Jane Ross Reeves Octagon House [SEP] located in the administrative territorial entity
Jane Ross Reeves Octagon House
The Jane Ross Reeves Octagon House was originally located between Wilkinson, Indiana and Willow Branch, Indiana. It was moved to its present location in 1997. It is currently located at 400 Railroad Street in Shirley, Indiana.
When Jane and Elijah first homesteaded their farm, they built a log cabin on the highest point of the land. This was later replaced by a frame house which was torn down at the time the Octagon house was built. When the log cabin was built, two
trees were planted in front of the house- one on each side of the gate. These were called wedding trees and as they grew, the two became one as their branches met in the middle. The one tree represented the groom and the second represented the bride. Two new trees were planted at the current location.
The Octagon house was built in 1879. In 1876, three years after her husband's death- Jane Ross Reeves found the plans in a magazine. She liked it so much she decided she had to