History

I contacted Mr. Bailey, whose wife grew up in this home, and asked him about the history of the house – when it was a square four, if/when they had chickens (yes, I am still on the chicken kick), etc. This is his reply. . .

Yes, the Wards had chickens. Madolene and Dan Ward bought the house from Mrs. Ward’s sister and husband, Hugh Brown and Hilda Loving. Before that Madolene’s parents, Minta’s grandparents. They sold the house to their daughter and moved on the back road up on the hill behind your house. Next door lived Madolene’s sister, Hilda Loving, who died of cancer in the 1960’s; her husband died in 1959. They shared the drive way as you do now.
Minta knows nothing of the time when it was a four square. The closets were added in the bedrooms when Minta was very young. The bedroom and bathroom was there when she was born. The kitchen was done in 1960; backporch was changed into a kitchen, pantry, and hallway. The room with built-in shelves was the kitchen until 1960. The front porch was a smalled porch and an upper porch until the late forties. The den was a kitchen, now the room with the built-in shelves.
Dan Ward also raised hogs on your property. There was always a large garden in the front of the back lot, hogs behind that, and then fruit trees.
Minta had her school next door. She would come home for lunch. There were steps on both sides of the fence, which she used. The steps were built for the principal of the elementary school to use. She lived next door to your home with the Lovings. There is a nice apartment upstairs there.

I just love history, especially when it is family or related to where you live. There is so much we can learn from the past and it scares me of how much we loose when the generation before passes on. Mr. Bailey taught Bath County history for three years – I hope to have more history to post! =)