Horridge House

Despite its name, Horridge House did not begin with anyone named Horridge. The house was first built in 1859 by Dr. Hewitt Clingan. In 1857, shortly before Clingan built the house, George Horridge arrived in Vinton aboard the steamship Export. An enterprising tinsmith, Horridge found both beauty and business in Vinton, and moved there soon after to work in the hardware store.

George quickly made partner at the store, and took over when the owner, Augustus Rock, died in 1861. George even married Rock’s widow, Elizabeth, in 1863.

In 1869, Elizabeth bought Dr. Clingan’s old house for her and George to settle down in. While they laid down roots in the brick house beside the railroad, George hardly settled down. He worked hard at the hardware store and expanded his reach to other businesses.

By the late 1870s, he was part owner of a flower mill, a trustee at Coe College, a city councilor, a powerful landowner, and a partial stakeholder in an oil interest in Texas. George didn’t truly slow down until 1898 when, at age 65, he retired from the hardware business.

The Horridge’s success allowed them the time and wealth to travel. He and Elizabeth often spent time at a winter home they owned in Lake Charles, Louisiana. It was here, in 1900, that an elderly Elizabeth became deathly ill. Though she wanted to travel home to Vinton, she proved too ill to make the journey and died in Louisiana that year.

Her body made the long journey home, and a funeral was held in the Horridge House parlor. Just over a year later, George remarried to Carrie Smyth, a woman thirty years younger than him.

Over the first few decades of the 1900s, Carrie led a grand expansion of Horridge House. Add-ons included a second floor apartment, a downstairs sunroom, a screened porch, and a bathroom. A love for travel brought grand pieces of decor to the home, like a large French mirror and a piece of Italian marble now set into the parlor fireplace. She also moved her mother, who was in poor health, into the house.

There, Carrie’s mother died in 1926 at 100 years old. Just a few years later in 1930, George Horridge also died in the home, at 96 years old.

After the death of her mother and husband, Carrie lived a quiet life at Horridge House for two more decades. She died at age 85 in 1949, and thus ended the Horridge family’s time in the home. Many memories of their time remain, preserved since the home came under the ownership of the Benton County Historical Society.

Carrie’s French mirror and the marble ensconced in the fireplace can still be seen by visitors today. But more than that, some say specters in the Horridge House keep its history alive through hauntings.