Circa 1884 McCuiston House

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SouthernLady
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Circa 1884 McCuiston House

Post by SouthernLady »

Who is excited? I am excited!! The great-granddaughter of the man who built my house is coming to visit next Saturday, after Thanksgiving! She is planning to bring her grandson as well, whom to my knowledge has never seen the place, except for driving past it.

She and her daughter have searched through several boxes and found a number of old photographs of the house before any changes were made in the '20s and '30s. I am so excited!!!

I need to start a new thread on how I contacted the original family because there was a bit to it, and it might be of help to others here who wish to do the same. I traced back the property records as far as I possibly could, then researched each name online. (You would be surprised what you can find on Google... kinda scary! :shifty: ) I ended up discovering through finding obituaries that the house was basically passed down through the women of the family, which, of course, is not a common thing. So it went from the builder --> his daughter --> her niece (the granddaughter) --> the niece's daughter (great-granddaughter). The great-granddaughter raised her children in the house (great-great-grandkids), and from what I understand then sold it out of the family when they went to Virginia.

I then started a new family tree on my Ancestry.com account and plugged in the information from the oldest obituary I found. From there, I was able to find more obituaries, which eventually led me to people still living. I then went to yellowpages.com, clicked "find people" and called one of the great-granddaughters who lives in the area.

I then left one of the most awkward voicemails in my life... "Hey, my name is Michelle ***, and I just purchased the old white farmhouse on the corner of *** and ***. I am planning to restore it back to the way it originally was myself, so I did some searching online and found that you are kin to the people who seem to have built the house. I was wondering if you might know of any old pictures, stories, or anything else to do with the house that might help me with putting it back to the way it was. I promise, I am not a crazy nut--I work for *** and am on their website as staff, which you can find at ***. I would love to talk with you about this lovely old farmhouse. If you would, too, please call me at *****."

Within about 15 minutes, I had a call from the extremely excited husband. They went on speakerphone and shared stories from when she was growing up and going to visit her great-aunt who lived there, getting in trouble for slamming the door on what was once the screened porch, etc. She then pointed me to contact her sister, who was the last one to own the house, and who had a bunch of the old pictures. I found her on Facebook, sent her a private message, and have had a new friend ever since.

So, next Saturday, her sister gets to visit (and hopefully she herself as well), and the great-great-great-grandson of John McCuiston gets to walk the floors himself. :dance:

I will be sure to share the pictures here, and will be using this thread to post my progress on the house.

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Vala
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Re: Circa 1884 McCuiston House

Post by Vala »

Wowowow thats so cool!
I dream of something similar for my home. I've never seen any old photo of my house pre-siding!

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Gothichome
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Re: Circa 1884 McCuiston House

Post by Gothichome »

OOOO, history is going to visit you Southernlady, and with pictures. Great news I hope it is all it can be. Best get the scanner ready in case they do not want to part with the original pics.

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Neighmond
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Re: Circa 1884 McCuiston House

Post by Neighmond »

Bravo!

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Re: Circa 1884 McCuiston House

Post by heartwood »

that is so exciting michelle ****!!! thank goodness the folks connected with your house are excited to get together and share photos and memories...a win-win situation if ever there was one...I LOVE hearing about these connections...

enjoy and let us know how the visit goes.....
....jade

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1806 Colonial
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Re: Circa 1884 McCuiston House

Post by 1806 Colonial »

Great research work. If you want to go further, take the name of any who may have died while living there and go to your local probate records office. I was able to get copies of complete inventories from owners in 1832 and 1887. There were also legal documents on file written and signed by family members. Our probate office gave me the paperwork to make my own copies from the originals. What a feeling it is to hold documents written by owners of my house from so long ago.

There is a website you might get lucky and find a person's obituary and picture. http://www.findagrave.com/ I found a picture of the owner from the late 1940s-50s.

Happy history hunting.

Jeff

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Re: Circa 1884 McCuiston House

Post by matchbookhouse »

Great story, SouthernLady! I hope the visit goes well (I'm sure it will). I've done more on Ancestry.com for the original owners of this house than my own family, but of course I have oral history on my relatives. Did findagrave.com too, and have "visited" the owner/builder and his wife and son a mile away at the local churchyard. I like to think they would approve of my efforts to preserve what he built.

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Corsetière
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Re: Circa 1884 McCuiston House

Post by Corsetière »

Consider doing an audio recording of any stories they tell you. Think of how cool that would be to add to your archive!

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SouthernLady
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Re: Circa 1884 McCuiston House

Post by SouthernLady »

Thank you all for the tips on doing more research! I was able to confirm that the builder and his son-in-law both passed away in my house (in my bedroom to be exact... :shifty: ), so hopefully those records might be helpful, if they exist.

It's been a whirlwind 48 hours for me--I understood the family was coming next Saturday, but they actually meant today.

Today was also the day I was co-hosting the baby shower to end all baby showers at my church for two of my best friends. I was their bridesmaid, went to school with the dad, been friends forever. I and the other hostess used probably 20 different ideas from Pinterest. Long story short, what we thought would be a 3-hour setup starting at 4:30 yesterday afternoon ended up being a nine-hour setup, with us still being at the church decorating with my mom's help until 1:30 AM. :shock: Lots of individual balloons, crepe paper, and all sorts of things. Yeah.

Then I got the message the family was looking forward to seeing me "tomorrow" and when would be good to drop by. :o They had a tin full of pictures to show me, and lots of stories they couldn't wait to share.

I was also up at the crack of dawn getting food prepared for the baby shower of the century.

We set up to meet after 8 PM tonight. (Partly because it would take me that long to clean up from the baby shower, finish a couple of projects for work, and most importantly to shove/stuff the little messes from not cleaning my house in two weeks into cabinets, closets, drawers, and in the hamper, do a crazy clean of my house, and most importantly brew a large pot of coffee and pull out the chocolate biscotti because I am Southern and by golly you've got to have food!

The family showed up, and it was the best 4-hour visit I have ever had. Felt like we have known each other for ages! I found out my wisteria is as old as the house, the peach tree is probably about as old as the house as well, the lilacs are also original, and the front bushes are also basically original also. There used to be a hickory tree out back that was so large four people could not hug it. The great-granddaughter told me about unearthing some old brick outside my bedroom window which led her to believe the porch wrapped around three sides of the house, and told me where to dig myself to see what I can find.

Seven people have been born in my house. One was certainly born in what is now my library.

She pointed out the burns in my bedroom floor from where her great-uncle couldn't sleep at night and would go to the corner to smoke, often dropping cinders on the floor (which made her great-aunt mad).

The great-great-granddaughter was so excited to see her bedroom wallpaper was finally gone (which she had always hated).

The great-great-great-grandson seemed thoroughly excited to see the old place, particularly the cellar (which is completely unchanged, save for the cinderblocks on some of the walls.

The canning shelves are original.

It seems the three upstairs windows were all originally the same as the downstairs windows. I am now in the market for three 5' windows. :crazy:

I was greatly happy to see pictures of the family dogs posing with their people in front of the house. It seems the family have always been great dog lovers. Collies, cocker spaniels, poodles, beagles, dobermans, and now a papillon have been happy on these grounds and well-loved. (Thankfully those who have passed on are all buried on a hill overlooking two ponds well behind my house on someone else's property now. I wanted to make sure not to accidentally dig up anyone's furbabies.

The kitchen has always been one big room, combined with the dining room. While the mantle in the dining room isn't original, I got an accurate description of what to look for in a replacement when I get ready to get one. The current one is made of chestnut, which the great-granddaughter and her husband salvaged out of a very, very old farmhouse (1800s?) that was ready to fall in on itself. She said when they removed the mantel they had to run out of the house with it because the wall started to go.

The handrail and knobs to the newel posts originally had black lacquer on them.

They were surprised to learn faux graining was originally on the woodwork. She is an interior decorator and does wonderful faux graining herself. It's a shame she lives in another state, because I would love to have her help with it!

Sadly, nobody knows where the outhouse used to stand. (I want to try privy digging.)

Lots of laughs and wonderful stories of events were shared.

The siding went up in the '70s or so because she got tired of fighting the chipping paint. She said the modern paint didn't go well with the old lead paint on the house, leading to lots of cracks and chips. She was told the only way to avoid it was to put siding on the house, which she did. She later wished she had left it alone.

The reason the beadboard ceilings were covered downstairs is because dirt would fall through every time someone walked around upstairs. (Can the cracks be filled to prevent this? I want to restore those ceilings!!)

She has the original parlor mantel mirror and original kitchen table, which she had been considering selling. I asked if she would allow me to make the first offer, because I would love to have them back in the house. She said she would love to see them go back home, too, and she would get in touch with me on the sizes to see what I thought.

I am uploading pictures to Flickr now and will be posting soon.

Sorry for the lengthy post--I am just so excited to get all of this information!!!

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SouthernLady
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Re: Circa 1884 McCuiston House

Post by SouthernLady »

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The son-in-law of the builder in front of my house before the 1920s remodel (pre-Depression). He was married to the only daughter, who got the house.

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Same man, roughly the same spot, 30-40 years later. (Notice the dogs!)

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View from the farm across the street, May 1964. (Notice the tree in front of the car--Keefer pear tree. Bearing fruit to this day, 100+ years and counting!)

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She was quite the Southern homeplace in her day.
Last edited by SouthernLady on Thu Feb 16, 2017 7:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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