William Morgan Aycock

I am constantly researching the history of the house. A few years back I pulled all the mantles off the walls looking for things that might have fallen behind the mantle. I found many things, one of them I already posted about was a wedding invitation from 1904. I also found two other letters from 1904. These were in much worse condition than the wedding invitation so I put them up and have just recently found them again.

The letters have lots of holes in them, especially the second one which I am still trying to fully decipher.

The first one is a letter from the Lagrange Sanatorium to Maggie May Aycock about someone named Morgan:

Note: To view the images in their full resolution in Firefox, click on the image, then right click the  image and click on view image. You will then have the option of clicking the image again to make it full size (the pointer will look like a magnifying glass). I hate the way blogger has changed how images are shown.

At first I thought maybe the letter was about her father, Rev. Thomas Guinn Morgan, but he had died the year before in 1904. I have his obituary written out in the House History tab.

Then I looked at the prescription that was enclosed with the letter:

Morgan Aycock. I looked the name up on Ancestry but could not find any information about him.

The letter is written by a Dr Henry R. Slack, a man of some note in his time.

Here is a picture of the Lagrange Sanatorium from 1907:

Then I started trying to decipher the second letter. It was obvious that it was a sympathy letter.  I finally realized that one of the words that was very hard to read was Morgan. Here is what I have so far:

This letter is dated just 6 days after the one from Dr Slack. So now I know why the prescription was never filled. It is addressed to Opal who is one of Maggie's daughters.

I went back and started going over the Aycock records I have to try to find out who Morgan was. Then I realized that in the 1900 census Maggie and John Aycock's first born was listed as Willie M. Aycock.

I looked him up on Ancestry but could only find him in the 1900 census. He was born in 1885 in Griffin, Ga. I know he was born in Griffin because i know the Aycocks lived there then. The only other record of him would have been the 1890 census. Most of the 1890 census was destroyed in a fire including all of the Georgia records.

I'm assuming that Willie M. Aycock was William Morgan Aycock. I don't think it's that much of a leap to come to that conclusion. Maggie's maiden name was Morgan. Back in the day it was common for people to name a child's middle name after the mothers maiden name. Also, after 1900 he just disappears. I can find records on most of the other Aycock's after 1900 but none of him.

After doing a little more research I believe that Morgan died of heart failure caused by Rheumatic Fever. The first letter mentions that his Rheumatism is getting much better but that his current trouble is with dilation of the heart caused by the Rheumatism. The word Rheumatism is a catch-all for many ailments, the most common one being Arthritis. Rheumatic fever is another one. It can cause inflammation of the heart and heart failure according to the Wikipedia article I found on it.

The prescription is for an elixer, "Elix Ferri Quin et Strych". Basically it is Quinine, which is for Malaria, and Strychnine, which is a poison but was used as a stimulant. I think the Strychnine was prescribed to him for his heart.

I believe he died here in the house because in the first letter the Dr. is telling Mrs. Aycock to continue giving him his pills and elixer, plus the prescription that was in the letter so he definitely wasn't an in-patient in the hospital.

The period of time the Aycocks lived in this house (1899-1904) wasn't a particularly good time for them. In 1902 John Aycock's Planing Mill burned down. I believe he had some financial and legal troubles from this because of some letters to his attorney that I have from around this time. In 1903 Maggie's father dies, also in the house I believe. Then their first born son dies in 1904 at the age of 19.

Edit: I have just updated the House History tab with more information on the Aycocks.

Researching for Historical Accuracy - picket fences

Historical Accuracy is very important to me in restoring my house. So when JC posted a comment about my picket fence being historically accurate I decided to make a post on the research I did before building my fence.

Over the years I've seen numerous old house photos and one one of the things I noticed was that most houses that had picket fences used 1x1 square pickets instead of board pickets.

Here is a picture of a house here in Woodbury that was taken in 1908. At the right of the picture is a square picket fence.

 1908, Woodbury, Ga

Another thing I noticed was that a lot of these fences had alternating height pickets. I wanted to do something that would stand out a little so this seemed perfect.

Here are some pictures of alternating height square picket fences that I found while doing my research.

 Undated, Bryan Co, Ga

 1914, Columbia Co, Ga

 1905, Decatur Co, Ga

 1890, Dekalb Co, Ga

 1909, Emanuel Co, Ga

 Undated, Franklin Co, Ga

 1898, Hancock Co, Ga

 1895, Montgomery Co, Ga

1870-1899, Schley Co, Ga

Every one of the pictures above has the alternating height, square pickets. Also, all the pictures are in the same time-frame of my house.

The one major difference in these fences and mine is the board that runs along the bottom in all of the others. I may add this board to my fence, I haven't decided yet.

Main Bathroom Update

The main bathroom is another project that I have been working on. Last week I finished cutting in the primer on the walls, then I scraped all the trim.

One of the neat things I found here was the old exterior trim color, it's the brown/olive looking color on the door casing. This room used to be a side porch. I know this was an exterior color because when they closed the porch in and hung the interior door they just slapped the hinges up on the casing, you can see where they were on the casing on the right. That color was directly underneath.

Once the scraping was done I primered and painted all the trim, then painted the walls.

Sorry for the pics, it's very hard to get decent shots in this room.

Left to do still is install 1/4 round and baseboards, caulk, and paint the ceiling.

Stump Removal

The stump removal company came out last Saturday and removed the stump.

It only took about 40 minutes to grind it to mulch. I used some of the mulch for the beds in my front yard as oak mulch is great for retaining water.

Before the stump was ground down I counted the rings on it several times and got an average of 109 (it's very hard to count the rings as they are very close together and very faint). So the tree was probably planted sometime around 1902. I know the house was built sometime between 1895 and 1902 so the trees were either original to the house or planted not long after it was built.

House History Update

I've updated the House History page with a lot of new information that I've found recently. You can click the tab at the top of the page or just click here: http://woodbury-house.blogspot.com/p/house-history.html

House History

I have added a few tabs at the top of the page with information about the house. One tab is for before and after pictures (not done yet), and the other is for house history. I have added a lot of information to this page but I'll also be adding to it over time as I find out new information.

Here is the direct link to the page: House History

Side Hall Floor

This is a big project that I have been needing to get done for a while. Especially now that it's getting cold out. The cold air comes up through all the holes in the floor so this project had to get done.

As I've mentioned before the side hall was converted into a bathroom in 1928, last year I tore the wall down and turned it back into a side hall.

The Red Oak flooring on the first floor was installed over the original floor sometime in the 40's so the side hall didnt get done since it was a bathroom at the time.

I started by tearing up the plywood.

and found linoleum underneath.

I pulled that up and the original flooring under that was pretty rotted, which I had expected, so I pulled that up.

Of course most of the floor joists were rotted and hacked up and patched so I tore out the rotted ones and installed new ones. I used 2x8s ripped to a full 6" to match.


I took this opportunity to do a few other things under the house that needed to get done. I dug out a large area under the ducting so I could have access to underneath the bathroom, I ran some electrical from the bathroom, and I removed the 2 return vents that the moron HVAC guys had put in. They will be relocated to the dining room.

After that I put the sub-floor in with old 1x boards that I had.

Then I pulled up the old red oak flooring on the other side of the hall.

Then laid down felt paper.

Then I began the flooring. For the door sills that go to the bathroom and the sunroom I used 5" wide oak flooring. I kept the tongue on the sill so I could lock the flooring into it since it has grooves on the sides.

Here are some shots of the progress.

I still have a little strip along the wall to finish up. Not sure yet when I will be able to sand and finish it.

Parlor

The Parlor is the next room I've started on. All of the wallpaper and trim is stained yellow from what appears to be years of cigarette or cigar smoke. A few weeks ago I started scrubbing the wallpaper and it looks like I will be able to get it clean enough to save.

I'm using bleach and a scrub pad. I still have about half the room to go.

I went ahead and prepped and painted all the trim over the last few days. I dont have a good before picture of the ceiling but here it is after I scrapped all the loose paint off:

And here it is after painting:

All the trim is now complete. I still need to scrape the paint off the windows and a few areas need some caulking.

I pulled the fireplace mantle off the wall because I intend to strip it down and refinish it. In pulling it off I've discovered that the mantle is oak. The mantle is just leaning on the wall for now:

I also found a piece of original hearth and surround tile:

The red brick looking tile was installed sometime in the 40's when the oak floors were done. The floor was laid over the original pine floor so the brick tiles were just put over the original green glazed subway tiles to bring the hearth up to the same level as the oak floor. I am going to tear up the red tile then carefully remove the original tile then lay down a new mud bed then reinstall the original tile. I need to find some salvaged green tile for the surround though since that was removed.

Old letter find

I found an old letter from J. A, Aycock whom I believe to be the original owner of the house. I found it, of all places, online on e-bay. The letter is to a John W. Park. He was an attorney and was also president of the Georgia Bar Association.

The letter was about Mr. Aycock not being able to repay a debt right away. Not sure what he would have needed an attorney for but I sure would like to know. It's dated June 14, 1902.

The really interesting thing about the letter is that it is written on Mr. Aycock's letterhead. As it turns out he was a contractor and woodworker. If he was the original owner of the house and was the builder then that would explain all the nice wood moldings in the house. I've been told by locals that there used to be a lot more elaborate moldings in the house "the likes of which they've never seen before". Unfortunately they were all stolen when the house was being rented out by the previous owner.