Home of the Month Winner is....

The February Home of the Month, sponsored by the

Marietta Board of REALTORS®, is this home located at…

37 Meadowbrook Lane in Waterford, Ohio

The Marietta Board of REALTORS® would like to congratulate

Mary Wells 

The Lanning House in Waterford sits on what was for years, a 128 acre farm. Let's Take a Step Back through Time....

When it was built, they were just farms at what is now Waterford. The farm basically covered what is now Waterford High School, High Street, Virginia Street, with the house near the center of Lot 33 from a north-south direction, but near the west line from a east-west direction. over the years, especially after 1900, parts were sold off (especially Martin's Addition in 1910) until the house now sits on a .975 acre tract.

Deeds and tax records indicate that Barnabas Curtis was the first name associated with the house. He was born in Loundoun County, VA. about 1763 and eventually immigrated to Belmount County, Ohio, where he appeared in the 1830 census. On November 10, 1831, he purchased about 172 ½ acres (all 100 acre lot 15 except 3 acres and all 76 acre lot 33 except ½ acre) from James Leget for $900 (Vol. 22, pp. 202-03) . With land in 1830 running $3 to $5 an acre, this much land could have easily cost $860 without a house. More than likely, the house on lot 33 was built about 1831-32, the time Barnabas Curtis came to Waterford. On September 1, 1834, he bought the tannery in downtown Waterford (where Fulmer's Market was).

In 1847, Barnabas Curtis died and he was buried in Waterford Cemetery. On the tax records in 1846, the property appears in the name of Barnabas Curtis, but no value on a building is listed. The 1847 book is missing. property is still in Curtis' name. The 70 acres of lot 33 was valued at $425. The 58 ½ acres of lot 15 was valued at $551. There was a building valued at $148 on lot 33, tannery property was valued at $119 and the tannery at $380.

By money values in those day, Barnabas Curtis was well-to-do and his home certainly would have been one of the nicer ones in Waterford Township. It has long been reported (by Mary Irvin) that John Turner Starlin lived in this house and that daughter Mary was  born there in 1883. The daughter Mary married Marshall Armstrong, who had a daughter, Mary, who married Richard Irvin. Curtis' administrator sold the property (now described as 128 ½ acres) to Stiles R. Fox for $1,551.00 on July 15, 1848 (Vol. 38, p. 577-78)

Fox had started the tannery in Waterford and later became a large land owned (almost all of the Peninsula, etc.) . It seems he got in financial trouble, left the area, and his whereabouts unknown.

By 1857 Charles L. Bowen owned the property. The house was valued at $306. Bowen, son of James Bowen, and nephew of Dr. George Bowen and Charles Bowen (both lived in Kelby House that burned (in 2005), all rich and prominent, lived in the big square house on Mill Street for years known as the McCutcheon House. Charles L. worked at his Uncle's store (now Jukebox Pizza). The rich and prominent men in those days liked to live in town, but have a farm nearby-thus explaining why Charles L.'s interest in lot 33 and lot 15. He also had two sons, Arthur H. and Homer, and no doubt the dad had an eye on buying nice farms for his boys.

This is where the story turns sad. Homer was killed in a steamboat accident in 1860 and Arthur H. became a doctor and moved west. By 1867 Wn. A. Howell owned the property. Не was well-to-do farmer who moved from Round Bottom Equity area to make a living on this productive Waterford farm. His wife was Lucena Devol, daughter of Simeon M. Devol. The 1870 census lists his children as Edward R. (age 5) and Alice J. (age 1). His farm was valued at $7,000.00 and his personal estate at $1,000.00.  Lucena died in 1975 Wm. A. remarried to Veturia. They sold out and moved to San Antonio, Texas.

Sometime between 1880-83 the heirs of Charles L. Bowen purchased the property again. But times were not good for the new owners. By 1881 Charles L. was in and out of insane asylums.

This property may have been repurchased hoping that Arthur would stay in the Waterford area and practice medicine. It is very likely that this is true and that he was the caretaker of this farm during about 1880- 83. Charles L. Bowen died in February 1883 and the heirs sold the farm the same month.

Walter M. Buchanan owned the farm from 1883 to 1894. He resided on Buchanan Road where John Noll later lived. He was  one of the wealthiest men in Waterford Township. The 1870 census lists his real estate value as $25,000.00 and his personal estate at $2,500.00. This was probably investment property for him or property intended for one of his growing number of children.

From 1894 to 1898 Emma and Frank H. Wolfram of Lowell owned the house. They paid $3,000.00 for it. They owned F. H. Wolfram Store (the story building by the stop light in Lowell). He would have had access to lumber shipped via the river, hardware, supplies. Very likely they made a major improvement an addition) between 1894-98 the value of the property, selling $6,000.00.

In 1898 Joseph and Eliza V. Martin from Sistersville, Tyler County, W purchased the property through a real estate man named Sunderland. They sold the farm after a few years and moved to Williamstown. About 1900 they returned to Waterford and built the house on Main Street (later Fred Ullman's house) • They re-purchased the farm and in 1910 laid out Martin's addition to Waterford with 52 building lots, including streets named Washington, High, Virginia and Center. Joseph and Eliza lived on the farm for the rest of their lives.

Then John W. and Freda Hall owned the property until 1955. There were 85-76 acres by this time-56.14 in lot 33 (with house) and 29.62 in lot 15. Amon and Mina Foraker purchased the property in 1955 (for $1).

Forakers had tracts surveyed In 1956 .975 (house), 56 acres and 21 acres were sold to Lloyd Margaret Slack Lanning. Since then many houses have been built on this land, including Meadowbrook Addition. Certainly part of the amazing thing about this property is that Margaret has lived on it for 56 years and she is just now learning what a wonderfully interesting history it has.

Congratulations again to the well-deserved winner,

Mary Wells