The Original Homestead House

It all started in 1902 when…

George Washington Brown, his wife Lois and 8 of their 9 children moved to the Lake Wenatchee area.

George Brown, Lois Brown, Zella Brown, Elick(Lois’s Father), Hallie Brown, Rella(Lois’s Mother), Frank Brown, Earl Brown, Harry Brown, Sadie(Lois’s sister) and Frances(Lois’s sister). Photo taken back east at Lois’s parents’ home.

This is our earliest photo of the Homestead. Imagine you are standing at the east side of the large field looking back. The Homestead house you see today is not yet built! The closest building in this photo was the Brown’s first home for about 20 years and is now what we call the “Pinterest Barn”. The next building back in the photo was their dairy barn and is what we use as the “Catering Barn” and the farthest building, originally the blacksmith shop can nowadays hardly be seen in the field past the fire pit. It’s being taken over by some trees.

Under the Homestead Act, settlers needed to establish a claim and begin living on and improving the land before they received legal title. This is why our homestead house was probably built around 1902. Building a home and making other improvements were part of the requirements for proving up the claim. After the required period of residence, usually five continuous years, and improvement was completed and the claim was approved, the federal government issued the land patent transferring ownership to the homesteader. Above is the patent granting the land and rights to the Browns in 1909.

The family expanded, as did the homestead. Here they are seated in the orchard. We still enjoy apples every year, you can find some of the trees in the parking lot. Back row: Ira, Lloyd, Zella, Marie, Lester, Earl. Middle row: Harry, Lois, George, Hallie. Front row: Martha

Interested in more information? Check out the links below and go visit each site on our property!