The Sweetin House

Sweetin House also known as the Hartwell Ranch House, is the most imposing of all the limestone houses.  The woodwork was all walnut. On the third floor was a ballroom that he used for dances on holidays.  Azariah Sweetin, stockman from Kentucky, earlier a stonemason in England, started building the house in 1848 with the help of a Mr Wolley also a stone mason. The basement and one wall of the first story were completed then construction halted for a period of eight years for an unknown reason.

 

According to a neighbor the Sweetins the family moved into the house in July of 1862 14 years after construction had began.  Commodious this house must have been then, 28 by 60 feet in size with three feet thick walls at the base.  The home had a natural stream running though the basement to help cool and provide water to the home.  The evidence of this stream can still be seen today running through the ruins.

 

July 4, 1862 the Sweetins hold a house worming inviting friends and neighbors to their third floor ballroom.   It was during sort of a military drill which was custom for the day that two young neighboring farmhands, Henson and Isham were partaking.

 

Isham seemed to be getting the worst of it when his father advised him “bite him.” Hanson was outraged at this violation and the two men then quarreled.  Isham stooped over Henson, thinking Isham was picking up something to throw, drew a knife and stabbed Hanson in the back.

 

Hanson was arrested for murder and was later reduced to manslaughter.  The Carrollton press never covers the trial.  Some say that Hanson joined the war and was never taken to trial.

 

For many years it has been said that the ghost of the young man appears on the hearth. His blood stained the hearth in the outline of his body. They were never able to remove the stain, and it is said that it is still there to this day.

Mr. Sweetin had done quite well in cattle trading before the war, he didn't trust banks so he started hiding gold coins in or around mansion. No one was sure where it was hidden and Azariah lost his memory due to being thrown from his horse and hitting his head in 1871 at the age of 50.

 

Try as they might the family was never able to find the hidden money.  Sweetin’s daughter is told to be the first person to be housed in the Greene County Poor Farm.

 

For many years people have speculated were the money was hidden. Though no one ever reported having found the money, we can assume it was found by two of Sweetin’s farm hands who disappeared shortly after Sweetins death.

The land was purchased by Cyrus Hartwell, land owner and railroad developer of Hoopeston, Illinois. Hartwell or members of his family occupied the house until his death in 1894, when his vast holdings were divided and sold. 

Mary Hartwell Catherwood of Hoopeston, 1847-1902, included stories of the Lower Illinois Valley in her versatile writing career - of "corn belt local color" and the French in the new world.  She gathered material for her stories as she visited her Uncle Cyrus Hartwell, in the ranch house in the 1880's and early 1890's.