If I haven’t mentioned it already, our house is old. We’ve even got an official (and weathered) plaque to prove it! According to the town’s historical society site, the house was built in 1878 and was an American farmhouse style.

It was later purchased in 1924 by the retired owners of the Fairview Dairy Farm, John and Caroline Linnemann. It was common for homes to be referred to as the name of a notable family that lived there, rather than a house number (which wouldn’t have been common at that time). For that reason, our home was referred to as the Linnemann House since the 1920s (I promise this is important for later on).

I recently took a trip to the town’s historical society to see if there was any more information to dig up on the house, and was delighted to learn that there was not only information, but also items from my home on display in the museum!

In the summer of 1982, previous owners were removing interior walls between the kitchen and dining room when they discovered some hidden items that had been sealed away for years.

The first item, a leather shoe, is particularly interesting because it provides some insight into the customs of past generations. According to the article accompanying the shoe, for centuries people in the United Kingdom and Europe have been intentionally hiding garments in buildings. They may have hidden things within the walls, under the floorboards, or in attics and chimneys.

“A well worn shoe was a particularly common item to be hidden within a house. It is believed that a well worn shoe was chosen because it has taken the shape of the owner’s foot and retains the scent of the owner. It is thought that the shoe would be hidden in the structure of the house to protect the owner from witches and evil spirits. The shoe found in the wall is clearly well worn and must have protected the house for many years.“

After reading that, I can’t help but wonder if I need to find a shoe to replace this one!

The second item, a piece of paper rolled up with a cloth ribbon tied around it, ended up being an 8th grade graduation diploma that belonged to Wesley R. Comfort (1898 – 1978) from 1914.

This is a bit of a head scratcher since the house was built before Wesley was born, so we know it wasn’t sealed in the wall during original construction. Based on earlier digging, we know this house to be known as the Linnemann House (told you it was important!) since the 1920s but thanks to the sleuthing of the historical society, it was determined that Wesley lived as a renter in the early 1920s, before the Linnemann’s moved in. This means he had the opportunity to place his diploma in the wall, but we will probably never know why. As the article suggests, perhaps it was just his was of saying, “Wesley was here”. It also makes me wonder who the shoe belonged to since it couldn’t have been Wesley’s as it’s a women’s shoe.

Before I go knocking any walls down to find some more hidden treasures, I plan to take some less destructive routes and learn all I can from the historical society archives.

Here’s to hoping I don’t learn there was a spooky reason the shoe HAD to go into the wall!