Homestead

The first occupant of the Iona farm was John O’Shea, a native of County Kerry in Ireland. He and his wife Anne Farrell, a native of County Kilkenny, did pioneer work on the place until the former’s death in 1870 at the age of 75. The next owner was their son Jeremiah (Jerry) who died in 1899 at the age of 48. Not long after the death of Jerry’s widow in 1910 Dad’s parents purchased the homestead for him at a public auction. When Dad arrived from Boston to his father’s deathbed late in 1913 he stayed home and ~the next year began construction of a new house on the Iona farm and in a new location much closer to the road and just in front of the railway which had been completed a few years earlier. The new house was about 24 by 28, 3 storey and a half, end to the road. In addition-a sturdy one-storey kitchen extension ran along much of the east side. Downstairs contained a large kitchen, an ample-sized parlor, dining room and hall. A bay window in the parlor added a neat touch to the front of the house. Upstairs were three bedrooms and a roomy triangular hall mainly for storage. For a time in my childhood I received permission to use that hallway as my sleeping quar— ters. There with my own small wooden bedstead and with a window looking directly out on the lane and road I felt so honored and princely. The basement was cosy and tight, stoned all the way down. Outside entrance to it was by wide cement steps covered by two doors lying flat and referred to simply as the “cellar hatc ”. The house was painted red early in its life. Badly faded, it was again painted red with white trim in 1940