Sticks and Stones

 

Tiner House, ca. 1890

After purchasing the land from W. T. Sutherland in 1884, Tiner and his family lived in the little house for a few years before they began construction on the “new house” in 1887. Many details of the construction of the house are described in the Journal for 1886-1889 — securing the lumber for the house, hauling live oak stumps sawn off the old county bridge to be used in the foundation of the house (10 January 1887), cutting foundation blocks and buying lumber from San Antonio Lumber Company (28 January 1887), restacking the purchased lumber with planks between so that it would not mold (3 March 1887), exchanging 2000 bricks to be used in his chimney from A. R. Stevenson in trade for a debt of 2 mares (23 March 1887), working on new house (19 April 1887), sizing sleepers and upper joists (20 April 1887), putting out fire in the kitchen of old house that threatened the new house (10 July 1887), putting covering on the new house (10 July 1887), buying flooring and paint from San Antonio Lumber Company (10 July 1887), framing windows and doors (26 July 1887), finishing the first window casing (12 August 1887), buying more lumber and paint from San Antonio (14 August 1887), finishing laying flooring and side ceiling downstairs, planning to finish downstairs this fall, upstairs next summer (21 August 1887), reporting house is half complete, although they moved in last month, with no doors finished, only two windows, two lower rooms and halls sealed on sides, but not overhead, all floors laid upstairs and downstairs (28 August 1887), S. R. Houston working on house (26 September 1887), Bro. Dick  painting house (8 October 1887), beginning work on chimney, rock and brick, double fireplace, upstairs and downstairs (18 October 1887), building chimney, three feet underground, up to five feet now (21 October 1887), painting the house with lead color paint (21 October 1887), finishing new chimney thirty-two feet (30 October 1877), graving the downstairs hall doors (23 November 1887), installing lightening rod and weather vanes on house (15 February 1888), finishing carpentry work on house (20 March 1888), underpinning dining room gallery and end of dwelling with rock (24 March 1888), connecting dining room and dwelling and covering stair way (25 March 1888), working on door frames to the doors at the stair way (29 March 1888), Mr. Houston still working on house (6 April 1888), working on banisters for stairs (8 April 1888), needing to work on upstairs ceiling, windows in north of house, banister, and stairs (12 April 1888), working on banister (15 and 18 April 1888), painting new house (15 June 1888), working on stairs (18 and 21 July 1888), still lacking some finishing upstairs, front gallery banisters, and boxing gallery past ceiling (14 November 1888).

We have been cleaning up the Tiner Hendrick House in preparation for its move to its new location near the Polley Mansion. We have uncovered several interesting discoveries regarding the lumber, bricks, chimneys, and shutters.

Yesterday we discovered this brick in the fireplace.

 The Laclede Fire Brick Manufacturing Company, established in St. Louis in 1844, was a major producer of fireclay bricks. They were used to line the fireboxes of steam locomotives. Jesse Tiner's cotton gin and grist mill were near the Depot in Sutherland Springs. I wonder if he got the discarded fireplace bricks from there.

The two chimneys in the house and the foundation of the house were comprised a large red stones. Local historians feel confident that the old mission church from El Rancho del Paistle was located nearby. I wonder if some of these stones were collected from those ruins. This stone chimney in the smaller house, probably built by Jack Sutherland, may have been constructed using those stones.

The larger chimney on the main house is half stone, half brick. We know that Jesse Tiner bartered a debt with A. R. Stevenson for two mares for 2000 bricks for his new chimney. Here are his entries in the diary about the building of the chimney.

 

Wednesday March 23 [1887]

Bro Dick & Sandy Mitchel

Hauling 2000 Brick from

Floresville where I got

Said amt. from A. R. Stevenson

For a debt of $20.00 he owed

Me for near 2 yrs for 2 colts.

They are very good Brick. I

Want them to build chimney

to my new house if I ever get it up

Mar 25 Friday

…

Bro Dick and Sandy Mitchel

Gone after last load of brick.

Some they left on the road

This side of Floresville

When this load arrives I will

Have 2000 here for my chimney

To the new house if I ever get

It up

Tuesday 18th October. 1887

Mr. Joe Tudick came

Yesterday evening and

Commenced work on Chimney

To my new house. I pay him

For rock work $1.50 and for

Brick work $1.00 per foot as it 

Is a double fireplace fireplace

Both down and up Srairs

Sandy Mitchell (colored) 

Commenced work today

Helping Mr. Tudick on Chimney.

Making Mortar and carrying

rock, Brick and & so forth

1887 Friday October 21

Mr. Joe Tudyck is

Getting along very well

On my chimney. Has it 

about 5 feet above the ground

And commenced 3 feet under

Ground making it all some

8 feet since he commenced on

Tuesday Morn.

1887 Brought over Oct 30

Mr. Joe Tydyk finished

My new Chimney on yesterday

Height 32 feet $1.50 for rock

And $1.00 for brick work & I 

furnish a waiter. There was 

19 1/2  feet brick and balance

Rock double chimney - two

Fire places. Will cost all told

Near $75.00 including the 

material.

If my math is correct, the total time to construct the chimney was 11 days and the total cost was $75, $38.25 labor, $36.75 materials.

 

Here you can see some of the foundation stones under the house.

Our cost to move the chimneys will be significantly more than Jesse Tiner paid to build them. Each stone has to be numbered, disassembled, stored on pallets, conveyed to the new site, and eventually reassembled. We need your help in preserving these historic chimneys. Please donate to the Tiner Hendrick House Restoration Fund on the right side of this blog or contact me at mjcreech@mac.com. Please help!

Jesse Tiner says in his diary that he bought the lumber for the house from the San Antonio Lumber Company.  We found these names on pieces of lumber in the ceiling joists.

 

I couldn't quite read all the letters, but what I could read says "Lumber Yard E Commerce."

This lumber reads "Calcasieu." Calcasieu Lumber Company was started by the Drake Brothers in Austin in 1883. It was named after a parish in Louisiana where superior lumber was harvested. Mr. Albert Steves had a lumber yard near the Sunset Station, on the corner of E. Commerce and Travis, in San Antonio, that sold Calcasieu lumber. The Daily Express, 18 December 1887, describes Mr. Steves enterprise:

Daily Express, 18 December 1887

 

This 1889 Sanborn map shows the location of the both the San Antonio Lumber Yard and the Mr. Steves' Lumber Company. Jesse Tiner probably did business with one or both of these companies.

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We were also able to take down all the shutters from the windows in the house to be repaired and reattached after the move. The shutters are ingeniously made. I look forward to being able to work on learning how to restore them and returning them to the house. I will be attending a window repair workshop sponsored by Preservation Texas in a few weeks.