For seven generations, a single family has owned and farmed a plot of 80 acres near Oakhill, Kansas. Passed down from one generation to the next, the land has either been purchased outright, gifted, or sold for a single $1. All keeping the asset within the Blake family.
Now the home of Dusty and Piper Mullin, they are the second generation – the land’s sixth – without legally holding the Blake name. They obtained the land in 2002 from Dusty’s Mom and her late husband, Vicki (Blake) and Clayton Wright.
The land came into the family in 1872, when Timothy and Caroline Blake, Vicki’s great-great grandparents came to Oak Hill from Will County, Illinois. They made the journey with 90 pioneers and 100 head of cattle, landing in Clay County ceremoniously on the Fourth of July after a six-week journey.
The land sits two-and-a-half miles east and one mile south of Oakhill, along 8th Road. And today it has a Clay Center address, as the town no longer has a Post Office. However, at the time, no addresses were given. Originally it was known as Route 1. Wright remembered her Grandmother receiving a card in the mail in the 70s that was addressed, “Grandma Blake, Oakhill, Kansas.”
“As long as someone got it addressed to the town, it got where it was supposed to go,” she said. The family said it was most likely their actual address was assigned as infrastructure for 911.
Two years after the original Blakes made their claim, Timothy died after falling off a roof while helping a neighbor. However, in order to obtain the patent for the land, or the original deed, homesteaders had to work their farm for five years. As a widow, Caroline feared she wouldn’t be able to own the land. This sentiment was shared by neighbors.
According to family legend, it was the oldest Blake son, Leonard Myron, or LM, then-12, who encouraged his mother to fight for the land. She hitched up a wagon and followed the trail to Clay Center, which included fording the river.
Office-holding men at the courthouse decided that because the filing fee and been paid, Caroline could continue to perfect the land. In three years, she paid her $4 to Uncle Sam (about $120 today) and received its original patent.
The story was shared by Caroline’s granddaughter-in-law, who penned “Strength for Her Day” in the Kansas Author’s Club yearbook. Clara and her husband, Ross Blake, were the third generation of Blake’s to live on the farm. They remodeled the 1905 home and moved there in 1950 after purchasing it from LM and his wife, Sarah, who purchased the homestead in 1881.
At some point, another 80 acres were purchased and added to the family’s farming operation. It sits across the road of the original plot.
For a time, Mullins moved closer to town as their children were in activities, before remodeling and moving back in 2021, he said. After his grandparents moved to town in 1990, the house was occupied by renters – a single family – for 12 years.
There’s an original barn that Cheryl, Vicki’s sister, believes was originally lived in.
“That was the old house, you can see the wainscoting,” she said. “I’m sure of it.” A small space with a loft, it’s been used as a barn in years since, they said. There’s also a chicken house that has been around for decades.
As for the house itself, it was erected in 1905 after it was ordered from a Sears catalog. During their 2020 remodel, Mullin said they found the shipping receipt, which was attached to a piece of door trim. He recalled that it cost $740 for the materials. ($26,549 today.)
The materials most likely came in by train to Oakhill, then by wagon to the location of the home. Sentimental pieces are passed through the family. Vicki has an original doorknob and a pie safe that she stores in her living room. Both were from her Blake grandparents. Cheryl has a table that traveled clear from Illinois in the 1800s.
“It’s just crazy to think about all the history of that place,” he said. “There’s things you still look around that was here then and it makes you think ‘Oh they were doing this 100 years ago.’ What am I doing today that’s going to matter, or still be around 100 years from now? It’s humbling really.”
Additions have been made since then, like the porch being enclosed and the addition of a bathroom. Running water was added to the former kitchen pantry, when it was turned into a bathroom.
Meanwhile, Mullins’ daughter got married on the family farm, bringing a new layer of nostalgia to the land. She and her spouse are building their own home nearby, landing the seventh generation of Blake descendants in Oakhill.
As for the shipping receipt, it’s right where they found it. Mullin took a picture that’s now framed, before returning the trim to its original spot.
“I thought it was cool to leave it right where Grandpa did.”
