Jackson Michigan News and Information, News for Jackson MI
Another way of learning about the history of your house is via the Abstract of Title for your property. This is a legal document which shows who owned your land, owner-by-owner, all the way back to when the property was purchased from the U.S. Government. For example, the property I live at was once part of an 85-acre piece of land originally purchased from the U.S. Government on September 15, 1835 by Wareham Warner (1779-1854), one of Albion’s original settlers.
Using my Abstract as a guide, let’s fast forward to 1877, when this particular section of the property was in the hands of prominent Albion banker Samuel V. Irwin (1823-1890), after whom Irwin Avenue is named. Irwin began selling off portions of his farm for subdivision residential development in the southwest portion of town. The “Irwin’s Addition” was dedicated in November, 1877. It consisted of land from the south side of Mechanic’s Street (as it was originally spelled), to Crandall St. Dalrymple and S. Superior St. served as the west and east boundaries, respectively.
In an interesting sidelight, Mechanic St. was originally nicknamed “Oklahoma,” because it resembled the Oklahoma panhandle on a map. It received its official name of Mechanic St. in August, 1890 when the Irwin & Hodge’s addition was platted. The street was so-named in recognition of Albion’s industrial mechanics who worked at our many local factories. Within just four weeks, 43 lots were sold on both sides of the street, and construction of eleven homes began with values ranging from $800 to $1500.
My corner-lot house is located in Block 7, Lot 21, and was originally listed as 301 Mechanic St. Irwin had sold the property to carpenter Ernest E. Aldrich (1852-1916) in January, 1880, who owned it until 1892.
In 1892 there was a flurry of activity on this property, which indicates to me that was the year my house was erected. In July, 1892, Aldrich sold the property to William (1839-1924) and Lydia (1844-1929) M. Loder. Mr. Loder was a prominent Albion builder who built numerous homes in town in the late 19th century. Loder obtained a mortgage for $875 from the young and fledgling Homestead Loan and Building Association in Albion to accomplish that transaction. He had previously purchased property and erected other homes on Mechanic St. earlier in the year.
In October 1892, Loder sold the property, presumably with the new house on it, to Helen R. Dodes (1839-1921). Her $800 mortgage came from a private lender, druggist William Taber Reed (1838-1897), and the mortgage was totally paid off in August, 1897. There are also later transactions recorded with the property, of course. Unfortunately, Helen’s husband William Dodes (1832-1894) died in 1894, and she thereby moved to Concord. The 1894-95 city directory lists laundryman Carl K. Cobb and wife Mary listed as living here. The 1897-98 directory lists millwright Marvin E. Palmer living here, using the new 900 S. Eaton St. address. Helen was remarried, to Ruel N. Earl (1850-1929) in 1903, and moved back into the house where she lived the rest of her life. She is buried in Concord with her first husband William Dodes.
From our Historical Notebook this week we present a photograph of my house and carriage barn along Mechanic St. as it appeared in the first decade of the 1900s. I obtained this photo thirty years ago from the late Audrey Dodes (1913-2002) of Concord. Notice in the foreground that Mechanic St. is unpaved. That’s Helen and Ruel Earl sitting on the porch. The little maple tree on the far right was just cut down in 2021. I encourage our readers to study your Abstract (if you have one) as a “springboard” in order to discover interesting details about your property of which you may not be aware. Do you know who built your house and what year it was built?
