​Looking Back: October 8, 1888

by Marcia Napier, Grain Valley Historical Society
 
On October 8, 1888, William and Nancy Davis filed with the Recorder of Deeds to establish Davis Place and added 19 lots to the Town of Grain Valley. The entire addition was 250 feet along the northern edge (walnut Street), 597 feet along the eastern edge (adjoining the Finnell addition) and 267.5 feet along the southern edge adjacent to the railroad, and 670.5 feet along the western edge (farmland).

My extensive research has revealed nothing about William and Nancy Davis.  I found a William Davis with a Napoleon address in the 1890s but there was no other information. The Abstract of Title was a gift to the Historical Society from Winona Burgess and the transactions mentioned in the title become specific to Lot 4 and East 17 feet of Lot 5, as noted on the cover of the document.

The area included 50 feet frontage on Walnut Street and the lots are 140 feet deep. This land was first sold to W. C. and Lillian Morris on September 5, 1890. There were three additional owners between 1890 and 1895 when Lots 4, 5, and six were sold to W. T. W. and Nancy Douglas for $75. They owned the property until 1910 and I can only guess that the house was built during those years. When they sold the property to A. W. Dimmit on January 22, 1910, the recorded price was $750.  In 1912 the west 16 feet of Lot 5 and all of Lot 6 were separated from the title and sold to Everett Snodgrass. The. Following year John Isenhour bought the remaining property for $800. 

After 1913, five additional families lived there, before Winona and Floyd Sharp purchased the house on January 24, 1941. The price had gone up to $900. Floyd Sharp owned the Grain Valley Lumber Yard just south of the railroad tracks on Main Street. They raised their son, David, in the home and he graduated from Grain Valley High School in 1959. Winona later married Charles Burgess and they lived there until the early 2000s.

I remember the house during those years. Winona was my Sunday School teacher and a close friend of my aunts. We often walked up Walnut Street to visit and have coffee (Kool-Aid for me). I most remember her back yard and her beautiful flower garden.  Winona had every variety of flower and they bloomed from early springs until the fall frost. In the late 1950s, early 1960s she ran a beauty shop at the back of the house. In the 1970s she became a librarian when Mid-Continent built their first library in Grain Valley.

Winona was a charter member and the first president of the Grain Valley Historical Society. If you’ve attended a meeting at the Grain Valley Community Center, you probably met in the Winona Burgess Room.

So while I don’t know the current residents, and I didn’t know the original ones (I’m old, but not that old!) for me this house will always be Winona’s home. But most importantly, it is a Grain Valley original, with over 100 years of history in its’ walls.
 
Visit the Historical Society on Wednesdays from 10 AM to 3 PM and learn more about early Grain Valley and the folks that called it home.
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