The little drummer's house

The big question historically—the really big question, is whether there’s a chance this little house might be the original Shown hotel mentioned in the 1883 history of Pulaski County. The quote below immediately follows mention of the Evert House hotel (and its antecedent existence as the the first building constructed in the town of Medaryville, built by Joseph B. Shultz in 1853):

The first hotel, however, in Medarysville (sic) was built in 1855, by John S. Shown, and is the second house east of the railroad, on the north side of the street, occupied at present by J. E. Lane as a dwelling.

Back in the good ole days, travelling salesmen were called drummers, because their job was to drum up business for the companies they represented . They would ride up and down the railroad line, stopping at each little town along the way. For a variety of reasons—including the crowding of old stores with items for sale, it was more convenient for the drummers to set up their wares somewhere in town and then let their clients come visit them, instead of the other way around. Lodging houses accomodated their needs by dedicating part of their space to such commercial use.

Flossie Poisel’s recollection of the town circa 1887 has this to say about the little house in the pictures:

“On the north side, going east of the tracks was the Evert Hotel, then a room used by the travelling salesmen.”

Flossie would know. She was a daughter of James E. Low (mentioned in the earlier article as the husband of Mary Jeanette Baughman). Her family was long associated with a house on Lot 4 just east of the hotel. The Lows were prominent merchants in early Medaryville. She married Henry Poisel’s grandson William.

The evidence at hand as to who constructed the house, and when, is clouded by conflicting, gappy records. It is of relatively crude construction. It is a post-and-beam structure, as opposed to the hotel’s balloon framing.

The ceiling and floor joists are whole oak logs, with their bark still on. In the floor the logs are laid two-across, with each one cut so that the two pieces lap over a piling underneath. The ceiling joists, however, are single logs across the span. The likely reason for the difference is that the floor joists had to bear more of a load.

However, and interestingly, if you look closely at the picture below, you’ll see evidence that the ceiling joists did indeed wind up sagging, and an ingenious method was used to correct it.

What was done was this: the sagging joist would be lifted from below until it was slightly above plumb. Then a slot would be cut across the grain of the joist, and a pair of wedges then driven into the slot. When the pressure was released, the wedges would force the joist back into a more horizontal attitude. If you look closely at the picture, right next to the heating duct on the second joist in the foreground, one such fixup can be seen. Several other joists have had similar treatment.

Also the only sawn lumber in the building has been added via renovations; the original wall studs are all made out of hand-hewn, randomly-sized pieces.

Legally speaking, on the question of who built the building, and when, there are two conflicting pieces of evidence. All of the transfers relating to the hotel have had one parameter in common: the eastmost boundary is 55’ from the western line of the lot. This has been the case ever since Dr. Elston acquired the property, thought to be in 1857. It turns out that 55’ takes one almost exactly to the east edge of the drummer’s house. This would seem to indicate that the house was there almost since the beginning.

However, while James Shown’s name shows up in the property records as having owned part of Lot 4 (the lot the hotel sits on), he is only shown as owner of the east part of the lot, beyond the eastern wall of the drummer’s house.

I look forward to gathering more material on this matter, and eventually solving the conundrum.