Our house's builder was John B. McCullough, a Civil War vet raised here in Jefferson County. I knew this much, but didn't know a whole lot more. I made some notes below.
John B McCullough was born 14 Mar 1847 in Union Twnsp, Jefferson Co, PA, and died 18 Jan 1929 in Erie, PA. He married Henrietta Matson 15 Aug 1871. She was born Abt. 1847 in Union Twnsp, Jefferson Co, PA, and died Bef. 1927.
OBITUARY
Death claimed another of the few remaining Civil War veterans at Jefferson county, when John B. McCullough of Corsica died in Erie last Friday evening. January 18 at 9:30 o'clock after a week's illness, aged 81years 10 months and 6 days. Death was due to the infirmities of age.
Mr. McCullough had been a resident of Corsica for more than fifty years, where he followed his trade of carpentering. He was born on the McCullough farm in Union township on March 14, 1847, a son of Sheridan and Mary (Ross) McCullough. When the Civil War broke out, he joined Company G, 11th Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry and saw much active service. He was twice wounded in the fighting around Richmond, Va. He was one of four brothers who served in the Union army during the war.
The deceased was united in marriage to Miss Henrietta Matson(1) of Union Twp on August 15, 1871. To them were born six children, five of whom survive one daughter dying in infancy. Mrs. McCullough preceded her husband in death a number of years ago. Surviving children are: S.J. and Enolia of Corsica, Acta of Wilkinsburg; M.M. of St. Mary's and Elizabeth wife of Marvin Rowley, of Bridgeville. He is also survived by two sisters: Mrs. Arma Orcutt of Corsica, and Elizabeth McCullough of Brooksville.
He was a member of Corsica Lodge I.O.O.F. and of Plagah Presbyterian Church.
Funeral services were held at the home in Corsica Monday afternoon at 3 o'clock conducted by Rev. Mr. Byers and burial made in Plagah(2) cemetery. The pallbearers ere Cad Orcutt, R.D. Simkins(3), W.B. Kennedy, George McMillin, Thomas Armagoat and C.C. Simpson.
Children of John McCullough and Henrietta Matson are:
i. Simone J McCullough, born 1876 in Pennsylvania; died Aft. 1929 in Corsica, Jefferson Co, PA.
ii. Enolia McCullough, born 1883 in Pennsylvania; died Aft. 1929 in Corsica, Jefferson Co, PA.
iii. Acta McCullough, born 1879 in Pennsylvania; died Aft. 1929 in Wilkinsburg, PA.
iv. Mark M McCullough(4), born 1891 in Pennsylvania; died Aft. 1929 in St Mary, PA.
v. Elizabeth McCullough, born 1893 in Pennsylvania; died Aft. 1929 in Bridgeville, PA. She married Marvin Rowley; born Bet. 1890 - 1895; died in Bridgeville, PA
1. Miss Henrietta Matson was likely the daughter of John Matson, the man who deeded our land over to John McCullough.
2. This certainly is supposed to read "Pisgah", which is the church/cemetery right up the road from us. It is less than a mile away.
3. R.D. Simkins would have been the father of the late Melvin "Mel" Simkins, our house's most recent PO.
4. I wonder if Mark M. McCullough is the "MMM" carved into the door of our downstairs closet:
Also interesting to read that Mr. McCullough's funeral service took place in this house in 1929. I would love to go back in time to see that.
I started the laundry room "refresh" on Friday afternoon. And just like every other room in this house, it was GROSS.
Pulled the washer/dryer out for the first time, removed the mud sink, and removed the wallpaper. Of course, the wallpaper was covering up tons of old water damage. The POs slapped on some drywall mud and then wallpaper to cover it up.
Scraped off all of the loose compound, drywall, paint, wallpaper, dirt, and whatever else wanted to come off. Also pounded in some loose nails.
Fixed the bad joints with mesh tape and compound and then skimmed the entire walls with a coat of compound. Then sanded by hand.
Started painting. I always wanted white walls and someone suggested black for the trim - so I went with it!
Got the first coat of white on the walls and around the trim. Need to do at least one more coat of white to clean up the messy lines and then do a final coat of white.
Sorry for the bad lighting here.
The whole room will hopefully be done or close to done by next weekend. The area behind the washer/dryer needed the most work, so I wanted this to be done first so I could put the appliances back in place. The dryer needs a new gas line also (old one is improper/kinked).
Here's just another quick pic of something cool in our house. I actually just discovered this today - it's the light in the hallway upstairs. There was a hideous plastic shade attached to the light bulb which was hiding an old light fixture! It does work, but I think I have only turned it on once. It's likely original to the electrification of the house.
As usual it has a million layers of paint on it and a 75w (!) lightbulb, but it still makes me happy. Resto project for some day!
A quick change of the light bulb:
I was given this awesome little table today. It has been in my family since approximately 1919 - my mom's grandmother bought it around the time she was married. Nobody knows the actual age of the table, or whether she bought it new or used. We are also unsure if the marble top is original or not. Does anybody have any estimates on the approximate age of the table?
It looks great with the old window and trim in our living room!
Sorry for the poor quality photos - my iPhone didn't like the room's lighting. I'll get detailed pics later.
I am currently looking for something antique to display on top of the table - a lamp or similar.
Well today I had to replace the wax ring of the upstairs toilet since it was leaking down into the ceiling/wall below... overall a fairly easy, albeit totally disgusting, job.
Downstairs in the dining room, I have a suspended ceiling because there was a plumbing disaster in that bathroom in 1993 and they had to rip the ceiling apart. I had never peeked above the ceiling tiles until today, but I wanted to open up the area and get a fan in there to dry it out.
Here are two pics of some historic bits I uncovered.
1. This wallpaper
2. The original green paint covering nearly 1" thick plaster. This used to be an exterior wall before the rear addition was built.
Unfortunately it will stay as-is for a while longer.
Found this little gem:
Apparently, connecting the ground wires to the box but not together was common practice in the sixties. This junction also contains a standalone ground wire (#10!) running back to the panel, another running to an outlet in the living room, and the run from the box to the bathroom is 12-2 w/G but the ground is #16. Found out that stuff was forbidden by code in 1971.
Either way, the dishwasher now has its own 15A home run (going to convert to GFCI tonight), that junction box has been tidied up and the grounds have been tied together properly (though the #16 grounds are still a bit weird), and the entire circuit has been de-rated to to 15A. I also installed new switches, outlets, and GFCI protection in the bathroom. One more fire hazard averted!
Oh yeah... the electricians who worked on my place were super special people. Also, the fact that they were doing some of this work by 1960's code is the other half of the problem.
My kitchen is a whole 'nother story and I plan to tackle it over this winter. It's working fine for now, but it's not "to code" and definitely not done according to best practice.
One single 20A circuit serves entire kitchen, INCLUDING gas range/hood, refrigerator, and all countertop outlets. Two of the countertop outlets are within 3' of the sink and nothing is GFCI protected.
I did peek inside the outlets and I do have 12/2 w/G but it's the same weird 1960's stuff with the 16ga. ground. The outlets ARE actually grounded though; however, all of the terminations are back-stabbed :x. Ideally, I want to get the fridge and range/hood on their own dedicated 15A circuits and then do two separate 15A GFCI circuits for the countertop outlets. Technically, the range is plugged into a countertop outlet since it is beside the range and not behind it... ugh. I can't even begin to fathom how I am going to get new wires pulled through the walls in order to split this stuff out.
I've been working on more of the wiring (pretty much done with everything I need to do except the kitchen) and finished painting the laundry room. Also scraped and painted the basement door (exterior), cleaned and covered the central air for winter, and started drawing up plans for a cement trough system to divert the water in the flood-prone basement into the sump pit. Whoever poured the concrete floor in the '50s sloped it the wrong way, and then they hacked-in the sump pit in the '80s in the most random place ever... so the flood water doesn't run into the pit. The water actually comes up out of the floor and not from the walls, so I am guessing there is a spring under the house.
I also washed every single window on the interior and exterior (had to borrow my dad and his extension ladder since the Andersen windows aren't tilt-wash type). So much thick grey grime on them I had to use a scrubby sponge to remove it - they probably hadn't been cleaned since the eighties. We can see through the windows now! I also removed all of those ugly plastic grilles from the windows. It's amazing how much better the house looks without those grilles. One of the lower sashes upstairs won't budge so I need to figure that out.
