The Old Stone House

by Darris Beach

In a peaceful little valley near Folsom, there stands an old stone house built long before the Civil War.  It was called “Plantation House,” because it was part of a large estate owned by a Mr. Elijah Ford.

 An interesting part of this house is the cellar where the slaves were kept at night.  In the cellar wall, there are still big hooks where the slaves were fastened with chains for safekeeping or for punishment.  There is also a fireplace which is still a beautiful piece of work.

 The house has four big rooms with rock walls two feet thick; the floors were made from big logs split open.  The chimneys on each end of the house were built from rock from the ground up, and there is a fireplace in each room.  There is a big window in each end of the upper story.  There are only two doors; the front door faces Ten Mile Creek; the back door opens toward the graveyard directly behind the house.  The graves with the gravestones are still there, but the headstones are lying on the ground covered with weeds.  Mr. Ford's wife and two sons are buried here, and probably he is buried here, too.  However, there is an old story told that one of Mr. Ford's slaves killed him and gave his body to the hogs.  There is another story about the money that was hidden in this house and never found.

 The slaves who built this house for Mr. Ford's family did a real job.  Every rock is perfectly fitted; nearly every single rock is still in place after more than a century.  It would be hard to say how much longer this old house will continue to stand unless someone deliberately tears it down.

From a collection of essays written in American Literature Eleven.  The class was taught by Ms. Hazel Ogden of Grant County High School in the 1963-1964 school year, and was typed by the typing classes of Mrs. Mattie Cox.  It is copyrighted by the Grant County Schools, and is used here with their kind permission. We found a copy in UK's King Library.