Caldwell County MO Archives History .....OLD HOUSES IN HAMILTON MO 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 1:54 pm

OLD HOUSES IN HAMILTON MO.
	Narrators:  Mrs. Herbert Eldredge, Mrs. Harlow and Miss S. Farabee

     There are yet (1934) many old buildings standing in Hamilton which are 
easily 65 years old, some over 70 and one or two which date back to the 
earliest years of the town.
     The Bristow home east of the Stella Farabee house was standing in 1868 
when Sam Martin came to Hamilton and he with his second wife and children 
began living there.  The Farabee house was there before 1869.  Major T.W. 
Higgins lived in a house in the 60s which had been built by one of the 
Hamilton town company, John Burrows in the late sixties.  This house stood 
originally on the site of the present Tiffin building at the north end of 
Davis (Main), but within comparatively recent years, it was moved into the 
south east section of town and is now the home of Mrs. Minnie Morris.
     The ramshackle old building east of the Eldredge Tuttle home now used as 
a chicken house, was for years known as the Uncle Charlie Dunn house (Negro).  
The back part is quite old, having been moved in the 70s from its original 
site on the present Catholic church site where it was built in the early 60s 
as the home of Mrs. Andy Harrah, grandmother of Mrs. Harry Logan, formerly of 
this city.
     The Brownlee home, west of Fred Hawks home, once stood on the site of the 
latter house.  The front two rooms were built by John Morton, in the 60s, who 
was then a bachelor and a hardware merchant.  He and his tinner Gid Prentice 
batched in this house till both married.  When Mr. Morton built his elegant 
home, the Hawks house, he moved the cottage to the west end of his lot and 
rented it for awhile.
     The so called old Harris (or Wm. Elliott) house, now home of Marion 
Overton Ridings, was built in the 60s probably by Wm. Elliott whose second 
wife was Mrs. Harris who lived there many years.
     The oldest house still in use in town is the home of Jas. Deems, west of 
the Telephone building.  It was built 1859 by Squire Otis Richardson father of 
Geo. Richardson of this city.  The lumber for it came from St. Louis all cut 
and ready to put up.  The original nails were wooden pegs, as the Deems found 
as when the house was remodelled, a few years ago.  However, one could never 
guess from exterior or interior that this house for so old, so greatly has the 
remodelling changed its looks.
     On the Joe Davis farm north east of town stands a building, now a granary 
which was a part of the first store building put up in town 1857 and stood on 
the present moving picture corner.  It was put up by A.G. Davis, owned for 
many years by his wife who finally moved it to the farm when it became too 
dilapidated to rent.
     The present James Kautz home on the hill in west Hamilton was built in 
the 60s and was one of the finest homes in town, being the property of James 
(Jimmy) Kemper, who kept a store here many years.  In it was born Wm. T. 
Kemper, the K.C. banker, son of Jas.  Those early days, the north side porch 
was much longer, a good sized room having been taken off it, when the James 
Cowgill family lived there in the early 80s. 
     The small brick house in the east part of town now owned by the Dolman 
family, was built before 1870.  All the people who came 1870 speak of it as 
standing then.  They call it the Robinson home and Miss Ada McElroy, a teacher 
in the public schools in the early 80s lived with her mother, Mrs. Robinson.
     Then the house on Kingston street directly behind the Alma Howard home 
must date back to 1870, being originally the S.H. Swartz house, the so called 
Wilmot house (now rented to the Coshaw family) south of the park, was built in 
the late sixties, for it had to do with the beginning of the Congregational 
church in town, the west wing having been designed and paid for by the 
Congregational Board 
  
of Home missions to make a Congregational chapel, as indeed it was used for a 
few years.
		
     The brick building where the Souders family live on Broadway (built by 
O.O. Brown in the middle 70s for his store), the Bram store building (built by 
Anthony Rohrbaugh in 1872 for his store) the Guffey home on Kingston street 
(built by the first Naugle about 1870) are all old buildings.  Interviewed  
1934.


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