the history of my first home, chapter one

Yesterday Paul had training at the Oklahoma History Center for a good portion of the day. While there he checked out the research library that is located inside. He didn't mention until late into the evening that he had found some of the previous owners of our home. My heart about jumped out of my chest. For four years I have wondered who lived in this home, what they did and what they were like back when the house was first built. I often sit in rooms and look at the walls and the book cases and wonder who these people were. I've known the last 15 years of history or so but Paul found four of five of the older owners. While searching for a few of those older owners through Google I ran across the blog for one of the great granddaughters of one of the old owners. How unbelievable is that?! She lives in Washington but her great grandfather James and his wife Olive lived in this house in 1920 and 1921.

I was so excited, I begged him to take me to the research center this morning so we could do more research.  After two hours of digging through old city directories, microfilm and a few photos we found the original owners (possible builders of the home) and just about every resident that lived inside of the house or the old carriage house apartment in the back. I still have not found an old photo of this house but have the Gilmore's great grandchildren looking for me. I am almost positive that they were the third owners of the home (the house would have been about 5 years old).

It was amazing to me how much I could know about people's lives from the City Directories. For example, I know that in 1937 Gottlieb & Jessie Kueffer moved into the carriage house. Gottlieb was in insurance with his brother, Gottfried, at Kueffer & Kueffer. I also know that Gottlieb left Jessie in 1939 and that she remained in the carriage house through the next two owners of the home and didn't leave until 1963. Gottlieb's brother Gottfried was married to Carolynn and also lived close by. Gottlieb also remarried later (his secretary 30 years his younger) but I finally had to move off of the Kueffer family to continue researching the house!

Now that I know who the owners were, I just have to find out more about them to see if I can find some old photos. We've had so many different people with different professions living in this house including machinists, insurance agents, pharmacists, bank clerks and more. Wish me luck on continued research!

We also went shopping for our niece Ava (who we are being way too entirely picky about), got my eyebrows waxed and Paul went and checked out Deluxe. Now were spending the evening in the warmth of our home and enjoying each others company.