So How Old is Amelia Hill House Anyway?

I've been doing more research on Amelia Hill House and have made a breakthrough - I tracked down the original land patent for the plot of our home!

It was bought on March 10, 1860 under the Scrip Warren Act of 1855. With help from a trusty friend with calligraphy skills, we are able to determine that there was some home (or what counted enough as a home) on the land in 1860. While the land was claimed using the War of 1812 military credentials of William Casen, it was claimed for a Henry Schmidt.

It claimed two tracts of land, totaling 160 acres. Combining with the known location of this house and the remembered history from the grand children, my best guess is the house was located in the upper tract and the fields in the lower tract.

The grandchildren say that Albert Schmidt built this house, but he wasn't born until 6 years after the land claim. I think the Henry Schmidt mentioned on the land patent is likely to be Fredrick Henry Benjamin Schmidt - Albert's father.

One of the reasons I don't think our house existed in this final form in 1860 is because Fredrick Schmidt is listed as living in the St. Anthony neighborhood of Minneapolis, with his wife and one year old baby, in 1860 by the US Census.
The vast majority of military service land claims were sold to third parties, so it is likely that Fredrick Schmidt and William Casens never knew each other.

The US Census of 1870 just lists the family as living in Minnesota, but the state census of 1875 specifies the family living in Plymouth. So at least by 1875 there was a structure here able to house a family of nine (kids ranged in age from 11 to 2 years old by then. Albert was 3.)

By 1880 the household had grown to include 3 adult farmhands, in addition to the 8 kids who now ranged from 21-5 years old. Based on that information, I'm comfortable with saying this house was largely in it's current form (minus the kitchen and bathroom additions we currently have when the house was modernized in the 1950s) by 1880, and potentially by 1875.

In this process of figuring out the house timeline, I also discovered the burial place of the founding family - and it's just down the road!

They seem to have been a founding family of the nearby Lutheran church, which makes sense considering the Fredrick Schmidt immigrated to Minnesota from Prussia, and many of the family members are buried in the old chapel cemetery.

For All Souls Day we are planning on going to say hi! Seems fitting to pay our respects if we live in their house.