It’s been about 10 months since I started actively exploring the historic homes around us. There have been so many awesome moments. For me, there’s nothing cooler than finally seeing the inside of places I’ve passed by for 35 years and attempting to put myself in the shoes of those who came before us and have been gone for a long time.
But this past weekend really topped it all, and I’m not sure I’ve ever felt more connected to this land than I do now. While out searching for a lost cemetery (which we did find, and I swear, the full story is forthcoming!) I found myself on the old Kilmain survey tract of land. It was here that the Young Family first migrated to the area from Hagerstown around 1812.
I knew that the family originally moved into a stone farmhouse built in 1756, which was later torn down in the 1950s, and I’ve been trying to figure out where exactly it stood. While looking around in the general vicinity of where I thought the house might have been, I turned a corner around an old smokehouse and there it was: the home, now a pile of rocks. It’s weird, but this pile of rocks feels almost sacred. They’ve been in basically the same location for more than 260 years and serve as a visual marker to the beginnings of this land we call home.
Note: As always, I had permission from the landowner to be here and can’t thank them enough for letting me explore a bit.
