Thursday, September 10, 2009

this old house Thursday: tapirgal's homestead

A couple of months ago I posted what I thought was Tapirgal's homestead.
Local historian, Charles Marchant, told me he thought I was one house off.
This, he believes, is the actual old Joy family residence.
Sorry to have mislead you, Tapirgal.

12 comments:

Lowell said...

I knew Tapirgal was from somewhere! ;-)

Glad you found the ol' homestead! It looks like a very nice place; which makes sense, 'cause she's a very nice person.

And so are you! Have a great day!

Angela Robak said...

Looks like a place you'd call a "homestead" as I'd bet there have been many happy moments here over the years.

Clueless in Boston said...

How appropriate with a photographer's shingle hanging out too.

tapirgal said...

Brattcat, I got up late, but now I'm here and very excited! The other didn't quite feel right, but this one does. (Also, I corresponded with Charles Marchant in the past when I had time for genealogy! A nice blast from the past, and please thank him.) I have old letters from the time, which I'll try to find this weekend. I have so many old letters, I'll need to find the ones that mention this house. The Joy family had 3 children, both parents, and they took in boarders who attended Leland Seminary School and/or helped on the farm, so they would have had good use for a big house. I gathered it was good-sized. Thank you SO much for your sleuthing. This is fantastic!

Cezar and Léia said...

I guess people who open their houses for students (or whoever is willing to give a hand with the work) must be very nice fellows!
God bless you!
Cezar

tapirgal said...

My ancestors sold this property and left Vermont in the late 1850s or early 1860s and moved west to follow their two sons, who were in Iowa. They were going through hard economic times then, too, and it took William forever to sell his livestock, with many trips to Boston to do so, then they had to sell the property. They had refused to let their daughter, Helen, travel west with her new husband (N.C. Hudson, one of their boarders who had become a family friend and had studied law and become a fairly famous frontier lawyer in Sioux City). Poor Helen had a fit, and they teased her that she had no husband, after not allowing her to go west with him, saying it was too rough out there and they would all move west "soon." Then they delayed and delayed. Her new husband was in a law practice with her brother out west. I have it all in the old letters from the time. It's quite a story, which I'm preparting to put on another blog as I work on it. I'll keep you posted when there's something online to read. Thanks again, Brattcat! Yes, the homestead has a lot of history for me.

tapirgal said...

Cesar, I'm sure they were nice people, but they also charged boarding fees. Some, like N.C. Hudson were both student and farm worker, and he did pay a boarding fee from his wages.

tapirgal said...

Brattcat, I hope you don't mind, but I've used the photo on my personal blog with full credit to you and a link back:

http://sheryltodd.blogspot.com/2009/09/brattcat-finds-our-townshend-ancestral.html

Birdman said...

Kitty-
I have found 'in life, to be one off' ain't all that bad. Beautiful homestead.

VP said...

This is a very nice story, I appreciate both the post and the comments and I'm glad Tapirgal found her home!

Unseen Rajasthan said...

This is so beautiful !!I loved this one..Thanks for sharing..Unseen Rajasthan

slim said...

"Home Sweet Home". What I find most compelling in this post is one blogger helping another and pursuing the hunt to the very end. Well done, Brattcat!