The Old Homestead

Peggy and Millard received a call this weekend from the new owner of the old Horton homestead. He informed them that the house would be burned down Saturday. Doug took the camera and headed over to take pictures. Katie spent the night with Peggy and Millard Friday night, so she got to see all the action up close. She was so excited telling me Saturday night about the house being burnt to the ground. Doug took several pictures for the family to see and we posted them on our photo site for your viewing.



A Little History

I got inside Peggy's head and dug a little history information from her. We were trying to figure out how old is this house. Peggy was guessing 100 +, but after being told the history, I would say it would be closer to 200 years old. She told me that her grandmother, "Ma Riggs" grew up in this house. Sorry, but I don't know "Ma Riggs' maiden name. When she married "Pa Riggs", they ended up living in this house. They birthed and raised their family in this house, including Peggy's mother. As soon as Peggy's mother and father (Horton) married, Ma Riggs was still living. Mr. & Mrs. Horton (Peggy's parents) paid Ma Riggs' other daughter her half of the property, so they could live with Ma Riggs and take care of her. Mr. & Mrs. Horton birthed and raised their children (5 children) in this house, including Peggy. Peggy's parents passed away in the 80's and since then this piece of property, including the old homestead, has switched owners twice. The last owner rented the house out to relatives for a few years, but it's been vacant for the past few years. The new owner of the house plans to take the ruble and bury it some where on the extended property.

The local fire department participated in this burning. They had a few new volunteer firemen that needed to practice going into a burning house. So, this ended up being a practice burning as well. Doug said that it looked like there were close to 20 people to possibly participate in this practice. They would set a section of the house on fire and 4 firefighters at a time had to crawl in and extinguish the fire.

Attention All Horton Family: Doug took several pictures of this event. If you would like a disk of these pictures, please leave me a comment and I'll make sure, we'll get you one. Also, if you would like a nail or some reminder, please call Peggy and make sure you get one. If you do want some reminder, please contact us as soon as possible because the owner is planning to clearing the land this week.

Doug and I went out there yesterday to check it out. The house was still hot and smoking, but we were amazed how they used sandstone for stilts on this house instead of brick. The nails that held the walls together were not like the ordinary nails you see today.