My house was built in 2002 but my dad's was "established" in 1827. John Quincy Adams signed the deed to my great great grandad and he was sitting as SOS of the US at the time. Since he sat as SOS from 1817 to 1825 it makes sense that he signed it to our family, then they went there and built the original house and moved in 1827.
Great great grandpa's wife planted some sycamore trees on the bank and me and my dad cut them out 20 years or so ago as they were finally dying. The legend was that she carried them there on her horse and stuck them in the ground since she wanted to use them as "switches."
When they bought the house it was 5 rooms total, of course none were bathrooms. My grandpa and his dad moved the whole house with a big team of oxen and dug a 4 room basement. Before this it only had a one room basement, which still exists. The soil was mostly clay and the plan was to dig it with dynamite, but Grandpa said when they ignited the dynamite it just made their pilot holes slightly larger, so they had to scrape it out with the team then line it with rock and move the house back on top. Grandpa was something like 10 years old at the time and playing with dynamite. Crazy. When he was 12 he drove a flock of sheep to St Louis by himself to sell them. And by drove I mean he walked and kept the sheep from running off. Just a quick little 600 mile walk.
The house above was added to many times and ended up a a 6 br, 1 bath house. It is still a beautiful home. My dad said they added the bathroom sometime in the 40's or 50s when he was a kid. We had 6 barns when I was a kid, but dad and I tore down two of them. One was at least 10k sq ft, probably 50 feet tall, with a ground floor, a sub floor, and a hay loft. Grandpa always said he didn't build it, but he helped drag it to the new location when they built the sub barn pens. We also took out the smokehouse, the chicken coop, and the silo. All were basically falling down since they were 200 years old. We also tore out a sheepshed located back in a 90 acre field and filled in a well located about 3/4 of a mile away near some caves. Supposedly there was a cabin back there a couple hundred years ago and we were afraid someone would come across it and fall in.
I should probably write down all I know about the farm since everyone who ever lived there is dying off. It was originally an indian campground and I know where to find the arrowheads, and caves, and where the old wells are, and stuff like that.
But anyway, my dad lives in a 200 year old 5000 sq ft house.
