On November 15, 1895 Lots 3 and 4, Block 8 were sold by Joab Goodall to Victoria B. Spiller for $200. Victoria sat on the lots for five years and on October 8, 1900 sold both of them to Ed Hinchcliff for $400. Apparently, Hinchcliff, a painter with five children, was only speculating because on the 24th of the same month he sold the lots to Carrie M. Schneider for $475.
In 1880, Carrie Schneider and her husband John were living in DuQuoin, Illinois and ran an agriculture store. In that census year, John 31 and Carrie 29 had two sons. The oldest son was John aged 6 and the youngest Oscar aged 4. Also living with them was his mother Anne who was 61 and Carrie’s brother Lewis C. Young, 24. Lewis was employed at John’s agriculture store. John was a full blooded Prussian born in Germany while Carrie had been born in Illinois to two full blooded German immigrants.
No record of John’s death has been found yet, but by 1900 John was dead and Carrie and her youngest son Oscar were living in Marion enumeration district 118. Her oldest son John, his wife Hedwig and their two children were also living in the same Marion enumeration district but not with his mother. I have to presume that since Carrie bought the lots on N. Market St. in the fall of 1900, that the house was most likely built the following year in 1901.
In the 1906 Marion street directory, 812 N. Market is occupied by Carrie and her son O.S. Schneider. The 1907 business directory shows Oscar as proprietor of the Missouri Pacific Bar at 501 N. Market St. The Missouri Pacific office was across the street at 500 N. Market St.
On August 2, 1907, the home was sold to Samuel Knox Casey for $7,000. Carrie now 59, rented space with another widowed lady named Martha Abels at 522 S. Market St. Martha was also of German descent and owned a shoe store uptown.
Samuel Casey, the new owner, was born on a farm four miles north of Marion on March 6, 1865. His wife Annie died on February 23, 1892 leaving Samuel with a young daughter named Laura Belle, who lived with her grandfather Casey and Aunt Washie Oliver until she was old enough to attend the Marion public schools.
In 1895 Samuel moved to Marion without his daughter and took over the Egyptian Press newspaper and later with James Felts founded the Marion Evening Post. In early 1907, he was living and working at 1001 Public Square and in August of the same year bought the home for himself and his daughter at 812 N. Market St from Carrie Schneider.
His daughter married Walter W. Skaggs on November 16, 1910 and had two children by him. The Skaggs family continued living with Samuel at his home even after Laura’s husband Walter died in June of 1928.
In 1939 Samuel had a heart attack and died in the foyer of the home. He was buried at Rose Hill cemetery. Laura Belle as the only child inherited the home and her father’s assets and continued running the paper as its administrator. In the early 1940’s the house was sold to Ruth S. Hestand who held it for a few years.
On October 11, 1945 the house was sold to Thomas L. and Bessie Odum who owned it till the late 1970’s. It was then sold on November 11, 1979 to John C. and Geneva Kayser who owned it till the late 1980’s.
The owners beyond the late 1980’s were David and Cindy Pool. After that were Megan and Ray Sackman, then Tony and Rebecca Craig. On June 1, 2011 the house passed to its current owners Stevie and James Bartley who are the current owners as of January 2013.
In January 2013, the current owners, Stevie and James Bartley, invited my wife and I to see the home and take some pictures of the homes internal features. The photo set accompanying this post is the result of that visit.
Stevie grew up in West Frankfort and James in Johnston City, which was also the stomping grounds of Samuel Casey, the homes longest 32 year inhabitant. For Stevie, James and their daughter Rheanon , it was love at first sight when they first found the home for sale in 2011. Since then, they have made the home theirs and currently have plans to capitalize on the enormous amount of space they discovered untapped in the attic which has the footprint of the whole house and very tall ceilings due to the pitch of the roof.
Two of the small rooms on the second floor to the rear of the home once served as a nursery and servant’s quarters. It was in the servant’s quarters that Susan Davis spent over 30 years of her life when employed by Samuel Casey to cook for them and care for his daughter Laura Belle’s children. When she began working for them she was in her 30’s and single. When her services was no longer needed in the early 1940’s, she was in her early 70’s and was a widow. Now the Bartley’s daughter, Rheanon, inhabits the nursery as a home schooling room.
The home absolutely exudes “turn of the century” charm with its tall baseboards, crowned window trim, stain glass inserts, transoms over doorways and a beautiful carved staircase. Like many large, older homes it houses 14 rooms, many smaller, having served a utilitarian task in the past. James said there was a concrete trough made against the back of the house to water horses when they were tied up.
The servant’s quarters upstairs near the nursery used to house a staircase which dropped down to the kitchen. A previous owner has converted the quarters to a spare bathroom, but the Bartleys have plans to restore the stairwell and room to its previous condition.
In the early to mid-1980’s the home was made accessible to a group of paranormal investigators. Overall, nothing was found, but one of the psychics reported a possible trauma event upstairs. Another investigation was made again in 2011 after the Bartley’s bought the home. Again, the results were the same. Stevie said she was a little unnerved by the homes noises when they first moved in but it turned out to be squirrels running around in the attic who also find the home attractive. As to whether any spirits occupy the house, the Bartleys say they aren’t worried about it either way.
Stevie likes to purchase old photographs and display them on the walls around the home. They appear as old wandering souls who have finally found a place to rest and seem quite at home. The Bartleys purchased an original 1912 Edison record player which functions in their formal dining room and fits the room like it should always have been there.
One can imagine the clanging of the Coal Belt Electric line trolley that ran by in front of the home every hour on the hour from 7 AM to the “owl run” at 11 PM just after the turn of the century through to the 1920’s.
Though the original fireplace was converted from wood burning to gas, it still throws a warm glow into the living area and it isn’t difficult to see the spirits of the previous occupants through time huddling nearby to catch its warmth.
This home is featured in a pamphlet called “Historic Architecture of Marion Illinois.”
( Compiled from Williamson County Records/Deeds; Federal census data; city and business directories, Pioneer Folks and Places by Barbara Barr Hubbs, 1989 Sesquicentennial History, WCHS; Marion City cemetery record; SS Death Records; by Sam Lattuca on 01/23/2013)