Butler’s Dream

In 1830 Cyrus Butler, a local business executive, started construction of his dream house. It was a two-story brick colonial having 3 bedrooms upstairs, formal living and dining room, library, kitchen with built-in appliances, a maid’s room and hardwood floors and modern utilities throughout. He wanted an elegant house too, with high ceilings, built in china cupboards and fine woodwork. Does this story sound familiar? It is no different than today, except for the fact that Cyrus Butler’s

house was constructed in a remote part of Ohio at a time when most other Americans outside the original thirteen colonies were building log or frame houses and many were living in tents and tepees.

Ohio in 1830

The year 1830 was quite early in the development of our country and the life of settlers in Ohio was quite primitive. The frontier at that time passed through Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana and land to the west was essentially uncivilized. Although peace was temporarily brought to the frontier in 1832 upon the defeat of the Indians at the battle of Bad Ax in Wisconsin, our seventh President, Andrew Jackson, had just assured the "Winning of the West" by authorizing creation of the famous United States Cavalry.

At the same time, sailing ships outnumbered steamers on the Great Lakes but steamers were making quicker trips from Cleveland to Chicago. President Jackson became the first president to ride on a railroad but the first American-made locomotive, put into service by the South Carolina Railroad in 1831, exploded a few weeks later. Cyrus McCormick was just demonstrating a successful reaping machine but it was not until a few years later that Samuel Colt created his famous six-shooter and friction matches were invented. By 1833 the "National Pike" reached as far west as Columbus, Ohio.

It was in this setting that Cyrus Butler commenced the construction of his magnificent home. The foundation and steps would be of sandstone and beams would be hand hewn of oak and walnut felled on the premises; bricks were hauled from the kiln at Wellington. Inside the rooms were painstakingly finished by hand craftsmen who fashioned Georgian and Greek revival details in the Doric columns of the fireplaces, the flat and fluted pilasters framing the twelve-pane windows, the concealed inside shutters and the perfectly curved cherry handrail on the staircase. The house was made complete with a lock on the front door imported from England which required a six-and-half inch long brass key to open.

It would take four years to build his house and Cyrus Butler would die in 1834 before having an opportunity to enjoy it. He rests today under a simple marker adjacent the local Methodist Church, further evidence that man is temporal.

The Dream Survives

Yet the edifice which Butler constructed lives on, immune to the ravages of time. Today it is the house of Marcia and Tom Moorhead, local business executive. The basic house has changed very little over the past 150 years and there is very little difference in external appearance.

Each occupant through the past century and a half has made his own indelible impression on the home, all the while maintaining it to the standards of its original construction. The seven fireplaces have given way to baseboard hot water as the primary heating means; electricity has eliminated the necessity for candlelight; modern gas and electric appliances have obsoleted the cooking fireplace and domed baking oven in the keeping room; the old attached woodshed and summer kitchen have been transformed into a tavern-like bar-playroom; and the loft has become an oversized family room. But this home is still just as warm and comfortable before the glow of an open fire and flicker of candlelight as it was in Butler’s day.

Back to Index

Transcribed by Lowell Dunlap