Nature slowly claiming historic structure, tucked away in woods

Nature is slowly reclaiming an old, historic house located in Northeast quarter of Section 34, Marion County, Mo. The stucco-over brick exterior has fallen in places, and trees are growing in the interior. Once a grand house, it was likely the long-time home of the Harvel Jordan family. Mr. Jordan was long in the livery business in Hannibal.  Photo by Susan Humphreys.

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

Josh Bach lives in Kansas City and works for a consulting firm, helping electric utility companies keep in compliance with ever-changing government regulations.

But as a teenager during the mid 1990s, he lived with his dad on the southern segment of Riverside Drive, Hannibal’s South Side, atop one of the most scenic properties existing in and around Hannibal.

This unique location triggered a curiosity about his surroundings.

One day, some 30 years go, “I was walking the end of the fence line, wondering what was on the other side,” he said. Nimble, and with the grace of a cross country runner, he jumped over the wire fence.

What he saw not too far into the woods to the south of where he lived, virtually took away his breath.

“There was a stucco house, 2 1/2 stories tall; a beautiful house. The windows were broken out and the door was open.

“Why is it here?” he wondered, as he stood in a stupor.  “There is nothing around it. Overgrown.”

He summoned the courage to approach the abandoned house.

Then, “I walked in,” he said, with trepidation.

Today, he can remember that moment distinctly.

“There was a room … with a random chair sitting in the middle of it.”

He paused to reflect upon what was before his eyes, then, “I hightailed it back to our house.”

What was it that stirred such a reaction?

“It was a feeling, more than anything,” he said. “In that house. In that area. I don’t know how to explain it.”

Because bravery comes in numbers, “I had a lot of friends that I would take over to that house,” he said. 

Everybody wanted to go see it, “Let’s go!” They would chime in.

But once they got there, they took on a different tone.

“Everybody gets freaked out,” he said.

“The house was there,” Josh said. “There was something in it, you could feel it.”

Decades passed, but he never forgot this house, standing there, abandoned in the woods.

Rekindled memories

A story published in the Hannibal Courier-Post on Wednesday, June 3, rekindled this memory.

The story was about Hannibal’s Poor Farm, in operation from estimated 1884 until 1904 in this same neighborhood. The Poor Farm consisted of about 20 acres of land, reportedly located along Riverside Drive, which would place it in the vicinity of the hilltop house where Josh lived with his father, David.

“I didn’t know anything about any of this until I talked to Gabe Meyer a couple of days ago,” Josh said. Gabe, a Hannibal native, brought the newspaper article to Josh’s attention, “because he knew where I lived” when growing up in Hannibal.

Was it possible that the house he saw in the woods 30 years prior be the historic Poor Farm residence? That notion seemed strange to him.

“The house was so nice, this must be like some doctor owned this house. Why is it just sitting here?” There was an overgrown road that went up to it, Josh said.

Abandoned house

In 1985, Dr. George Kerkemeyer of Hannibal purchased the property on which Josh Bach ventured during his teenage years, and on which the abandoned house stands.

“When I bought the property (from Ray E. and Imogene McCullough), people told me this house had been the ‘sick house,’ and some said it was an orphanage at one time,” Dr. Kerkemeyer said.

But the timeline of “Abstract of Titles” supplied by Dr. Kerkemeyer shows something different. The document shows the ownership lineage of this land from 1838 until the time the doctor purchased the land in 1985.

Following a review of property transfers and datelines, it is likely that the property Josh Bach explored 30 years ago was not the Poor Farm house and associated land, but rather a spacious house long occupied by the Harvel Jordan family. Jordan was a successful livery operator as early as 1847.

The Jordan name is first associated with this property in 1860, when Harvel Jordan purchased the land from Jonathan M. Garrett for $5,000. The date of the general warranty deed was June 11, 1860.

The property remained in his family until after Mr. Jordan’s death in 1900. He bequeathed the land to his daughters, Henrietta Jordan Darlington (Mrs. Reuben C.) and Annie Jordan Smiley (Mrs. Robert J.)

The house was in disrepair, but still structurally in tact, when Dr. Kerkemeyer purchased the property in 1985.

Dr. Kerkemeyer sought out Scott Meyer, of River City Restorations, “who came up to look at it a few years after I bought it. He estimated it was of the time period of the 1850s,” based upon the “period saw curves on the floor joists.”

Dr. Kerkemeyer has also been told that there was once a livery on this property, with quite a number of horses. That further suggests that the house belonged to the Harvel Jordan family.

A few newspaper and city directory notices help tell the story.

In 1881, Harvel Jordan lived southeast of the city, 1 1/2 miles.

On June 5, 1888, a local newspaper carried a notice that Judge John McIlhaney of Baird Texas, and Miss M.A. Washington were married at the Jordan home south of the city.

In 1888 and 1892, Jordan’s address was published in the city directory as Grape Hill Road. Grape Street was described as 1st Street east of Fulton Avenue, from Mount Alban south to Silver. (Silver Street follows the northern boarder of Mount Olivet Cemetery.) Today, the address of this property is Silver Street.

The property is outside of the city limits by a short distance, Dr. Kerkemeyer said. It boarders Section 12 of Mount Olivet Cemetery.

A point of interest: “There seems to have been a trail at the back of the property. To the east there is a ridge and then it drops down, it was probably a riding trail to the river,” Dr. Kerkemeyer said.

A number of years ago, the house burned, Dr. Kerkemeyer said, and all that remains today is a shell. “There are trees growing inside it,” he said.

Susan Humphreys, who lives nearby, graciously hiked into the wooded area on Monday to take a picture of the remains.

Dr. Kerkemeyer said that Susan’s picture “shows a window area; to the left of it was the door.” The second story “collapsed into the first floor. Part of the second story wall is still standing.

“I mow the property once a year,” Dr. Kerkemeyer said. “Half is wooded, half is field. Blackberries are on the adjacent field. We have hayrides up there.”

Dr. Kerkemeyer shared the the legal description of the land on which the remains of the old house stand:

“All of that part of the West part of the South one-half (1/2) of the south one-half (1/2) of the northwest quarter of section thirty-four (34), Township fifty-seven (57), Range four (4) West, described as follows, twit: Begin on the south line of the northwest quarter of Section thirty-four (34) in said Township and Range at a stone eight hundred seventy-five (875) feet West of the center of said Section; thence run North six and one-half (6 1/2) degrees variation, seven hundred thirty-eight and 54/100 (738.54) feet to a stone on the south line of a tract formerly owned by H.P. Jacques; thence run west parallel wth the South line of said Quarter Section seventeen hundred sixty-five (1765) feet to the west line of said Section; thence run south on the west line of said section to the southwest corner of said Quarter Section; thence run East on the south line of said Quarter Section to the point of beginning, containing twenty-five and 17/100 (25.17) acres, more of less."

The McCulloughs owned the property for more than 31 years prior to the sale to Dr. Kerkemeyer.

According to the Abstract of Title supplied by Dr. Kerkemeyer, the McCulloughs purchased the property in 1954 from Mr. and Mrs. Jesse B. Kreider.

Josh Bach of Kansas City, Mo. Contributed

1875 Marion County Atlas, Section 34, Showing the property owned by the Jordan family.

This illustration shows the location of property owned since 1985 by Dr. George Kerkemeyer, in Section 34, Marion County, Missouri. (Contributed by Dr. Kerkemeyer)

Mary Lou Montgomery, Suburban Newspapers of America Editor of the Year, Dailies, 2010, retired as editor of the Hannibal, Mo., Courier-Post in 2014. She researches and writes narrative-style stories about the people who served as building blocks for this region’s foundation. Books available on amazon.com by this author include: “The Notorious Madam Shaw,” “Pioneers in Medicine from Northeast Missouri,” “Hannibal’s ‘West End,’” “Oakwood: West of Hannibal,” “St. Mary’s Avenue District,” and “Live, on stage in Hannibal 1879: ‘H.M.S. Pinafore.’” Montgomery can be reached at montgomery.editor@yahoo.com Her collective works can be found at www.maryloumontgomery.com