The house was built on the old Galena Trail which led from Dixon to Galena, and several older residents recall hearing that Ulysses S. Grant Grant, the Civil War general and former President of the United States stayed there many times on his way from Dixon to his home in Galena.

The house is believed to be between 130 and 135 years old, and one is easily convinced when seeing the home that it was built for use as an inn or hotel. The room now used as a living­room by the Trotters apparently was the lobby or waiting-room of the inn. An old stone fire­place, in later years replaced with a brick front, provided heat. A "chair railing" is still evident on all walls of the room. This wood trim, about two and one-half feet from the floor and extending about an inch out from the wall, was put there to protect the wall from gouging. One can imagine the travelers of that day tilting their chairs back, smoking their pipes and swapping stories by the hour.

The diningroom where the guests were served is now the kitchen. The kitchen which appears to have been added later to the origi­nal house, is to the rear and at present a utility room. The "back attic" over the kitchen area is believed to have been used as quarters for the help. A narrow stairway leads up to two tiny rooms with peaked ceilings. Plastered walls and tiny windows would make the rooms habitable but one can see that the better rooms were reserved for paying guests.

An open stairway enclosed by later residents leads to four large bedrooms on the second floor. Another flight of stairs leads to a third story which undoubtedly was used as a dormi­tory when there was an overflow of guests. This is one large room extending the full length of the house. It too, has plastered walls. About three feet from the floor the walls slope to a point at the ceiling, and the only ventilation is from two small windows, one at each end of the room. The original floor is still in the attic. Floorboards are of various widths some measuring two feet.

The lumber for the house-mostly walnut­came from the stand of hardwood timber which extended for several miles south known as Elkhorn Grove. The Trotters said they re­moved hand-sawed walnut studs from a wall of the house when they did some remodeling. Walnut stringers in the ceiling were two and one-half inches thick and the framework is of oak and walnut. The many chimneys through­out the house are evidence that small pot­bellied stoves were used to heat the rooms for guests. When the house was built a long porch extended along the entire front of the building and a door led from the upper story to the flat roof of the porch. Many of the origi­nal doors are still in the house. They are made of six-inch wide planks held together with cross pieces near the top and bottom of the doors. Lumber for the house is believed to have been sawed at Thorpe's mill which stood nearby.

Mrs. E. E. Yocom, one of South Elkhorn Grove's older residents, recalls being told that at one time the building also housed a store and that it was also a station on the "under­ground railroad," used as an escape route to the north by Negro slaves. For many years a Negro family by the name of Brown which escaped by this route lived in the vicinity of Hitt. During this period, Hitt is said to have been one of the largest towns in the county.

Records show that the farm now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Trotter was originally settled in 1828 by John Ankeny, a great-grandfather of Katherine Ankeny Clough and Helen Green­awalt Puterbaugh, present residents of Mil­ledgeville. He lived in a log cabin which stood near the present house, and during this time was appointed by the Governor of Illinois to layout the Galena-Dixon trail. Ankeny was driven out by Indians during the Blackhawk War, but later returned and sold the farm to Harry Smith in 1835.

Smith was the great-grandfather of Garland Smith, also a present resident of Milledge­ville. The property remained in the hands of the Smith family for many years whose rec­ords revealed that their first home was a primitive log house, but soon after their ar­rival they moved into the present residence, it being "the first frame house in that section and considered at the time a grand affair.

Thanks to the Carroll County "A Goodly Heritage" for this little story.