Field Trip to the Attic

Bathroom Before and After

Look how awesome it turned out! My husband did a great job. The tub and toilet dated back to 1954, so that is how old the bathroom was. He took it down to the studs and rebuilt the entire thing, floor and all.

Tearin' It Up

Former hot water heater? In this tiny, tiny bathroom? Naw...

Lath and Plaster, Baby

The husband has already started tearing apart our tiny 5' x 8' bathroom, in anticipation of our tax refund. We are gutting it and starting over. The floor is rotted, and as a result, the toilet "gives" and little when you sit down. Scary? Yes. The tub, while it is cast-iron and tough as can be, must go. It is dirty, the kind of dirty that only 80 years of usage can give a tub. Yuck. Nothing touches the filth. Plus, a glass shower door track has been drilled into it. There's not much that can be done to fix that.

So...new tub, new toilet, new sink. New walls and floor, with new tile and paint over that. Should be interesting. I will document, in photos and in text, the progress and any "findings."

Such as the lath and plaster north wall, yet the west and south walls appear to be drywall. Interesting.

Lyman West Bio

So...kind of like I suspected, he was way too important to ever live in my house. I suspect that Nathan Chance was as well. Basically, if the Augusta history books give you a mention, then you were much too good to live in my house. Boo.

Some Conflicting Information

I emailed a relative of Nathan Chance through a Chance family history website and received the following reply.

Carmen: I have checked all my notes and have nothing specifically about the house. However, I can tell you that in 1900 Nathan was listed as owning his farm free and clear. In 1910 he apparently was retired, but owned his house free and clear. And in 1915 he still owned the house free and clear. So, it appears that he was probably the first occupant and probably had it built. Perhaps the Tax Dept. at the court house in Wichita can give you more specific details. I also know that by 1920 he and Mary had left that area and moved into Wichita, where they again owned a house. Sorry I couldn't help you more than this. Good luck in your endeavors, Joan

So this creates a whole new group of questions. Why does the Augusta history book state that the Chances lived at Clark and Dearborn until 1933? Also, did the Chances merely build my house, or did they live in it as well?

I will be emailing Joan back to ask these questions.

More About the Chances

Freaking sweet...I found this online.

http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/butler/history/1916/33/c/chance_n_r.html

N. R., the subject of the sketch. N. R. Chance went to Iowa with his parents when a boy. He received his education in the common schools and followed farming in Lucas county, Iowa, until 1874, with the exception of a period during the Civil war, when he served as a member of the Forty-sixth Iowa infantry, enlisting in 1864, at the age of twenty years.

At the close of the war he was mustered out of service at Davenport, Iowa, and returned to the farm in Lucas county. In 1874 he came to Kansas, locating in Butler county, seven miles southwest of Augusta, in Bruno township. It will be remembered by those familiar with the early history and discouraging days of Kansas that this was the year of the grasshopper visitation. Many settlers were discouraged and left the State following the visitation of the grasshoppers, but Mr. Chance was not the kind of a pioneer to be driven from the plains of Kansas by any ordinary type of grasshoppers. He says that even with his forty years of life in Kansas that he likes the State a little better each year than he did the preceding one. He belongs to that school of sturdy pioneers who not only made Butler county what it is, but were the builders of the great State of Kansas, and have just cause to be proud of their achievements.

When Mr. Chance settled in Bruno township he bought his claim from Daniel Golden, for which he paid $1,000. The place was slightly improved, having a small four-room house with about twenty acres of prairie broken and some hedge. Here Mr. Chance was successfully engaged in farming and stock raising until 1899, when he removed to Augusta, where he built a comfortable and commodious residence, where he now lives. He has added to his original purchase of land, and now owns 640 acres of valuable farm land, 400 acres of which is located in Pleasant township and the rest in Bruno.

Mr. Chance was married in 1865 in Iowa to Miss Mary E. McKnight, a native of Ohio. Two children were born to this union, as follows: Mack T., a traveling salesman for the Potts Drug Company, who resides at Wichita, and Charlie C., a farmer and dairyman in Sedgwick county. Mr. and Mrs. Chance celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary December 24, 1915, in Augusta. Both their children were present and also their eight grandchildren. Mr. Chance is a member of the Knights and Ladies of Security and the Methodist Episcopal church, and he is one of the substantial citizens of the county.

Nathan Rich CHANCE Born: 9 Feb 1844 in Grant Co, IN Died: 22 Jul 1940 in Butler Co, KS Buried: in Elmwood Cemetery, Augusta, Butler

I have searched Elmwood a couple of times, but have not yet found the Chances' grave. Maybe once it warms up I will.