As I mentioned in a prior post, Cory and I will at some point move into the home that my Great Grand Uncle Otto Mauser built that has been in the family it’s entire existence.
One of the fun things about small town newspapers is that EVERYTHING is in the paper. We know from the Chappell Register in October of 1930 that Otto was building an “all modern” home on his farm. Looking at the current tax assessor information the home today is 26 X 38 for the main living area. The full basement is still there and the home hasn’t moved, so I would suspect that the paper is slightly incorrect.
We then also see from the Chappell Register that Otto put electricity in the home in December of 1931. I believe this was somewhat unique as the Rural Electrification Act went into effect in 1936 – after Otto had run electricity.
We then are fortunate enough to have a few photos of the home over time. This first one doesn’t have a year on the photo, but when comparing to later photos this doesn’t have the porch enclosed at the front gate. It is hard to tell from this image, but the porch on the right side is different from what we see today.
This photo has a date on the side of 1959, so it is likely safe to assume that the photo was taken around that time frame. Now we see that the original porch is enclosed and there have been some changes on the right-hand side of the house as well.
Otto died in 1982 at which point the son of his hired man lived in the home for a few years via a provision in Otto’s will but the house went to my Grandparents and they moved in sometime in 1992 or 1993.
This photo of the house was taken likely sometime in the 1990’s. At this point Murl and Maxine Mauser had moved in. (The Husker windmill is the giveaway). This is a great look at the full house from the front with it’s creative rooflines.
The other great photo we have from this property is a photo of the harvest crew and the photo was labeled 1930, but it could have been anytime during that era. The barn still stands and looks great for a building that is almost a century old!
Cory and Nicole Family History 