The house was moved from Spoonville to where it is now in about 1925 or 26 because the school was still operating and we students spent our recess and noon hours watching the whole thing. I must have been only about six or seven years old at the t ime.
The house was located just to the south of where Jack Fisher's house now stands. There is still a trumpet vine growing in the fence row next to where the house stood. The house was last used to keep hired farm hands in who worked the Spoon Farm. As a small boy I had played in the house along with my brother Gordon and Arnold Crispin. We were told to stay out but we went in anyway.
John [Hanse] Seifert bought the house to be moved to his property by the School. He hired a man by the name of Palmer from Muskegon to do this. Mr. Palmer and his crew jacked the house up and slid two long timbers under that reached the full length of the house Heavy planks were laid on the ground and large round blocks of wood were used to roll the house on. To move the house a trench was dug and a timber buried on top of which a spool was attached, called a capstan. A rope wound around the spool and hooked to the house would propel the house when the spool turned, this was done by the use of a pole about fifteen feet long and attached to the top of the spool. A team of horses was hitched to the end of the pole and when the y circled the spool tremendous strength was applied to the house pulling it forward. As the rollers and planks came out the back side they would have to be carried manually to the front and started through again, also when the house came fo rward far enough so that the horses could no longer circle the capstan they would have to dig up the dead man timber and move it forward . Can you imagine how many times this had to be done to move the house a half mile.
Of course we kids were good kibitzers to the whole thing. It was the main event of the school year. Years later Hanse told me that the bill from Mr. Palmer was 300 dollars.