Edward S. Hunsdon, the son of Robert R. Hunsdon and Orpha Stewart Hunsdon, was born in Shoreham, Addison County, Vermont on February 10, 1814. He spent his early years in Vermont, and married Martha A. Brown in Shoreham on April 27, 1845. He traveled to Illinois in 1844-45, and the couple moved to Ogle County, Illinois in 1846. They had six children - five girls and one son. The son's name is not known. Their daughters were Mary E., Emily Elizabeth, Sarah N., Alice Sarah and Annie Hunsdon.
Edward enjoyed farming his land in Taylor Township, and built a large stone barn on the property between 1848-1852. He died on April 4, 1893 and was laid to rest at Lighthouse Cemetery.
Obituary: From Taylor Township - Died, Mr. Edward Hunsdon, at the home of his daughter Mrs. (William) Hepfer, of Franklin Grove. Mr. Hunsdon was one of Taylor's early settlers, coming here about forty-six years ago and living here ever since, until this winter, on account of his poor health, he and his wife went to Franklin to remain with their daughter. He leaves a wife and three daughters to mourn his loss.
Newspaper article:
Franklin Grove - Probably the only barn in the area to have a road named after it is the stone barn on Stone Barn Road, north of here. Located at the intersection of Stone Barn Rd. and Daysville Rd., the old relic is apt to escape notice since it is surrounded on three sides by frame and metal additions. But it's south face is unchanged from pioneer times.
No one knows how old the stone barn is. Local residents can recite a list of former owners, but all say, "The stone barn was old when I lived there."
A 92-year old man who grew up nearby said, "The stone barn looked like that when I used to walk by it to go to school."
Henry Fruit, Franklin Grove, gave an educated guess that the barn was built "in the 1850's or before" and probably by the person who bought the surrounding land from the government.
Willard Simpson, the present owner, said he learned from the abstract of the property that the 40 acres where the stone barn stands were bought from the government on March 1, 1848, by Edward S. Hunsdon. In those days, no building permits were required, and so no record exists of when buildings were placed on property.
At that time, before sawmills and brick yards, the only material available for building was stone and logs. Fruit said he knows of one other barn probably as old located nearby. It is built of walnut logs. Now the log structure is encased in siding and is an apartment house.
When the barn was built, Daysville Road was an early and well-traveled thoroughfare, according to Fruit. "The road dates from the 1830's and went from Peoria to Lee Center to Franklin Grove to Daysville," Fruit said, "It was a stage road." Fruit said his father drove a mail stage on the road two times a week. The run was from the now-disappeared village of Carthage northwest of Franklin Grove to Oregon. Carthage was a village of nine families.
Simpson thinks the interior of the stone barn once contained stalls for horses and cattle, but they have long since been removed. The two-foot thick stone walls support hand-hewn oak beams, once the floor supports of the hay mow. The mow floor is of small tree trunks with the bark still on. Of the two lean-tos built later on either side of the barn, one was used for dairy cattle and the other for a horse stable.
"It was a good barn," remembers a lady who once lived on the property. "Cattle were kept in it, and a bull in the corner."
The stone barn has outlasted other early buildings on the farm. A house built before the present one burned. The stone barn has also outlasted the stagecoaches, ox teams, and draft horse teams that once passed on the Daysville Road. It has seen once-muddy or dusty road change to a blacktop.
Although no one in Franklin Grove knows much about the stone barn, everyone knows of it - and it's location.
"As long as I've known it," said one resident, "it has been called Stone Barn Road and Stone Barn Corner."
Edward enjoyed farming his land in Taylor Township, and built a large stone barn on the property between 1848-1852. He died on April 4, 1893 and was laid to rest at Lighthouse Cemetery.
Obituary: From Taylor Township - Died, Mr. Edward Hunsdon, at the home of his daughter Mrs. (William) Hepfer, of Franklin Grove. Mr. Hunsdon was one of Taylor's early settlers, coming here about forty-six years ago and living here ever since, until this winter, on account of his poor health, he and his wife went to Franklin to remain with their daughter. He leaves a wife and three daughters to mourn his loss.
Newspaper article:
Franklin Grove - Probably the only barn in the area to have a road named after it is the stone barn on Stone Barn Road, north of here. Located at the intersection of Stone Barn Rd. and Daysville Rd., the old relic is apt to escape notice since it is surrounded on three sides by frame and metal additions. But it's south face is unchanged from pioneer times.
No one knows how old the stone barn is. Local residents can recite a list of former owners, but all say, "The stone barn was old when I lived there."
A 92-year old man who grew up nearby said, "The stone barn looked like that when I used to walk by it to go to school."
Henry Fruit, Franklin Grove, gave an educated guess that the barn was built "in the 1850's or before" and probably by the person who bought the surrounding land from the government.
Willard Simpson, the present owner, said he learned from the abstract of the property that the 40 acres where the stone barn stands were bought from the government on March 1, 1848, by Edward S. Hunsdon. In those days, no building permits were required, and so no record exists of when buildings were placed on property.
At that time, before sawmills and brick yards, the only material available for building was stone and logs. Fruit said he knows of one other barn probably as old located nearby. It is built of walnut logs. Now the log structure is encased in siding and is an apartment house.
When the barn was built, Daysville Road was an early and well-traveled thoroughfare, according to Fruit. "The road dates from the 1830's and went from Peoria to Lee Center to Franklin Grove to Daysville," Fruit said, "It was a stage road." Fruit said his father drove a mail stage on the road two times a week. The run was from the now-disappeared village of Carthage northwest of Franklin Grove to Oregon. Carthage was a village of nine families.
Simpson thinks the interior of the stone barn once contained stalls for horses and cattle, but they have long since been removed. The two-foot thick stone walls support hand-hewn oak beams, once the floor supports of the hay mow. The mow floor is of small tree trunks with the bark still on. Of the two lean-tos built later on either side of the barn, one was used for dairy cattle and the other for a horse stable.
"It was a good barn," remembers a lady who once lived on the property. "Cattle were kept in it, and a bull in the corner."
The stone barn has outlasted other early buildings on the farm. A house built before the present one burned. The stone barn has also outlasted the stagecoaches, ox teams, and draft horse teams that once passed on the Daysville Road. It has seen once-muddy or dusty road change to a blacktop.
Although no one in Franklin Grove knows much about the stone barn, everyone knows of it - and it's location.
"As long as I've known it," said one resident, "it has been called Stone Barn Road and Stone Barn Corner."
Edward S. Hunsdon, the son of Robert R. Hunsdon and Orpha Stewart Hunsdon, was born in Shoreham, Addison County, Vermont on February 10, 1814. He spent his early years in Vermont, and married Martha A. Brown in Shoreham on April 27, 1845. He traveled to Illinois in 1844-45, and the couple moved to Ogle County, Illinois in 1846. They had six children - five girls and one son. The son's name is not known. Their daughters were Mary E., Emily Elizabeth, Sarah N., Alice Sarah and Annie Hunsdon.
Edward enjoyed farming his land in Taylor Township, and built a large stone barn on the property between 1848-1852. He died on April 4, 1893 and was laid to rest at Lighthouse Cemetery.
Obituary: From Taylor Township - Died, Mr. Edward Hunsdon, at the home of his daughter Mrs. (William) Hepfer, of Franklin Grove. Mr. Hunsdon was one of Taylor's early settlers, coming here about forty-six years ago and living here ever since, until this winter, on account of his poor health, he and his wife went to Franklin to remain with their daughter. He leaves a wife and three daughters to mourn his loss.
Newspaper article:
Franklin Grove - Probably the only barn in the area to have a road named after it is the stone barn on Stone Barn Road, north of here. Located at the intersection of Stone Barn Rd. and Daysville Rd., the old relic is apt to escape notice since it is surrounded on three sides by frame and metal additions. But it's south face is unchanged from pioneer times.
No one knows how old the stone barn is. Local residents can recite a list of former owners, but all say, "The stone barn was old when I lived there."
A 92-year old man who grew up nearby said, "The stone barn looked like that when I used to walk by it to go to school."
Henry Fruit, Franklin Grove, gave an educated guess that the barn was built "in the 1850's or before" and probably by the person who bought the surrounding land from the government.
Willard Simpson, the present owner, said he learned from the abstract of the property that the 40 acres where the stone barn stands were bought from the government on March 1, 1848, by Edward S. Hunsdon. In those days, no building permits were required, and so no record exists of when buildings were placed on property.
At that time, before sawmills and brick yards, the only material available for building was stone and logs. Fruit said he knows of one other barn probably as old located nearby. It is built of walnut logs. Now the log structure is encased in siding and is an apartment house.
When the barn was built, Daysville Road was an early and well-traveled thoroughfare, according to Fruit. "The road dates from the 1830's and went from Peoria to Lee Center to Franklin Grove to Daysville," Fruit said, "It was a stage road." Fruit said his father drove a mail stage on the road two times a week. The run was from the now-disappeared village of Carthage northwest of Franklin Grove to Oregon. Carthage was a village of nine families.
Simpson thinks the interior of the stone barn once contained stalls for horses and cattle, but they have long since been removed. The two-foot thick stone walls support hand-hewn oak beams, once the floor supports of the hay mow. The mow floor is of small tree trunks with the bark still on. Of the two lean-tos built later on either side of the barn, one was used for dairy cattle and the other for a horse stable.
"It was a good barn," remembers a lady who once lived on the property. "Cattle were kept in it, and a bull in the corner."
The stone barn has outlasted other early buildings on the farm. A house built before the present one burned. The stone barn has also outlasted the stagecoaches, ox teams, and draft horse teams that once passed on the Daysville Road. It has seen once-muddy or dusty road change to a blacktop.
Although no one in Franklin Grove knows much about the stone barn, everyone knows of it - and it's location.
"As long as I've known it," said one resident, "it has been called Stone Barn Road and Stone Barn Corner."
Edward enjoyed farming his land in Taylor Township, and built a large stone barn on the property between 1848-1852. He died on April 4, 1893 and was laid to rest at Lighthouse Cemetery.
Obituary: From Taylor Township - Died, Mr. Edward Hunsdon, at the home of his daughter Mrs. (William) Hepfer, of Franklin Grove. Mr. Hunsdon was one of Taylor's early settlers, coming here about forty-six years ago and living here ever since, until this winter, on account of his poor health, he and his wife went to Franklin to remain with their daughter. He leaves a wife and three daughters to mourn his loss.
Newspaper article:
Franklin Grove - Probably the only barn in the area to have a road named after it is the stone barn on Stone Barn Road, north of here. Located at the intersection of Stone Barn Rd. and Daysville Rd., the old relic is apt to escape notice since it is surrounded on three sides by frame and metal additions. But it's south face is unchanged from pioneer times.
No one knows how old the stone barn is. Local residents can recite a list of former owners, but all say, "The stone barn was old when I lived there."
A 92-year old man who grew up nearby said, "The stone barn looked like that when I used to walk by it to go to school."
Henry Fruit, Franklin Grove, gave an educated guess that the barn was built "in the 1850's or before" and probably by the person who bought the surrounding land from the government.
Willard Simpson, the present owner, said he learned from the abstract of the property that the 40 acres where the stone barn stands were bought from the government on March 1, 1848, by Edward S. Hunsdon. In those days, no building permits were required, and so no record exists of when buildings were placed on property.
At that time, before sawmills and brick yards, the only material available for building was stone and logs. Fruit said he knows of one other barn probably as old located nearby. It is built of walnut logs. Now the log structure is encased in siding and is an apartment house.
When the barn was built, Daysville Road was an early and well-traveled thoroughfare, according to Fruit. "The road dates from the 1830's and went from Peoria to Lee Center to Franklin Grove to Daysville," Fruit said, "It was a stage road." Fruit said his father drove a mail stage on the road two times a week. The run was from the now-disappeared village of Carthage northwest of Franklin Grove to Oregon. Carthage was a village of nine families.
Simpson thinks the interior of the stone barn once contained stalls for horses and cattle, but they have long since been removed. The two-foot thick stone walls support hand-hewn oak beams, once the floor supports of the hay mow. The mow floor is of small tree trunks with the bark still on. Of the two lean-tos built later on either side of the barn, one was used for dairy cattle and the other for a horse stable.
"It was a good barn," remembers a lady who once lived on the property. "Cattle were kept in it, and a bull in the corner."
The stone barn has outlasted other early buildings on the farm. A house built before the present one burned. The stone barn has also outlasted the stagecoaches, ox teams, and draft horse teams that once passed on the Daysville Road. It has seen once-muddy or dusty road change to a blacktop.
Although no one in Franklin Grove knows much about the stone barn, everyone knows of it - and it's location.
"As long as I've known it," said one resident, "it has been called Stone Barn Road and Stone Barn Corner."
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