The newspaper from December 1912 stated that the Twining home was “equipped with sewer and city water connections, electric lights, gas for cooking also for supplementary heating for bath room and first floor bed room, hot air furnace with hot water attachment for heating. The bath room, kitchen and first floor bed room are equipped with hot and cold water. The latter room has also lavatory and closet attached.”
Soft water was furnished to the rooms from two cisterns and by means of a water lift and pressure tank system. A Ruud Gas Heater supplied hot water when the coal range was not in use.
There was “a full equipment of storm windows and screens and small house in the yard for storage of them and the tools, fuel, etc.” The yard was in good condition, well-graded, and arranged. It was nicely stocked with trees, shrubbery, and flowers with a fair-sized garden spot.
The Times suggested that to build a new home that offered the same advantages of this house and location would require an expenditure of close to $10,000. This home was offered at only $6,000 through Mr. Twining at the Commercial & Savings Bank.
The Twining family left for their new home on Monday, February 3, 1913 after several social events given in their honor the week before their departure. The house had not sold so D. H. Higgins, who had been proprietor of the Ludlow Hotel north of the square for six years, moved in on July 1. His plan was to live there temporarily after his term at the Ludlow expired until he was able to secure another hotel lease.
The home had still not been sold the following year, so an auction was planned for Saturday afternoon, October 3. A description similar to the one given earlier was put in the Times on September 21. It was to be sold without reservation to the highest bidder at the premises. Mr. Twining’s son-in-law, Howard W. Chadwick, was the agent and Earl Summeril served as the auctioneer. Mr. Twining’s son, Clarence, arrived in Monroe on September 24 for a month visit with his grandmother Barber. He might have planned the visit so that he would also be here for the sale. Unfortunately, there was nothing in the newspaper about the sale of the house.
John T. Collentine is listed as a renter in both the 1915 and 1917 city directories. Herbert H. Clark, who owned a drug store on the east side of the square, was listed as the resident and homeowner in the 1922 directory. By 1927 Burton H. Lynch was the owner and living there.
I made two trips to see the lovely ladies in the Register of Deeds office at the Court House who allowed me to peruse the records. On the first trip, I was looking to see who the Twinings sold the property to at the auction in 1914 and found nothing. With the added information stated in the previous paragraph, I started searching to see who Mr. Clark had purchased the property from. I found that he made the purchase from John T. and Mary Ellen Collentine, the “renters.” Clark paid them $6,500 on May 15, 1920 for the south 62.5 feet of lot 2 in Block 25 of Rattan’s Addition to New Mexico.
This information made me think that the Collentines had to own the property and that the city directories were in error. So I went back to the earlier records and finally found that they had purchased the same property from C. W. and Frances S. Twining for a consideration of $1 on January 31, 1913. Many deeds used the $1 amount, possibly because there was a land trade. This makes me wonder whether Collentines were just overseeing the property for the Twinings. Were they the ones who rented to Higgins first in 1913, shortly after the deed was made? Why was there an auction of the Twining property again in October 1914? Too much time has passed and we will probably never know the answers to these questions.
Though the Clarence W. Twining family didn’t even spend two decades in the house, it is an important home because of Mr. Twining and the family of six sons and two daughters who were raised in it. Even after the move to Oregon, the children considered Monroe to be their hometown and returned to visit, especially while their Grandmother Barber was still living. Three of the sons followed military careers, possibly inspired by Mr. Twining’s grandfather, who served in the War of 1812, and his brother, Nathan C. Twining, who entered Annapolis in 1885 and reached the rank of rear admiral in the Navy in a career that spanned almost 40 years.
Locally, Nathan F. Twining is the best known of these military brothers because Monroe’s Twining Park was named in his honor on July 4, 1960. He was born in the house in 1897 and rose from a private in the Oregon National Guard in 1915 to the third Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1957. He was the first member of the Air Force to serve as chairman and retired in 1960. He is buried in Arlington Cemetery.
Merrill Barber Twining was the youngest of the family and was born in the house in 1902. He was commissioned a Marine second lieutenant when he graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1923. He became the second general in the family when he was promoted to brigadier general, retiring in 1959.
Robert Barber Twining was born in March 1895, at about the time the family moved into the house. He went to live with his uncle Nathan in Washington D.C. in 1912 while he attended the Naval Academy in Annapolis. He was awarded the Navy Cross for action in World War I and retired as a captain. He is also buried in Arlington Cemetery.
— Matt Figi is a Monroe resident and a local historian. His column will appear periodically on Saturdays in the Times. He can be reached at mfigi48@tds.net or at 608-325-6503.
