Chauncy and Minnie Canfield House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Back in 1914, a man named George Washington West had himself a new town, and a new town needs people willing to show up and stake a claim. So he extended an invitation to one Chauncy Canfield: come build a business here, in George West.

And Chauncy, to his credit, didn't drag his feet. He went ahead of his family, got there first, and established a store. Now that takes a certain kind of nerve, settlin' into a brand new town before your people even arrive.

But arrive they did. Minnie Elizabeth Canfield, born a Hale, came in with Chauncy's sister Callie and their three children, and they didn't come by wagon or by mule. They rolled in on the first passenger train.

Think about that for a moment. The very first passenger train. You don't get a more dramatic entrance than that.

The house Chauncy built for this family was designed in Prairie and English cottage style, and it carried a distinction that no other house in George West could ever claim again: it was the first family home in the town. The first one. Every house that came after owes a little something to the Canfields just for going first.

Life in that house moved along as lives do. Son Hale eventually married Mabel Frances Lamm and relocated nearby. The town of George West kept growin' too, and growth has a way of rearranging things.

In 1947, the original house was moved, physically picked up and carried one block west and one block north, to 508 Crockett Street, all to make room for commercial construction along Houston Street. The house didn't disappear. It adapted.

Minnie and her daughters, Josephine and Lou Emma, added a southern colonial exterior to the place and went right on living in it. That house sheltered the Canfield women for decade after decade after decade. Minnie, who had arrived on that very first passenger train back in 1914, and her daughters made sure it stayed a home.

And it remained exactly that until Lou Emma's passing in 1988. A house that was first, moved, remade, and still standing. That's a George West story if I ever heard one.

What the marker says

CHAUNCY AND MINNIE CANFIELD HOUSE George Washington West invited Chauncy Canfield to build a business in his new town of George West in 1914. Canfield preceded his family and established a store. His wife, Minnie Elizabeth (Hale), sister Callie and three children arrived on the first passenger train. Designed in Prairie and English cottage style, the canfield house was the first family home in George West. Eventually, son, Hale, married Mabel Frances Lamm and relocated nearby. In 1947, the original house was moved one block west and north to 508 Crockett Street to allow Houston Street commercial construction. Minnie, daughters Josephine and Lou Emma, added a southern colonial exterior and lived in the house until Lou Emma's passing in 1988. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK - 2014