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Built in 1854 by Leander Reeve. It was the first permanent structure
in Franklin County and is the oldest still in existence. |
Stone house original
wood stove used to heat the house. |
Stone house original
kitchen. Contains stove, furniture, cookware, and utensils. |
| A History Of The Old Stone House |
In the 1880’s news of the fertile soil, excellent timberlands and rivers
of the Midwest was sent to eastern United States and across the ocean to
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Holland, England and Ireland. Because of
political upheaval, military service, religious persecution, poverty and
restlessness, many people began looking for a new life. In 1833 white
easterners and immigrants began pouring across the Mississippi River into
Iowa. Land could be purchased for $1.25 an acre from the Government.
In April 1853, Leander Reeve came by train from Ashtubula County, Ohio, to
the end of the line in Rockford, Illinois. He then traveled by stagecoach
to the end of its route at Galena, Illinois. From then on he walked to
Franklin County to find his brother, James, who was living with Mr. and
Mrs. John Mayne in a log cabin which was located where the During farm in
now, about ½ mile west of the Stone House on the north side of the road.
This was the first and only cabin in Franklin County at the time.
After doing some trapping, he took over the parcel of land where the Stone
House sits from Allison Phelps, who had claimed it the previous year. He
broke 10 acres of this prairie sod east of the house. Prairie sod had
thick matted interwoven roots two feet deep that hadn’t been disturbed for
8,000 years. In Illinois sixteen years earlier, in 1837, John Deere had
invented a plow with a steel mould board that was needed to turn this sod.
Strong oxen were better able to pull a plow than horses. Perhaps Leander
had such a plow. Any provisions and supplies had to be gotten from Cedar
Falls or Janesville by foot or by horse and wagon.
Leander then went back to Ohio and the following spring of 1854 he
returned and built the Stone House. The stone surely came from Maynes
Creek nearby. The walnut timbers in the cellar on which axe marks are
still visible surely came from Maynes Grove. This house must have been
elegant for this area as most others were log cabins. Soon many came to
Maynes Grove, the first settlement of Franklin County. They conducted
church services in cabins, had the first courthouse in James Reeve’s cabin
and a sixteen-year-old girl, Octavia Smith, taught the first class of
children in the county.
Except for the Mesquakies at Tama, very few Indians or buffalo were seen
in Iowa after 1854. Leander brought his family here in 1854 but his wife
could never like Iowa, she longed for more civilized life in Ohio. So they
went back for good three years later. Leander’s wife apparently had
household help as Marion Boots of Dumont says her grandmother walked from
Four Mile Grove to work in the Reeve home.
Simeon Carter bought the house and farm from the Reeves. In 1859, four
years after the Stone House was built, D. W. Dow, a young lawyer, came to
Hampton, which had acquired 75 residents, 20-25 homes and several
businesses. He set up a law office in Hampton House but had only one
client that summer, who paid him in watermelons. So he had to carpenter
and then taught school in the Maynes Grove settlement. Here he met Simeon
Carter’s daughter and they were married in the Stone House. Her wedding
dress is in the Franklin County Museum. They were the third residents in
the house, followed by about 13 more families. The list is on the north
wall of the house. None of the house’s contents were ever owned by those
who occupied it.
The floor plan has never been altered. There was never electricity until
the restoration committee had plug-ins installed. This committee began to
restore the house in 1979, just as it was beginning to fall. |
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