This historic farmstead is among the oldest surviving in Irwin County. The house on the left was a single pen log structure. I’ve heard from two people who believe they have ancestral connections to the property, and since I certainly can’t make a judgement call either way, I’ll share their recollections. The wonderful thing about researching properties like this are the family stores that surround them. It very well may be that there is a connection between these two and that their histories are somehow intermingled. As a historian, I’m most intrigued that both stories date the house to the 1850s. Its importance lies as much in the date as in the identity of the owners.

Jo Ann Smith Gorday: My father said that his grandmother, Nancy Fletcher Smith, born in December, 1858, told him she was born here. She was the daughter of Horton Fletcher and Mary Elizabeth Clements Fletcher Ross. Horton died at the Battle of Sharpsburg in September, 1862.

Steve Mixon: This was also the home of David Mark Hogan during 1858. His wife, Mary Ann Hogan, died there in 1859 giving birth to their seventh child. If you let your eyes follow the two path lane you will see a small grouping of trees at the crest of the hill. This is where she is buried. That seventh child was my GG grandfather, Oswald Gibson Hogan. The only thing I can state with absolute certainty is that my GGG grandmother is buried there. All other information was obtained through the direct line of family members in the Hogan family. According to them, and verified by my own research, DM Hogan moved to Irwin Co. in 1857. They had one child born in Irwin County in 1858. My grandmother said that the house in the picture was where her grandfather was born and she took me up the hill to the grave. I assumed that the family lived there while DM was off fighting in “the war”. My great-great grandfather went on to marry a girl who lived no more that a mile directly behind that house. I am sure housing was scarce during that time. Who knows, maybe the Fletchers moved out and my people moved in in 1858. I do know the Fletchers were, and still are, prevalent in that area. After 158 years who can be for certain.