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Everareen Hill Property Name NPS Form 10-900 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET Section number 8 . Page 3 St. Josenh. Indiana County and State ONIS No. 1024-0018 originally heated by several wood burning stoves, a fact verified by openings uncovered in -three chimneys during recent renovations. Franklin's daughter, Edith, was born in the home onMay9,1878. The family raised livestock, fanned some of the land, and tapped 500 maple trees each spring for maple sugar and maple syrup. They made the syrup on the property in a small cabin. On August 9, 1908, Franklin Rupel died, leaving Martha Jane and Edith to take care of the farm. They sold all their animals (pigs, cows, and horses) and rented the fields for farming. In January 1912, Martha Jane and Edith traded homes with one of Martha's other children, Nellie Pearl (1868-1925) and her husband George Walz. Upon Martha's death in October 1917, the family property was split up. Franklin and Martha's son, Ernest B. Rupel (1866-1945) and his wife Hallie Smith Rupel (1872-1968) moved into the home in the spring of 1918. At this time, Ernest owned forty of the original eighty acres; the ' rest having been divided among other family members. f�nest Rupel and Hallie Smithweremarried on December 14,1893: Hallie was the granddaughter of early St. Joseph. muu�lysettlers Colonel John Smith (1805-1885) and Mahala Hall Smith (1807-1898), who moved there in 1832 from mia. Colonel Smith had one of the first lumber mills in the county. Ernest taught school for ten years before opening a notions business in downtown South Bend in 1899. Ernest and Hallie lived in the home with their two daughters, Pearl (1896-1999) and Alice (1906-1989). Shortly after taking I possession of the home, the family added a sunroorn to the south side of the house, and installed an oil furnace and ductwork to replace the old coal furnace. On June 10, 1919, Pearl Rupel and Kingsley Abernethy (1890-1928) were married in the home. When Kingsley died suddenly in 1928, leaving Pearl with two small sons, they moved back to Evergreen Hill with her parents. Pearl purchased the property from her parents in 1933 with proceeds from a life insurance policy on her husband. She cared forherparents as they aged, and continued living in the home after their deaths. She raised her sons, Charles (1922-1964) and James (1921- ) in the house. In 1942, Pearl married Clifford Dunphy (1896-1977). After the death of her 2-d husband, Pearl continued living in the home until her death on January 15, 1999. On December 1, 1999, Pearl's grandson John S. Abernethy (son of Charles) and his wife, Anne O'Brien Abernethy, purchased the property from Pearl's estate, and are in the process of restoring the home. Of the original eighty -acre plat, thirty-eight acres (the subject of this nomination) remain as the Evergreen F0 property, including thereon the main house and significant outbuildings. The Abemethys plan to occupy the home by the summer of 2000, and when they move in John will be the 7th, and his children the 8th, generation of the Rupel family to live on the land.