Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
LEESBURG - The two-story brick house is visible from a mile away, framed against a woods and bordered by corn and soybean fields.
Built 107 years ago, it was one of the first brick structures in the area. People from miles around came to watch its construction, according to the current residents.
Roy Teeple has lived in the house all his life, as did his father, grandfather and great-grandfather. The four-generation farm at the corner of CRs 900N and 250W is one of the few multi-generation, family-owned farms in the state.
Today Roy shares the place, where he farms the original 160 acres, plus another 20 or so on another property, with his wife, Kyra, daughter Taylyn, 9, and son, Brogan, 4.
Over the last century, a few things have changed. The summer kitchen is gone as is the windmill. The northwest porch gave way to an expansion to the kitchen and a large second-story bathroom.
The old barn has been replaced by a modern pole barn. Roy's grandfather's first tractor, which he bought new - an International "M" - sits in that pole barn.
The Teeple family has replaced windows and removed a number of doors in the old home that were too numerous for the modern occupants.
Overall, though, the soundness of the house is a testimony to the superior craftsmanship of the time.
"Originally, the house had slate tiles. I remember when they were taken off and replaced with asphalt shingles. We threw the slate in a wagon and dumped the load in the woods," Roy Teeple said sadly. "Now we know how valuable, and durable, the slate is."
On one of the kitchen walls is the original land deed, issued to Jacob Hoover on June 30, 1937. The Hoover surname fits into the Teeple genealogy, but Roy isn't sure if this Hoover was any relation.
Sometime after that, Paul Teeple, originally of Ohio, acquired the land. He and his twin brother, Christopher, settled the land.
Loren and Matilda Teeple, Roy's great-great grandparents, built the brick house.
Paul and other Teeples are buried about a mile to the north in the Island Chapel Cemetery.
Roy is the son of Charles and Joan Teeple. He is named after his grandfather.
The Teeples' property was listed as a multiple generation farm in a recent edition of Farm Journal magazine.
Kyra saw a tiny little advertisement calling for entries and she began the required paperwork, which included deed searches and genealogy.
She ended up in the bell tower of the old courthouse, where many old records are stored. She can now trace the Teeples back to Paul's parents, Issac and Cathy Teeple.
The family was probably part of the Palatine immigration, a term used to describe German-speaking citizens from many European countries.
Neither Roy nor Kyra can say Teeple is of German or English or Dutch ancestry because they're just not sure.
The family moved to Canada, then Pennsylvania and Ohio before coming to the Hoosier state.
The family Bible, kept by cousins, lists the death of Bela Smith Teeple as June 23, 1812.
And Kyra, after months of staring at complex family trees, has put the study aside for a while.
Roy is a manager at Chore-Time Brock in addition to farming - corn and beans - and raising a few head of cattle for beef.
Kyra works at home. The couple met at CTB. When they married, Roy's parents moved to "the lake."
Kyra said the one thing she changed immediately was the display of dried fox paws nailed to an outbuilding wall.
"In the winter all the men had to do was chop up a load of firewood in the morning and then they were free to hunt for the rest of the day," Roy said of the trophies. "There was a bounty on foxes, $3 apiece for each ear."
Wood heat has been replaced with a modern furnace, but the upstairs is still unheated. The family gets by in winter with baseboard heaters and the insulation provided by the new windows.
When the just-married couple moved in and began setting up house, there was a room full of stuff - furniture and other odds and ends. They do not know if any of it dated back four generations or was part of the original house.
A jadeite-colored oil lamp with a very tall chimney is one of the only things they're sure has been in the family for years and years.
"They (parents and grandparents) didn't talk about things like that," Roy said. "They talked about what they were doing and what they were going to do."
Although they're still youngsters, the Teeple kids have already started fussing over who is going to get the house when they grow up.
"Roy always said he would build a house down a ways, but I don't know if he can leave," his wife teased.
Roy got a kind of faraway look then.
"I know every nook and cranny of this place," he said. "But I can live somewhere else."
There's no doubt he can move, if it comes to that, for the next generation.
