Young, George Wright, House

About this property

The Mitchell – Foster – Young House is a historic house located just outside Oxford, Mississippi off the highway to New Albany. The house, thought to be one of the oldest standing farmhouses in the county, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Beginning when the original 1839 land grant was issued by President Martin Van Buren, the property was an active working farm until mid-1942 when then owner George Wright Young was infirm and left the property to live with relatives in central Mississippi. After he vacated the house, the property was then rented for several years. The house subsequently was closed and remained unoccupied for over six decades. Over time, weather and decay caused all outbuildings, including the barn, to fall but the house remained primarily due to the integrity of the corrugated metal roof. The house's isolation in the woods hid and protected it from potential vandals. Rotting at the corners where vines and moisture encroached finally threatened to undermine the integrity of the structure and the unoccupied house was in danger of collapsing in 2005, when a plan to repair it was created. Those plans were abandoned when termite and other animal-caused damage was discovered. The house had been originally built too close to the ground, making it impossible to avoid future similar damage if the house was simply repaired without a proper higher foundation. Alternatively, a plan was implemented to dismantle the house nail-by-nail and board-by-board and completely restore the house. A newly built barn housed the methodically marked and cataloged timbers and boards, until a new, raised foundation was built. Then, in reverse order, the timbers and boards were reassembled and reinstalled. Several unanticipated and yet to be explained building techniques and materials used in the house's original construction were discovered during the restoration process. Additionally, a detailed review and assessment of each prior owner was performed using property and US Census records. Collectively, they established more clearly the phases and dates of construction. Several years after the Treaty of Pontotoc Creek between the Chickasaw Nation and the government was signed in October 1832, land grants were sold. The treaty ceded land that is now north Mississippi and western Tennessee. In Lafayette County, created in 1836, the more popular and in-demand land grants were near the rivers west of the town of Oxford. The land to the east was hillier and relatively less desirable for farming. In 1839, the US government issues a land-grant for the Mitchell – Foster – Young property, east of the town of Oxford, to Benjamin M. Mitchell, who apparently did not live on the property, but did live in Lafayette County. He applied for and received a brand from the newly formed Lafayette County, and used the property for his cattle that roamed freely. He likely built the original 20’ x 20’ log cabin c1840 for his overseers.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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