OLD ALBAUGH FARM DATES FROM 1846
PICTURE: ALBAUGH HOME - The 10-room brick home on the old Albaugh
homestead six miles north of Cedar Rapids, was built in 1867-68 from brick
manufactured on a neighboring farm owned at the time by the pioneer,
Daniel Albaugh, who settled there in 1846. Interior finish is of
native walnut.
Family ownership of the Albaugh farm six
miles north of Cedar Rapids antedates Iowa's statehood by almost nine
months, for Daniel Albaugh, grandfather of the present owner, Wilbur W.
Albaugh, settled there on May 6, 1846. He bought the first 80
acres at the government land office in Dubuque for $1.25 an acre.
Linn County was really new when Daniel
Albaugh arrived. Kingston was a small settlement on the west side of the
Cedar River, but only one house stood on the east bank at the time. In
later years the pioneer told of seeing an Indian stalk a deer and shoot it
with an arrow a little way south-west of the farm about where highway 150
now is located.
The first dwelling was a log cabin, which
was followed by a frame house when lumber became available. In 1867
Daniel began construction of the big 10-room brick house that stands on
the place today. Brick for the thick double walls was manufactured
on a farm he owned about a mile southwest of Robins. Inside woodwork is of
native walnut
House none too large.
The house has been none too large.
Wilbur Albaugh said last week. Daniel had ten children, and through
the years two and sometimes three families of the clan have made their
home there. Just now Mr. and Mrs. Albaugh have their son-in-law and
only daughter, Mr. and Mrs. James Callahan, and their two daughters, Carol
Jean , 10, and Judith Ann, 4 living with them.
Daniel Albaugh's father had been a Dunkard
preacher in Blair county, Pennsylvania. At an early date
Daniel gave two acres of land west of Robins as a site for a Brethren
church and school. Later the church was moved to Robins where
the congregation still is active.
Once, while the pioneers was attending a
church conference in ?????, a neighbor, Zachariah Hein, who was doing
chores for him found a horse missing. (the copy has been cut off at
this point)
Daniel, who was born on the farm in 1861
and died there in 1931. He and his wife had a son and two daughters,
Wilbur W., and Mrs. Del Van Note, and Mrs. B. B. Currell?, both of Cedar
Rapids. The son, Wilbur, acquired the farm from the estate in 1937.
Four generations of the Albaugh descendants
have attend Center school half a mile south of the farm. And
Carol Jean and Judith All are the fifth generation of the family to call
the fine old brick house their home.