs to everyone around here. When I bought the chicken house was caved in and I immediately burned the remains. About half the property was for the chickens. If the people who are asking "where do you live" haven't been here long enough to know the "Old Barton Place" they surely know where the crazy rose lady lives. probably 300 rose bushes growing here and there used to be closer to 600 before I left for a year and the ex husband did his best to kill them all. Roses do not like round up, fire or weedeaters

[Mr.B]

I live in a small rural town. Years ago the town sported a number of factories and what not, now all the factories are gone.

Well I bought my place about a year ago. Its a small place compared to today’s houses. 1100 square feet.

The place was built in 1930. And I share a driveway with my neighbors.

That’s all I pretty much new about the place until one day I talked to my neighbor after digging holes around my property for planting a few small trees I kept digging up horse shoes, lengths of bands of metal,cutt nails, chunks of metal.

Well turns out the where my house stands there use to be a barn, around 1930 much of the farm land was sold off to the town to build a high school, the small high school was later remodeled into the town offices years ago.

Since I share a drive way with my neighbor his house is at the beginning of the drive way, his house is the original farm house. So the barn was disassembled, all the wood put off to the side. Foundation poured, and basically the barn was put back together on top of the foundation & then made into a house.

In 1970 a small addition was built on the side of the house , basically a small bedroom room and a one car garage.

Oh ya in 2008 I added a pellet stove.

That’s all I really know about it.

[rideaway]

My 5 acres was the original homesite of my great grandfather's original 65 acres. My mother owns 10 acres right next to us (of which I'm supposed to get a third one of these days (it won't be the third next to my property, of course). The rest has been divided and sold by my grandmother's brothers.

We have the original orchard and lived in the orginal cabin for amost 6 years while we were caretaking the property. Heated water and the cabin with the original cast iron wood stove. We were able to replace that with an old single wide when it started falling down. Then, bought the property almost 7 years ago and last year put on a new manufactured (stick builts are outrageous to build around here) and a new garage.

I have the original diaries from when they packed everything (including building supplies for the cabin) across a log foot bridge that washed out every winter. I love having this place, tho wish we were further out and had more land.

[Dawgus]

Our one acre used to belong to the parents of the people behind me. At one time, her folks owned around 20 acres, but it was sold off little by little. Her uncle has the 5 acres next door (he bought the families apple orchard), her mother gave them the piece behind us, and we bought the last acre from the daughter after her mother passed away. The house was first built in the 30's as a 24x30 basement home, the other 24 feet of the basement was added to that in the 50's, then the upstairs was added in I believe '63, not long before her father passed away.
I found out not long ago that my front yard was a kind of rest area in the early 1900's. There's apparantly an old stone well buried there somwhere, and at one time was a small building with hitching posts. The uncle told me about it, and pointed out the 3 trees in a perfect line that were on either side of it, and showed me an old stone highway marker in his field next door. I talked to the county, and they stopped using that kind of marker around 1920. Since the day we moved in here, there were always fresh flowers in a vase or basket at the phone pole in the corner of our property. It turns out that a young girl was struck and killed by a car there sometime in the 50's, and her parents and family always put the flowers there. I only got to speak to them once when I mounted a permanent plastic vase on the pole for them, but I think something happened to the family since I haven't seen anyone there in almost a year.
I got a kick out of finding an OLD Olt duck call above some ductwork in the house when we were doing some remodeling. It must have been ordered from the factory or sent back for repair since the small box was shipped itself. I found out the father was an avid hunter up until he passed. At least I know the origional adress of this place thanks to that box.........rt1 box 565. ;D

[WileyCoyote]

This old house was built in 1910, by someone who evidently appreciated beauty and function. It has leaded windows, and a couple of stained-glass windows as well... real ones, with the lead in between the colors. It sits on the northernmost edge of a town of 177 people (they changed the sign when we moved in! LOL), and there are 16 acres in 'town' and 34 in the county. It's called "the old Blumenstock place" because they were the last folks who owned it. The hubby thought he was a carpenter (bless his heart) and we have managed to repair and upgrade most of his 'improvements'. The previous owner really went all out with HIS upgrades and did a fine job. But initially this house was the town dairy; had milk cows and the basement still has a cooling room that has outdoor egress, the garage still has the ancient refrigeration unit under a shelf on the floor that was obviously moved out of the basement. The cooling room still has scars in the cement where the equipage was removed. *

We have 4-inch wide solid maple trim throughout the house; solid maple doors, and a large 'side porch' that extends the entire width of the east side of the house. There are many stunning eaves and nooks and crannies, lots of rooms. The 'addition' on the west side has a woodstove built up on firebrick, but the whole house otherwise was upgraded from a central chimney-for-oil-heater to propane heat. There are many older pieces of wood trim, doors, and castoff metal signs, headboards, and other metalwork both inside and out. *With almost 100 years of history and living, we are constantly finding 'surprises' that we can use and incorporate into what we are planning, building, and dreaming. We also want to have milk cows on the property, as well as chickens and we have three huge gardens, one of which will be occupied by an underground greenhouse.

Several folks have told us that they are glad that we bought it; it was allowed to run down, and their grandfather used to own it (apparently he was very prolific!) and sit on the side porch with his pipe while they played in the yard or climbed the trees. By our rebuilding it and planning to put it back to its former glory, we are helping them to enhance and retain their fond memories of the place.

We do love it so; it is what we've always dreamed of, where we wanted to be geographically, and have been looking for, for a long time. Now we enjoy the work we do on it - unlike the other houses we've owned - because it means something to us.

Next task - ripping up the old berber carpet and restoring the maple wood floors to their previous glory. I've already done the upstairs... ;D Beautiful!

[Backwoods_Bob]

My forty acres was just raw timber land when we got it.

We're the first people to live here. ;D

We're up on Blue Grouse Mountain in Stevens county, wa.

Now lets see - Most of the big timber burned in the 1890's.

A rail line was put in about that time to some of the local lakes, and the grass and brush grew up after the big fire so the sheep herders moved in.

the sheep herders developed many hidden springs in the hills.
One such spring is 1/2 mile downhill from our home.
My wife and I cleaned this spring out and use it for water to this day.
Heh, this particular spring has been fought over for many a long year, with one feller or another moving property lines around to claim it.

The tress grew back, and the sheep left.
The depression hit, and the county abandoned many a mile of back country dirt road.
The main road that access our corner of forest is still not a county road. Nobody maintains it or plows it. makes life interesting....

When the trees grew back logging picked up. For a time much white pine was cut, all of which went for match sticks.
Mining had been an on again, off again industry up here. The whole top of our mountain was worked by a local farmer for tungsten for a time.
He had two drifts going in. Local legend has it that a tunnel right through the mountain existed at one time.
I've found what I believe were the mine entrances, but the tunnels have long since caved in.

Round about 1975 two things happened that shut down the mining. first, our benevolent Gov't decided to subsidize south Korean tungsten imports which made it uneconomic to mine the stuff up here, and second, the farmer who was working the mine lost his son in an accident there.

All that is left of the mining are some ruins hidden in forest and one log cabin still stands where a mining family used to live.

Now, round about the early 70's a logging road was pushed in up the north flank of the mountain.
Not long after, a young couple bought forty acres way up the end of that road and homesteaded.

They are still there to this day. They raised two fine sons there, one of which was even born at home.
The kids were homeschooled, and they are both engineers today.

That homesteader dug his well by hand, lived happily off grid in the days before solar power systems were readily available, built everything himself, lived offa homegrown apples, potatoes and rabbits, and is the single most economical person I have ever met.
He worked all these years seasonally and took the whole winter off. Commuting in and out isn't an option when the snows hit.
In fact, this feller is something of a local legend himself and is often called "Walker" because although he lives back in the hills in rough and snowy country, he's never even bothered to own a 4x4 vehicle.
He still owns the old two wheel drive ford pickup he had when they first moved up here.
He just walks everywhere when mud season hits, and snowshoes in the winter.

heh, been two other attempts to homestead this mountain over the years.

In the late 70's a young couple drove up and set up a teepee.
They were squatting on the land, and didn't own it.

The woman would stay in the teepee and the man would drive off to work most days.

They lasted a few weeks. Then they had a terrible fight, and the man drove off. The woman tossed all their belongings into the teepee, doused it with kerosene and torched it before walking away.

The teepee ring is visible to this day, down in what we call the "teepee meadow" about a 1/4 mile away from our cottage.

The only other attempt to homestead up here also ended in fire.
In the 1980's a young family built a good sized frame cabin and moved in.
They made it through their first winter, but come spring thaw they were dying to get out. The husband and wife left in the truck for the day, leaving two young kids at home.
The kids started the genny to watch a video tape on the TV.
The genny ran outta fuel and the kids managed to douse the hot genny with gasoline while trying to refuel it, burring the cabin to the ground.
They moved away, and were never heard from again.

Now round about the late 90's is where I come into the picture. I found some forest land up this way for 750 an acre that was to our liking.
In 1998 my wife and I parked a tiny travel trailer in the woods and moved in.
We lived in that trailer for a year and a half, enduring a winter of subzero temps and 15 feet of snow, while building our straw bale cottage.

Now it's 2008 and we've been here over ten years.
We've built everything ourselves, cottage, a garage, barn, woodshed, outhouse, fences, raised bed gardens, chased bears off the front porch, bare footed and empty handed my wife chased a big mountain lion offa a goat and all the rest that goes along with homesteading.
We built as we could afford things and do things as cheaply as possible.
We're completely out of debt and wouldn't live any other way.

In a way, we're just writing yet another chapter in the history of Blue Grouse Mountain.

[flatwater]

It's better when you can right your own history
Flatwater

[GoodDaughter]

I wish my place was as well documented and historic as some of y'alls places are. But it's not, it's just boring, I guess.

I found out that this house was moved here from Bedias back in the late 1960's. The house itself had been built sometime between 1910 and 1915. It was an old L-shaped farm house but they didn't move the '_' part of the L shape, just the 'I' part. So it looked like an overgrown shotgun shack---long and straight. We later added a '_' to one side as a shop for husband (pre divorce days) and then had an L shaped house again. ::)

It had no charming millwork or interesting artifacts tucked into the walls. In fact, there was nothing at all remarkable about it. There was basically no millwork to speak of, plain tile floors, just a blank canvas. It did come with two old, old toilets, the 5 gal. tanks mounted up on the wall above the toilet stool and the pull chain for flushing, and I still have them. They'll have to pry them out of my cold, dead hands (oh quick someone call the local police on me because I have 5 gal. super tanker toilets as opposed to the half pint flushers!)

Apparently the house had been vacant for about 3 years before we bought it. It had not been vandalized but it did have the usual mice, fireants, palmetto bugs etc living in it. It just needed to be cosmetically gutted and done over. I have tried to give it some of the asthetic attributes that a 1910 farmhouse would have, but I don't observe things very well I guess. But I have managed to figure out that houses of that period often had wide baseboards, beadboard wainscott and for ceilings, horizontal wood siding indoors, simple 1x4 door trim with square rosettes and plinth blocks instead of mitered corners, plain hardware and wood floors. I've made some mistakes, but I think I'm getting it close to looking like an old farmhouse should look.

The land had been abused. It took me a solid month of cleaning and hauling junk off and burning to get the land cleaned up and mowed. I think the people didnt' have garbage service because much of what I found was garbage.

I've been here a long time, since 1984, and while I do have land in another part of Tx., I don't know if I'll ever be able to move away from here.

I have so many fruit trees that are mature, and so many roses. Where the property had been abused I have been working on trying to restore it with native species of grasses, shrubs, and understory trees. It's been a long learning process, and I've discovered that for me, it's best to propagate the native plants myself from seeds I gather or from cuttings or sucker growth. The sheer volume of plant material I need make it cost prohibitive to just go buy all the natives I want or need, if I can find them at all.

I also have my home based business here, and I don't know how easy it would be to simply transfer it to another property. I do know a lot of it would not be feasible.

Anyway, this place has no 'history' to it. I don't know who lived here before I/we got it. I've tried to make it a nice home.

I was at the store a while back, and a nice young man was sacking my groceries. He asked me if I lived in the house with 'all the flowers and the basset hound and the wooden cross in the front yard? *I laughed and said yeah, that's what my yard looks like. He said "I see you out there all the time working in your yard'. Turns out he lives down the road a ways. He used to be this kid who rode up and down on his bike, always carrying a bullfrog or turtle or stringer of catfish. *:)

[Catalpa]

Interesting stories!

The house I'm in now was 'the ol'Turnes place'. Built in 1927, it has nine foot ceilings and wide yellow pine moldings. It's a 'kit' house; we're not sure where from, but each part has it's place written on the back in large cursive script. She's a sturdy old girl , but impossible to heat in the winter!

My land where I want to build has ruins on it; a cement foundation from a barn, including the ring from the silo. There's a deeper hole lined with rocks that was the basement for the house, and the old well with a hand pump that still works. I'm planning building on the top of the hill, just past where the old basement is, and I wonder if I'm going to find anything interesting when we dig. Some day I hope to find out more about my land, and who used to farm it.

[tumbleing_dice]

My place was woods across the road from a fine clear/green river.
with woods on all sides.
The first day I stepped on that sod the woods were so thick I couldn't see the lay of the land.
two doves spooked from above me from a holly tree?It is a favorite tree of mine and rare that far west.
I cleared the land Myself and looked for a history,there was no man made history,there was a geological history of a ancient river that once flowed there but is now has eroded the limestone well over a hundred feet.
I cleared it,then built a 32x16 one and a half story cabin designed to be heated with a single wood stove,with electric back up.
Its purpose was two fold A retreat and a place to go when TSHTF
Now it is up for sale if it sells yippee if it doesn't that's OK too.what I would prefer is more tillable land this side of the blue ridge and have narrowed My search to two areas both in VA
I would not change the design If I build again.
There was a total lack of man made history,no arrow heads,broken bottles nothing?

[GoodDaughter]

Catalpa, could it be one of those kit homes Sears sold? I don't know much about them, what timeframe they manufactured the kits, but apparently they were quite popular.

[ShieldWolf]

Our place is known as "Ashby's Shop". The cabin was origionally the stables for Turner Ashby's blacksmith shop. The remains of the old shop are abt 100yrds through the woods. Turner Ashby was Gen. Stonewall Jacksons cavalry commander.
The origional structure dates to the war of northern aggression, although the site was in use long before ( we have dug artifacts going back to the French and Indian war). There used to be visibal an old Iraqouis war? trail on the opposie hillside leading down to the Shenandoah river until developers obliterated all but one stone cairn.
There is evidence of other structures on the property. The old Stone well still exists and is used for backup. The house water is still provided by pitcher pump.
This area was the stomping ground of Simon Kenton a contemporary of Dan'l Boone.
It was in rough shape when i got it back in 88. Abandoned for abt 30yrs or so, but solidly built. Rustic but comfortable.

[flatwater]

Can you post some pictures ?
flatwater

[Toad_Sticker]

Bought by my great-great grandfathers brother in 1866
great-great grandfather bought it in 1876.
I bought it in 2004.
Grandpa had to sell 70 acres to pay for the nursing home so we are left with 30.
I have a workshop that was built with parts of the original cabin. Inside one of the cabinets there is writing in pencil from 1886.
lots of old junk stashed here and there that I have no clue what to do with.
TS

[flatwater]

That would be a great place to use a metal detector. One of the things I forgot to mention and I think most people will find, I know I did ) is the old whiskey bottle that most will find out in the barn rafters or the old chicken house.
flatwater

[TNDadx4]

Our place is known as "Ashby's Shop". The cabin was origionally the stables for Turner Ashby's blacksmith shop. The remains of the old shop are abt 100yrds through the woods. Turner Ashby was Gen. Stonewall Jacksons cavalry commander.
The origional structure dates to the war of northern aggression, although the site was in use long before ( we have dug artifacts going back to the French and Indian war). There used to be visibal an old Iraqouis war? trail on the opposie hillside leading down to the Shenandoah river until developers obliterated all but one stone cairn.
There is evidence of other structures on the property. The old Stone well still exists and is used for backup. The house water is still provided by pitcher pump.
This area was the stomping ground of Simon Kenton a contemporary of Dan'l Boone.
It was in rough shape when i got it back in 88. Abandoned for abt 30yrs or so, but solidly built. Rustic but comfortable.


Wow... It sounds incredible! There is a virtual treasure trove of history and information there. You are very blessed to have it. :)

[TNDadx4]

Bought by my great-great grandfathers brother in 1866
great-great grandfather bought it in 1876.
I bought it in 2004.
Grandpa had to sell 70 acres to pay for the nursing home so we are left with 30.
I have a workshop that was built with parts of the original cabin. Inside one of the cabinets there is writing in pencil from 1886.
lots of old junk stashed here and there that I have no clue what to do with.
TS


Sounds great! I would bet there are many good finds in the the old stuff there.