Gates House

 

Samuel Gates (1839-1864) was the owner of the house site at the time of its completion in 1830.  The original land grant was made in 1821 to Hazen Bedel, who sold it to Ruben Brush in 1823.  Brush in turn sold it to Samuel Gates in 1826.  Samuel Gates is known to have entered Calhoun County, and later owned land in Sec. 9 Richwoods Township now Jersey County.  His move to Buffdale Township in 1826 making himself a neighbor of David Woolley. 

 

A Jersey County paper states that David Wolley was the builder of the house.  Wooley was a millwright in New York.  In 1822 he came west to Columbiana.  Where he settled and lived until his death in 1861.  Wolley could have started building the house for one owner in 1822 and finished it for Gates in 1830.  A ledger in the possession of the Gates family lists items which seem to related to the finishing this house.

 

At an early age Gates married a Miss Emerson, who was born in Windsor, Vt., and was a relative of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

 

In July of 1832 Phebe, Gates daughter married Mr, Jacob Strawn his first wife having died in December of 1831 near their home in Jacksonville. 

 

Samuel Gates enlisted in the 61st Illinois Infantry Company A and fought in the Civil War.  Gates in buried in the Eldred Cemetery along the Scenic Bluff Road.

 

An October 28, 1830, article in the Jersey County News announces the gift of the house and farm to Mrs. Leo Smith of Jerseyville from her father, Henry Shafer of Carrollton.  Smith gave the house its inscribed name “WHITESTONE.”