Bee-leaving

 

If you have been following "The Friends of the Tiner House" Facebook page, you may have learned that last week we had to have two colonies of bees removed from the little house before we could proceed with setting it on its new foundation. The bees had moved in after these late spring rains and the proliferation of flowers at the old site. Maybe those bees were the descendants of the bees that Mr. Tiner kept in 1900—126 years ago. You can read more about "Mr. Tiner's 'Bees' ness" in an earlier blog.

The procedure, accomplished by Abel and Isaac Burgos (supported at times by my husband, Robert)  

required moving ten boards from the exterior of the house, 

vacuuming up the bees, 

 

and removing the combs with brood and honey. 

They harvested 31 pounds of honey. 

And the bees are leaving the Tiner Hendrick House for their new home on the Burgos Ranch in Mineral, Texas, Bee County.

A friend of ours commented on the post with a pun. He's quite famous for puns.

"He doesn’t need to vacuum those bees up, he should just take a close look at them. That’s because seeing is 'bee leaving'!"

It's taken quite a bit of "believing" to imagine saving the Tiner Hendrick House. We imagined that this, on the cusp of demoliton,

 

which 141 years earlier looked like this 

  

and now looks like this 

could one day look like this.

Thanks to the generosity of the Wilson County Historical Society, Tiner and Hendrick family members, Robin and Keith Muschalek, members of the Maeckel family, other members of the community, and some of you, we have raised enough funds to disassemble the chimneys, porches, and roof, move the house, set it on a new foundation on its new site. Soon we will rebuild the porches, reassemble the roof, rebuild the chimneys, and replace the old roof.

We will need more help with the restoration of the house. We hope to engage community members and other interested parties in restoring the windows and doors, rebuilding and restoring the staircase, replacing or repairing external siding, cleaning the interior, painting, and any plumbing and electrical work that needs to be done.

If you have any expertise (woodworking, plumbing, electrical) or inclination and would be willing to donate your time to restoring the Tiner Hendrick House, please contact Melinda Creech, mjcreech@mac.com, 832-978-8501.

If you would like to make a donation, any size, you can do it through Zeffy on the right sidebar. 

Thanks for all your help. Seeing is believing and believing is seeing.

 

 

 

A Moving Experience

 

The Tiner Hendrick House peaking through the oak trees at the new site.

We did it!

On Friday, May 29, 2026, the Tiner House made its way from the field in front of the old oak tree at its old location to its new place to stand, on FM 539 near the Polley Mansion, Whitehall. It is appropriate that the house stands here, because Connie Findley Tiner was the grand daughter of Joseph Henry Polley and Mary Bailey Polley and spent some of her childhood in the house after her father was killed in the Civil War. 

 

The disassembled portions of the Tiner Hendrick House

The five pieces of the Tiner Hendrick House (Cabin, House, and three sections of the roof) were moved up from the sandy land around the oak tree to higher ground. 

 

 

 

Later that week the houses were moved across the field to 7th Street, awaiting their 3 miles trek to their new home on FM 539. 

The move began around 9:30am with the trucks making a rather sharp turn onto 7th Street, then around the corner down 11th Street in Old Town Sutherland Springs. 

 

The trucks were preceded by a pilot truck that measured the height of the overhead wires. As the trucks approached the turn to prepare to enter SH 87, the boom truck had to lift the lines to provide clearance for the house.

 

The trucks turned right on SH 87 and turned left on FM 539. Lines had to be lifted again at that intersection.

 

The trucks continued on FM 539 

 

across the Cibolo Creek.

 

Continuing down FM 539, the trucks carrying the houses made their turn into the Muschalek's property.

The two story house was placed on the site looking through a grove of oak trees across the road and the Cibolo valley.

 

with the little cabin situated beside it.

 

The three sections of the roof arrived a bit later.

 

Three generations of the Tiner family were there for the move.  

 

There's still a lot of work to do to make the reality 

become the dream, 

but the move was a monumental first step.

In the next few weeks the house will be leveled and placed on a foundation, the three parts of the roof will be reattached, the porches will be rebuilt, the chimneys will be reassembled, and the roof restored. Later, exterior and interior restorations will be made; windows, shutters, and doors will be replaced and restored; the house will be refreshed with a new coat of paint. Restoration will likely take at least a year. We have funds to cover the reconstruction, but will have to raise funds for the later restoration. If you would like to help restore the Tiner Hendrick House, make your contribution through Zeffy on this page or contact me.