The History of the House: What We've Learned So Far
All we really knew about the history of the house during the buying process was that it was probably built between 1840 and 1860 by someone who probably built other similar houses in the area. We knew it had been vacant for at least ten years and that the owner before us had been in posession for maybe a few years more.
On the morning of the closing Ryan went to the courthouse in town to start researching for some more details. He found the second deed for the house that details the transfer from the second to the third owners. The document pinpoints the birthdate of the house as 1855 and lists the builder and the original owner as Daniel Zeller, which is where the title of this Blog comes from. Although there is more research to be done, it seems that the house has changed hands quite a few times in its life.
On Thursday September 21st Ryan got some more information about one of the owners when Dale Johnson stopped by the house. Word travels fast in a small town and Dale had heard that someone was working on the house. Dale grew up in the Zeller house with his three brothers, Dick and Bill were older and have since passed away and Eddie was younger and now lives in Harrisburg. His parents, Joe and Betty, bought the house and moved the family in in 1933. When the Johnson's bought the house it still had a front porch that could be accessed by a second door on the front of the house. In 1936 Joe had the neighbor to the left, who was a carpenter, take off the porch, replace the second front door with a bay window and put on all the additions in the house including the two on the back of the ground floor and the third bedroom and bathroom on the second floor. He also moved the stairs added a half bath off the dining room.
The weekend approached and we decided to hold a garage sale on Sunday the 24th. To make a long story short, we didn't sell too much or for much money, but the real profit of the day was the wealth of more knowledge we gained about the house and the people we met. According to Fred Eppler and three others who stopped by, the Johnson's were a great family who everyone knew and liked all over town. We heard a lot about Joe's tendency to help out friends with clock repair. Apparently the workbench in the garage was for clock repair where he even made his own clocks and clock-parts. Betty seems to have been known for keeping a spotless house, two women recounted many evenings in her cozy living room. When a man stopped by and asked to buy the mailbox and the house numbers, were a little confused and said he could have the mailbox, but that the house numbers were really not for sale. We couldn't imagine why he would want something so simple that he could have bought at the local hardware store. Finally, he introduced himself as Fred Eppler. Fred explained that he was married in the living room to a granddaughter of Betty and Joe, the daughter of Dick or Bill in 1972. The two had mourned the decay of the house and he Fred was now planning to surpise his wife at Christmas with the items from the house. Ryan immediately removed the house numbers and the mailbox. Clearly, the items were more important to him than to us.
On the same day, someone came all the way from Allentown to check out the Mustang parts. To his dissapointment and ours, most are not new, factory direct parts, so they are not worth nearly as much as we thought. He bought a few things and we ended our Sunday. Week one ended ahead of schedule. Ryan was surprised how much had been accomplished.
Ryan was set to begin week two alone as we both looked forward to the arrival of friends Mark and Kate the next weekend to help with the work.
On the morning of the closing Ryan went to the courthouse in town to start researching for some more details. He found the second deed for the house that details the transfer from the second to the third owners. The document pinpoints the birthdate of the house as 1855 and lists the builder and the original owner as Daniel Zeller, which is where the title of this Blog comes from. Although there is more research to be done, it seems that the house has changed hands quite a few times in its life.
On Thursday September 21st Ryan got some more information about one of the owners when Dale Johnson stopped by the house. Word travels fast in a small town and Dale had heard that someone was working on the house. Dale grew up in the Zeller house with his three brothers, Dick and Bill were older and have since passed away and Eddie was younger and now lives in Harrisburg. His parents, Joe and Betty, bought the house and moved the family in in 1933. When the Johnson's bought the house it still had a front porch that could be accessed by a second door on the front of the house. In 1936 Joe had the neighbor to the left, who was a carpenter, take off the porch, replace the second front door with a bay window and put on all the additions in the house including the two on the back of the ground floor and the third bedroom and bathroom on the second floor. He also moved the stairs added a half bath off the dining room.
The weekend approached and we decided to hold a garage sale on Sunday the 24th. To make a long story short, we didn't sell too much or for much money, but the real profit of the day was the wealth of more knowledge we gained about the house and the people we met. According to Fred Eppler and three others who stopped by, the Johnson's were a great family who everyone knew and liked all over town. We heard a lot about Joe's tendency to help out friends with clock repair. Apparently the workbench in the garage was for clock repair where he even made his own clocks and clock-parts. Betty seems to have been known for keeping a spotless house, two women recounted many evenings in her cozy living room. When a man stopped by and asked to buy the mailbox and the house numbers, were a little confused and said he could have the mailbox, but that the house numbers were really not for sale. We couldn't imagine why he would want something so simple that he could have bought at the local hardware store. Finally, he introduced himself as Fred Eppler. Fred explained that he was married in the living room to a granddaughter of Betty and Joe, the daughter of Dick or Bill in 1972. The two had mourned the decay of the house and he Fred was now planning to surpise his wife at Christmas with the items from the house. Ryan immediately removed the house numbers and the mailbox. Clearly, the items were more important to him than to us.
On the same day, someone came all the way from Allentown to check out the Mustang parts. To his dissapointment and ours, most are not new, factory direct parts, so they are not worth nearly as much as we thought. He bought a few things and we ended our Sunday. Week one ended ahead of schedule. Ryan was surprised how much had been accomplished.
Ryan was set to begin week two alone as we both looked forward to the arrival of friends Mark and Kate the next weekend to help with the work.
posted by Kate at 9/28/2006 11:02:00 AM
1 Comments:
Hi! I'm Peggy, Dick Johnson's daughter. And I darn near cried with joy when I saw this blog. I'm thrilled that the house is finally in the hands of someone who will give it the care it deserves. The house holds a lot of love and very happy memories, so we were crushed to see it fall into such disrepair after my grandparents passed away. I'm sure you'll talk with my uncle Dale regularly about the house, but please feel free to e-mail me as well. The families of Bill & Dick Johnson are now in San Antonio, TX and we'll be following your progress with delight!
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