Our 1855 Michigan Colonial Renovation Project.: Happy Holidays

Where to start? So in July I decided to go back to work. Im driving charter busses for Indian Trails here in Owosso, MI. It's been interesting to say the least. I've found myself in Chicago, Milwaukee, St Ignace, South Bend, IN and Washington DC and of course lots of places in between. Ive been working a minimum of 60 hours a week since I started so the house has not gotten the time we wanted to give it. Karen also decided to go back to work and found a job close at the local BP station here in Bancroft. So far she is enjoying it so for the mean time we can chip away at the debt we probably should have taken care of before starting this adventure. Live and learn.

Here is a current pic of the house. We now suspect its a bit older that 1855 but have no proof of it.

The home was owned by The Carruthers in the mid 1800s. We've seen other writings that it may have been built by Hosea Baker. Possibly the first stick built house in the county.

See below for an interesting history of the area.

SHIAWASSEE TOWNSHIP

The earliest settlers to the township were, A.L. and B.O. Williams, who purchased land in section 25. They came from Grand Blanc and settled on their land in 1831. They quickly built a trading post to trade with the Indians and other pioneers. Soon they had a hotel, store and bank, known as The Shiawassee Exchange. When the brother's moved to Owosso Twp. in 1833 and sold their business to Andrew Parsons and Lemuel Brown. Although John Tinklepaugh was the areas first farmer, he didn't stay very long. Charles Bacon came in 1836 and was followed by Lucius Beach. Beach bought property in Shiawasseetown. Soon there was a hotel, store, post office and tavern, located in a two-story building. School was, oddly enough, held in the tavern along with court hearings. The town also had a carding mill, sawmill and other businesses. The little village of Newburg was founded by Hosea Baker, who came in 1833 to section 14. The village got it's name from Dr. Nicholas P. Harder, who had lived near Newburgh, New York. John Gramley was the first postmaster. Another small town was Fremont. John W. Gilbert and Issacs M. Banks were the first settlers in 1841. They originally called it Florence but this was later changed. They built the store and postoffice. Alonzo Howard was postmaster. The town would soon have three taverns a school and church. Like many of the smaller towns and villages of Shiawassee County, Fremont declined with the coming of the railroad. Bancroft would benefit from the railroad depot there in 1877. The town had a saw mill, planing mill, flour mill and two elevators. A school and churches were added. Early settlers to the township included; Wm. Newberry, A.G. Warren, G.W. Warren, Ephriam Wright, Jordan Holcomb, J.S. Harder, John Lemon, Joesph Parmenter, and O.E. Moore.

I tend to believe this home was the home built by Hosea Baker then sold to The Carruthers. Check out this link as well. I hope to be able to network with some local history enthusiasts to help confirm this.

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/micounty/4763144.0001.001/50?page=root;rgn=full+text;size=100;view=image;q1=Hosea+Baker

So much has happened since the last update....Its difficult to know where to start. Here we are in December. This time last year Karen and I came to Michigan and purchased this home. Time flies.
Ive done alot of work in the basement. Tore out much of the old wood shelves and got rid of lots of old jars and remnant wood lying around. Much of which was literally molded and rotting.
Instead of a lake in the basement that the sump pump was installed in the middle of we were able to install a sump pump enclosure...Not recalling what its actually called and unfortunately I cant locate the pictures right now. I will later. This one will have to do for now.

Recently we also took out the sliding glass door that led out to the back of the house. I'm surprised it didn't just fall out. We had a guy come to help install a new sliding door that we purchased at Home Depot and he recommended we don't install the door in that location until we install some sort of footing in the location. Concerned that the door may break once the freezing temps arrive later in the winter. So we built a wall instead. Hopefully this will only be until Spring when we can install a good footing for the slider.

We also had Tom come back and install a furnace for us. He is the same contractor that installed the Water Heater for us. Unfortunately his helper was recently killed when he was hit by a Semi on Interstate 69. I couldnt beleive it when I heard the news. RIP buddy.

KAren and I also spent some time insulating some of the ducting in the basement to help with the heating.

We have also replaced the front door to the house. One of the things we noticed when we moved into this home was that the front door swung out and the piuns to remove the door were on the outside of the house....we had a good laugh when we discovered that!

We also had to do some work to the wood stove chimney system. some of the bricks had fallen out and we definitely needed to have this working. Winter is coming.