Homestead property yields love letters written in the 1890s
CLINTON TWP — There are literal stories told by the walls of a for-sale equestrian farm outside Saxonburg.
The property at 121 Brewer Road in Clinton Township is for sale by the family who also owns the nearby Armstrong Farms, but has been an Airbnb for years. The home’s owners have displayed letters written to a former occupant of the house, one Ida Maizland, which have postmarks dated in the 1890s.
“I am still in the land of the living and … in the Far West,” one letter says in loopy, cursive black ink. The letter is dated “October the 17th, 1890,” with a letterhead suggesting it was sent from the Pierce Hotel in Wichita, Kansas. “I often think of you and home and will never forget.”
According to Kristan Allen, a member of the family that owns Armstrong Farms and the property at 121 Brewer Road, the letters seem to have been written by a W. Harbison, whom, she found, eventually returned to the Butler County area to marry Ida Maizland. Records on familysearch.com indicate that Maizland married a William James Harbison on Jan. 25, 1893, and that she died on May 4, 1956. Harbison died in 1944, according to the website.
Allen said the letters had been displayed by the farm’s previous owners, who discovered them in the walls decades ago during renovations. But it was only after she and her husband, Andy Allen, decided to sell the property that they really dug into the letters. Their real-estate agent, Elaine Shetler-Libent, with Keller Williams Real Estate, “zeroed in” on them and researched the writer.
Seeing that the writer and recipient of the letters eventually got married was a satisfying revelation, Allen said.
“These were found in the walls, and they were such a rich part of our history,” Allen said, “and Elaine said we need to find out more about these people, and she and I put our heads together and found out that they did get married. So, that was a happy ending to that love story.”
As of March 30, the equestrian farm is for sale for $4.2 million. Allen said the property is 147 acres, but broken into two parcels of land, which have differing going rates that add up to $4.2 million. One parcel is a 37.45-acre scenic equestrian estate that includes barns for horses, an equestrian training center, an office building plus the residence — a five-bedroom, three full bath home. The remaining 110 acres is the land surrounding the facilities.
According to Shetler-Libent, who specializes in farmland and equestrian real estate, the Allens intend to sell the property to someone who wants to develop it into an equestrian farm.
The place was built in the mid-1800s, and renovated in the 1950s to better function as an equestrian business. The Allens continued to run it as a horse facility until about a year ago, when they started using the house as just an Airbnb rental.
“The equestrian facility … has the house, 32 stalls, the indoor-outdoor facility and 18 pastures,” Shetler-Libent said. “It’s such a big property.”
Allen said she and her husband are selling the property because they don’t have time to manage it as an equine facility. The Allens live next door to 121 Brewer Road. They manage a wedding venue in Armstrong Farms, which she said ties in well with the Airbnb at the equestrian facility.
And although the family has kept up with maintaining the facility for horse uses, Allen said it is not their top priority at the moment.
“We stopped last fall. We had footing installed in the training area in the summer,” Allen said. “It's meant to be enjoyed for equestrian uses.”
What remains a priority for Allen and her family is preserving that property as farmland. Allen said she and her husband applied to have the property entered with the Butler County Agricultural Land Preservation Program, meaning that it has to continue to be used as farmland, even if it is sold.
The program protects agricultural lands by acquiring agricultural conservation easements which prevent development or improvement of land for any purpose other than agricultural production and activities. The program also aims to assure conservation of viable agricultural lands to protect the agricultural economy and compensate landowners in exchange for their relinquishment of the right to develop their private property, according to Butler County’s website.
Allen explained that the designation will continue no matter who it is sold to.
“That would mean that it would be preserved in perpetuity,” she said. “You can’t buy it and put a housing development on it or sell it to build a Sheetz on.”
Shetler-Libent said that the letters framed in the house on the farm added to the value of the property — because they shed light on the history of the land and the people who built it up.
She said she used artificial intelligence to research the two names on the letters, Ida Maizland and W. Harbison, and managed to learn more about their lives following the time the letters were written.
“They had four children, and both were well-respected, esteemed members of Saxonburg,” Shetler-Libent said.
Shetler-Libent said she was drawn to the content of the letters, but the fact that they were found in the walls and foundation of the house made them even more intriguing. She said she found that it was common practice at the time for people to leave personal belongings in a home.
“The most interesting thing is why would this girl have hidden the letters in the wall? When they would leave the home, they would leave things behind as sentimental value,” Shetler-Libent said.
The Harbisons — William and Ida — are buried in a joint grave in Glade Run Cemetery in Middlesex Township, according to findagrave.com.
Allen said the letters to Ida Maizland are not necessarily included in the sale of the property, but she plans to hold onto them in some form if the land is sold.
“I think they need to stay with us and the property,” Allen said.
