owens-house on jabel

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 12:58:39 -0400

We are now the proud owners of two burial plots in our town’s historic cemetery. Through a series of events, we actually got them for free. The cemetery holds some of my favorite examples of limestone carving. It was definitely the place we wanted to go. Bonus: the Owenses are there.

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 18:16:05 -0400

Stove-mas continues! The interior work is done. Tomorrow they’ll finish the chimney outside. There’s a practical reason for the 45 in the stovepipe but I love the character it gives it.

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 10:50:10 -0400

Merry Stove-mas! Woodstove is being installed today. As much as I believe in DIY, the risk of burning the house down convinced me to let the experts handle it.

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 15:13:32 -0400

This is as far as I got with a handsaw. My father-in-law is going to come over with his chainsaw to cut it closer to the ground and chunk it up for firewood. While I was doing that, Rachel pulled all the limbs around front, plus a bunch of other clean-up. Then I took a nap in the sun!

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 11:22:43 -0400

My task today is to take down this tree. We’re having a woodstove installed soon and the chimney goes there. It’ll be a secondary and emergency source of heat for us. I’ll also have to find a place to build a little lean-to for the woodpile but that’s a task for another day.

A steward, not an owner

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 18:40:41 -0400

Peter Hahn:

Our sequoia is also special to me because we share an origin story - we are both originally American. There were sequoias in Europe until the last ice age, but all Giant Sequoias today are native to North America, more specifically to the Sierra Nevada in California; the first ones planted in Europe were planted in the 1850s. There are times, especially when I’m working in the vines and look up to see the sequoia standing before the east façade of the house, that the tree becomes a portal into the past: I imagine it being planted, and hear the clattering of horse-drawn carriages pulling up in the courtyard below, and the generations of workers and inhabitants strolling by, the builders, farmers, gardeners, growers, winemakers. The first part of the house was built over 400 years ago, in the early 1600s, with the largest section added in 1766. In moments like this, when its history becomes palpable to me, I am reminded that nobody is really the owner of this place. We are just temporary stewards. And like all those others, I will always be part of this place too. This feeling, of being both temporary and permanent, has become part of my everyday life, and it largely defines how I see myself and comprehend what I’m doing here.

I know this feeling; I’ve felt it here in my 119 year old house. It’s the feeling of being part of some small but important story. Within that feeling, the house becomes a presence and I am aware of the trust I’ve been given.

Owens House shadow box

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 08:02:19 -0400

Rachel made a shadow box in honor of our house and all the ancestors and spirits of place. Her description of the contents:

The wooden planks that help make up the back panel are from the house itself. I gathered them from the attic.

The printouts are from newspaper clippings. Updates began with the Owens getting permits to build the house, and ending the week they moved in.

The prickly seed pods are from the sweet gum tree that the Elliots planted. This tree is special because it went up into space on The Discovery Shuttle with astronaut Charlie Walker in 1984.

The white landscape rocks are also from the Elliots.

The flowers are plants I grew in the back yard.

The box was made by Jeremy.

The feather that is in with the bouquet is from a bird that found refuge here. It represents all the critters that also call this place home, even if just for a short time.

The dirt in the jar is from the front yard. It is here in remembrance of every person, group, tribe, and spirit that ever moved across this land.

And a picture of the house as it looks in 2025.

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 11:31:25 -0400

I’ve added “The Owens House” as a blog category to contain all posts about the history of our house. This will interest exactly one reader of this blog (Rachel)–who will also not like the fact that I’ve called it the Owens House. But I like it, and it’s my blog, so there.

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 10:51:45 -0400

I recently wrote a bit about the Schroers, who were the second family to live in our house. Over the weekend, there was a tour of some of the local historic churches and one of them was First Presbyterian, where Dr. Schroer was a deacon. We definitely wanted to go to that one because we knew from this news clipping that his wife and daughter donated a baptismal font after his death:

Thankfully, it was still there:

We were glad to be able to give the members of the church a bit more background information on their baptismal font in exchange for adding a couple of images to our house lore.

Sat, 19 Oct 2024 12:43:50 -0400

Today at the historical society’s research library, we discovered that our house was built in 1908—two years earlier than we had been told.

Sat, 05 Oct 2024 19:29:07 -0400

Rachel and I are continuing to research the lives of our ancestors of place. Today we looked into the Schroer family, who were the second family to live here (1939-1971). Dr. William Schroer was a chiropractor who moved to Bedford from Poland, Indiana, in 1927 to open a practice. He and his wife Delzena had one daughter Florine.

Dr. Schroer was a deacon of First Presbyterian here in Bedford. The family seem to have been socialites: very active in various clubs and committees. Dr. Schroer was a Mason and his daughter was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star.

We also visited their graves in Poland, Indiana, a little over an hour from here. They seem to have had deep roots in that little community, which was heavily populated with German immigrants.

This is just a sketch for the moment. I plan to write a more complete history of the house after I gather more information. Rachel and I were saying today that we have thought so much about our house and its history and people that it’s beginning to feel like a person in itself.

Young Schroers:

Older Schroers:

Sat, 28 Sep 2024 08:35:40 -0400

You never know what you’ll find when you pull up the carpet on a 114 year old house. Someone covered a hole with a peanut lid. We plan to leave it; the bookshelves will cover it anyway.

Fri, 26 Jul 2024 15:07:31 -0400

We found the graves of the first owners’ of our home today. We put some flowers from our backyard—theirs and ours—on the grave.

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 22:27:22 -0400

I read through the abstract for our house this evening and worked out the history of ownership. The property that includes our house began as a grant of 160 acres from the US government to William Carmichael in 1818. For the next century it was sold off in pieces and parts and was the subject of several lawsuits. One of the owners was Dr. Winthrop Foote—doctor, lawyer, and founder of the local limestone industry.

Our particular lot took its current shape in 1907 when John and Laura Owens purchased it. From there is goes as follows:

John and Laura Owens 1907-1929
Elizabeth Norton (nee Owens) 1929-1939
Dr. William and Delzena Schroer 1939-1961
Florine Kern (nee Schroer) 1961-1974
Gloria Elliott 1974-2009
The Abels 2009-present

All told, we’re the fourth family to live in this house. The three previous families all lived here 30+ years. We plan to keep that tradition.