A little history behind the story of the 1845 Elgin / Cottrell House, in Clarksville,Mo.
The Elgin Family can be traced back to the Mayflower. They first settled in Virgina. Samuel Elgin, fought in the Revolutionary War, under George Washington. He married a cousin to John and Samuel Adams. In 1815, he was given a US Land Grant from President James Manroe, for 300 acres of land in the territory of Missouri. Missouri became a state in 1821. Clarksville became a town in 1821. When Elgin first arrived in Missouri ,it was mostly a wilderness. He cleared some land and made a trading post and delt mostly with the Native Americans. He had two sons. Samuel and Hazakeiah. Together they made the first road from Clarksville to St. Louis. Latter they had a River Boat, Steamwheeler and took people up and down the river. The Mississippi River is only 200 feet away from the house. Elgin and his brother developed the Missouri Mule, by breading the horse to the Donkey. They made a lot of money, during the Civil War, selling the Mules to the US Army.
It was Hazaheiah that built this house. It was started in 1845. The bricks were hand made right on the spot. Elgin married Elizabeth Mountjoy in 1860. She was a widow with two children and 300 more acres of land and 25 slaves. After the marriage, he built an addition to the house, in 1860, adding a second parlor, Master bed room and formal entrance. Several porches were used to tie the two structures together. Elgin and his wife had two more children, but both died before the age of two. After Elgins death, the house went to his step son, Plato and step daughter, Elizabeth. The house remained in that family for over 100 years.
When I bought the house in 2006 it was not liveable. I have spent the last four years, working to bring it back ,to its formal glory. I redid the house to the 1860 period, when Elgin lived there with his wife and was the most prosperious.
