RLP 361: Home Sweet Home: The House that Charles C. Creer Built

Nicole (1s):
This is Research Like a Pro episode 361 Home Sweet Home – The House that Charles C. Creer Built. Welcome to Research Like a Pro a Genealogy Podcast about taking your research to the next level, hosted by Nicole Dyer and Diana Elder accredited genealogy professional. Diana and Nicole are the mother-daughter team at FamilyLocket.com and the authors of Research Like a Pro A Genealogist Guide. With Robin Wirthlin they also co-authored the companion volume, Research Like a Pro with DNA. Join Diana and Nicole as they discuss how to stay organized, make progress in their research and solve difficult cases. Let’s go.

Nicole (41s):
Today’s episode is sponsored by Newspapers.com. Hi everyone, and Welcome to Research Like a Pro.

Diana (47s):
Hi Nicole. How are you doing?

Nicole (49s):
Really great. How about you?

Diana (53s):
I am doing well. I’m having fun finishing up some documentary research on my Henderson William Weatherford research project and just a little update. I went up to the FamilySearch library and looked through some of the books for Lawrence County, which was the grandparent county of Izard County. We, we were talking about Izard County in our last episode, but Izard County, and then it goes to Independence County and then it goes back to Lawrence County all in the same area. So I was tackling Lawrence County records at this time and I found William in early court Minute Books, so 1820, which was so exciting to see that he was there in that area by then.

Diana (1m 37s):
But these minute books are so interesting, like whoever was writing it was using a lot of abbreviations, like abbreviated almost every word. And so I’ve been really struggling trying to figure out what in the world they’re trying to say. And I had looked at a book at the FamilySearch library that was an abstract. And so the author had, I think, you know, if you’re abstracting a whole book, you get familiar with how whoever is writing, you know, is terming things. And so that has helped because it looked like it was an assault and battery case that these two men were being charged with.

Diana (2m 19s):
And so anyway, I’ve been trying to have AI help a bit, but even AI is struggling with this terrible handwriting, all these abbreviations. So anyway, I’ve been really working on trying to understand this case. And the gentleman’s name is Benjamin Weatherford. So this is exciting because I’ve never heard of a Benjamin Weatherford and William Weatherford is in the same area, same era, and I’m wondering, crossing my fingers that they might be siblings or cousins or father-son, I don’t know. But it gives me another name to tie to William when I try to go back to Tennessee because this family seems to come from Tennessee.

Diana (2m 60s):
Anyway, something really interesting was the court recorder had abbreviated Benjamin’s name with sort of a BMN, and so the abstracter had was Booman or Bunyon. I mean, there’s all sorts of interesting ways that they write it in the abstract book, but as I follow the case, finally at the end it says Benjamin clearly. So that’s been really interesting to see all the different ways his name was written because everything was abbreviated and apparently it was just too much work to write out Benjamin. These court records can be great, but they can also be kind of challenging to figure out what in the world’s going on.

Nicole (3m 42s):
Wow. Yeah, that does sound like a challenge, especially the abbreviations

Diana (3m 47s):
And the bad handwriting, but I’m working my way through it. Well, for our announcements, we are excited about our July webinar for our Research Like a Pro Webinar Series, and this will be presented by Yvonne Fenster, who’s one of our Family Locket genealogist researchers. The title is Untangling Family Networks: Using Documentary Research and DNA Analysis to Search for Glen Hopper’s Father. So this investigation uses uses Y-DNA and autosomal DNA evidence combined with documentary research to explore Glenn Hugh Hopper’s paternal origins in early 20th century Tennessee.

Diana (4m 33s):
Y-DNA established the Daniel surname for Glen’s father, but which of Marcus Daniel’s (1846-1926) sons could be Glen’s father? What documentary evidence, from census records to Civil War pension files, could provide the geographic and chronological context needed to evaluate each Daniel brother as a potential father candidate?

Diana (5m 18s):
How could BanyanDNA analysis help navigate the complex genetic relationships between the Daniel brothers when their families were so heavily intermarried? So topics for this will be Early 20th-century Tennessee Research, Unknown Parentage, Genetic Genealogy, BanyanDNA, Multiple Relationships, Pedigree Collapse, Y-DNA Analysis, Indirect Evidence, Census Records, Land Records, Tax Records, Civil War Pension File, and Social Security Application. So this will be fascinating, and Yvonne is really skilled at Banyan DNA and using it for pedigree collapse in multiple relationships, which is so difficult to do and which is a superpower of Banyan. So just a little bit about Yvonne. She’s a professional genealogist. She’s accredited through ICAPGen in the upper south region of the United States and brings her expertise in DNA, involve, particularly in cases involving cousin marriages and Y-DNA research for breaking through genealogical brick walls. So we’re lucky to work with her and enjoy learning from her.

Diana (5m 59s):
So we hope you’ll join us. Our next study group begins August 27th, 2025, and registration is ongoing and ends August 21st. If you’re interested in being a peer group leader, the application is on our website and we would invite you to apply and enjoy the experience of leading a small group of researchers who are taking the course and working with them, giving feedback. One of the requirements will be that you just give us a research report and that you have gone through the Research Like a Pro process. Please join our newsletter if you’d like to find out more about what we’re doing. Every Monday it comes out.

Diana (6m 39s):
We have new posts, podcasts, upcoming lectures and coupon codes for anything that is on sale. And then finally, we are excited about the Institute course that Nicole is coordinating for the Texas Institute of Genealogy Research, Integrating AI into Genealogical Writing, Research and Writing. And so that will be a fun week of learning and sharing ideas about using artificial intelligence.

Nicole (7m 6s):
Yeah, hopefully it will be fun and also be a really good learning experience for everyone. I always learn when I’m trying new things with AI and I also always learn from other people’s experiments and seeing what they’re doing. So it’ll be great. Today we are talking about the house that Charles Cannon Creer built, and this is our ancestor on my mom’s mom’s side. So ancestral homes are such an important part of our family history. We can even research the home and find out about the home’s architecture and records such as city directories, taxes, maps, newspapers, and more. So for the 52 Ancestors blog posts that Diana wrote about Home Sweet Home, that was the theme, she decided to write about the Spanish Fork home of her great-grandparents, Charles Cannon Creer, and Mary Margaret Peterson.

Nicole (7m 59s):
Charles built the home for his bride to move into upon their marriage on March 23rd, 1892, and it stayed in the family for over 100 years. The house still proudly stands at 98 South 100 East Spanish Fork, Utah, and I’ve been there, we’ve been there together. It’s fun to go see it and imagine all the life and love that it saw through the years. Charles Cannon Creer was born April, 1865 in Spanish Fork, Utah County, Utah territory. He was the fourth son of Willam Creer and Sarah Jane Bradley, both English immigrants.

Nicole (8m 41s):
The 1870 census shows Sarah and William and their young family and Charles age five at home. You can see that William Creer is 36 years old, a farmer with $458 of real estate and $425 of personal estate. He was born in England and was a citizen of the US and then his inferred wife is Sarah Jane Creer and or Sarah J Creer age 28, so he’s eight years older than her. She’s keeping house and born in England. Then we have the children, Joseph E Creer age nine, James M, age seven, Charles C, age five, and Sarah A age three. And the two older boys, Joseph and James were at school while the two younger kids, Charles and Sarah were at home.

Nicole (9m 24s):
And all of the kids were born in Utah, and I know that Sarah Jane and William met in Utah once they both arrived there. Well, by 1880, the family had grown considerably. And Charles’s father, William Creer had a new occupation. He had farmed for several years, but decided to study law using a set of law books that he had purchased. He passed the bar and in 1880 worked as an attorney at law. Charles was age 14 and attended school in Spanish Fork in 1880. The family household began with William Creer, age 41. Sarah Creer, aged 38, so she’s aged 10 years, but he’s aged less.

Nicole (10m 4s):
He only aged five years.

Diana (10m 7s):
I would like to only age five years than 10 years. Great idea,

Nicole (10m 12s):
But they have a lot more children, so I’m sure she felt 10 years older because now they have beyond Joseph, James, Charles, and Sarah. They also have Alvin who’s nine, Thomas, who’s seven, John who’s four, and Roger, who is two. And all of the kids were born in Utah and all except the last two who were four and two were at school in Spanish Fork. What’s really cool to see is that after William Creer became an attorney at law, he then served as the mayor of Spanish Fork and was elected to the House of Representatives in the Utah state legislature for the 26th session in January of 1884.

Nicole (10m 51s):
Charles was his father’s private secretary during this time, and William served during the critical years of applying for and being granted statehood for Utah. So Charles was 14 in1880, and during this legislature session in 1884, he would’ve been 18. So it’s neat to hear that he was helping his father as his private secretary,

Diana (11m 16s):
Right? Well, Charles was initially interested in building railroads, but with his father’s increasing civic responsibilities, he and his brother Joseph, took over the farm. And this was 160 acre farm, and William had originally homesteaded this at Lake Shore. Charles purchased several land parcels in the valley and a dry farm at Thistle, located up the Spanish Fork Canyon, and farmed for many years. So it’s interesting that he decided to go into farming rather than follow his father’s footsteps and become an attorney and serve in the community.

Diana (11m 58s):
So he had a lot of brothers and he and his brother were running that farm for the family until he branched out on his own. Well, how did he gain the experience and the funds to build a home while in his early twenties? So a life history has been written about him that hints at an experience that he might have had in learning about construction. The history says Charles and his father, William, erected a building on Main Street of Spanish Fork, and together with his brothers, Roger and Alvin owned and operated the Mount Nebo Canning Co. Local produce was canned at this cannery, including the produce they grew on their farm, such as beans and tomatoes. Charles’ children spoke of working at this cannery snipping beans and placing them and the tomatoes in the cans.

Diana (12m 44s):
And then the history continues with details about the home Charles built to house his large family. It says on March 25th, 1892, Charles married Mary Margaret Peterson in the Manti Temple. The reception was held in a lovely white house Charles had built across from the City Park. This house had two stories.

Diana (13m 24s):
The living room and kitchen was on the main floor and two bedrooms were upstairs. Eventually several more rooms were added to accommodate the large family. A parlor, a bedroom and a bathroom were added down stairs and two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. All of their eleven children were born in this house. So that is a remarkable house for this era, and I remember my grandmother, who was the oldest daughter of this family, leaving this house that had two bathrooms and all these bedrooms to go up to Idaho to homestead with my grandpa and not having an indoor bathroom again for like 30 years, if you can imagine. So she left a really nice house to go up and live in not such a nice place at first.

Nicole (13m 47s):
Right. Yeah. So you’re quoting from the life story of Charles Cannon Creer. Do you remember who wrote that?

Diana (13m 56s):
I do not. It’s just been passed down in the family and I did contribute it to FamilySearch. It was just in my book of remembrance that my mother had put together. So I’m just guessing it was probably one of his children. You know, he had a lot of children and some of them were writers, so, I wish I did know specifically who wrote it.

Nicole (14m 22s):
Yeah, that would be nice.

Diana (14m 23s):
It’s one of those, we dunno.

Nicole (14m 25s):
One of the things I’ve noticed that’s tricky about citing a memory at FamilySearch is that the URLs don’t take you to the exact memory, they just take you to the memories page. I know. So it’s annoying, but I figured out a workaround for that. In case anyone is wondering, you can click the share button at the top and then click copy link And it will generate a unique link just for that memory so that you can get to it.

Diana (14m 53s):
I’ll use that tip. I hadn’t discovered that. So that’s a great idea because sometimes people have something like 70 memories and it’s difficult to find the one specifically that you’re quoting from.

Nicole (15m 6s):
It is. Well, continuing on the story of Charles Creer and his wife Mary. Sadly, the Creer family’s situation changed drastically with the accident Mary suffered walking down a hill at the Thistle farm in about 1907. The historical account explains after Charles and Mary had been married for about 15 years, Mary met with a severe accident which rendered her an invalid for the rest of her life. Charles had taken the family to the little cabin he had built on the top of the hill at Thistle. It took a buggy and a wagon to transport them there.

Nicole (15m 47s):
Mary became anxious to go home when a storm was approaching. She decided to walk down the hill. She took two of the children with her and took a shortcut. A stiff wind was behind her. She lost her balance and she fell and broke her kneecap. In those days, the doctors were not too experienced in treating this kind of a wound. She was treated improperly and the bone in her leg decayed. She suffered with this pain for 16 years before she died. Because of this accident, she never walked without a crutch or cane and usually sat in a wheelchair. Oh, the story makes me feel so sad. Well, Mary died of heart failure on September 25th, 1926, leaving Charles a widower with their youngest son Bonnie, only 11 years old at the time the years passed, and eventually son Harold and his wife Laura, moved into the old home and lived in it for the rest of their married life.

Nicole (16m 39s):
Charles lived with them until his death on December 19th, 1939 at age 74, and there was a photo taken of the family at his funeral that shows them out in front of the Spanish Fork home, which is one of the pictures we have of the home.

Diana (16m 55s):
Right? I love the pictures and I love that they actually do have pictures in front of this lovely home because it’s just fun to see them there and to see that it really hasn’t changed. So that’s neat. A shout out to great historical photos. Well, let’s have a word from our Sponsor.

Diana (17m 36s):
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Nicole (18m 14s):
Well, now that we’ve kind of learned about the Creer family, let’s talk about researching the house. Well, artificial intelligence can help us with researching the house. Mom uploaded a photo of the Creer home and prompted ChatGPT to analyze the architecture which generated the following ideas. It’s really fascinating to compare the analysis to the image and learn more about the styles of the time and how Charles built his home within those styles. So here is what ChatGPT said, architectural style analysis, first point, Gothic Revival architecture was still in use in Utah in the late 19th century, especially among settlers who favored its vertical emphasis and picturesque qualities.

Nicole (19m 6s):
The house’s steeply pitched gable roof and pointed arch details (if present in windows or doors) suggest this influence. Second point, Classical Revival / Neoclassical Details, The portico with a triangular pediment and columns suggests a nod to Classical Revival styles, which were gaining popularity around 1890. The use of symmetry and restrained ornamentation blends Victorian aesthetics with more refined Classical elements. Third point, Victorian-Era Vernacular. Brick Construction: The painted brick exterior was common in Utah homes of this period. The brickwork may have been locally produced. asymmetry, Asymmetry: Unlike earlier, more balanced designs, this home has an irregular massing, with a primary entrance emphasized by a projecting porch.

Nicole (19m 59s):
Tall, Narrow Windows: This is a hallmark of both Gothic Revival and late Victorian homes, allowing more natural light while maintaining a vertical aesthetic. Pioneer Utah Adaptations. The home reflects regional adaptations of Victorian styles, built with materials available in Utah. The design likely incorporated functional elements for climate control, such as deep eaves for summer shade and thick masonry for insulation. Many Utah homes of this era were influenced by LDS (Mormon) settlement patterns, where practical, durable construction was favored.

Diana (20m 28s):
It was really fun to read ChatGPT’s description and its analysis, and then to compare it to the picture. And in the blog post, I do have a picture there, so you can go read that and take a look. But it’s so funny because I’ve never analyzed the construction. I would just look at it and think, oh, this is such a cool house. So it was really fun to see what it came up with and realize. Yeah, you know, I’m sure he didn’t know specifically the names of all those different details, you know, like Neoclassical and Gothic Revival. But definitely there was, there was something going around that the builders in that time were using those styles, right? Fun to think about. Well, AI also generated some ideas for continuing the research based on my initial prompt and image.

Diana (21m 15s):
So what I had done was uploaded an image, and this was my prompt. I’m writing a house history and want to know what can be discovered about this house. It was built in 1892 in Spanish Fork, Utah. So AI gave me a lot of really great ideas. You know, I’m really good with researching people, but houses it’s a little bit different. So the first one was title and deed records. Check with the Utah County Recorder’s Office for property records, which can reveal ownership history, mortgages, and transfers. Look at plat maps and land abstracts for information on how the property changed over time. And number two, census and city directory research. It said 1890 census records were lost, but the 1900 US census will list the homeowners, their occupations, and household members.

Diana (22m 1s):
Number three, with City Directories may show residents and businesses associated with the home. Number four, Historic Maps & Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps (if available for Spanish Fork) can show the footprint and structural details of the home over time. County and local plat maps may indicate lot divisions, property values and major changes. Number five, Newspapers & Local Histories. The Utah Digital Newspapers collection may have articles mentioning the house or its early residents. Check for property sales, obituaries, and local news.

Diana (22m 42s):
Then Tax and Building Records. Utah County tax Assessor’s office may have historic property evaluations and improvements, building permits and zoning records if preserved, could provide renovation details and then photographs and oral histories. Local historical societies, such as the Spanish Fork Daughters of Utah Pioneers or the Utah State Historical Society, may have old photographs. Then neighbors and longtime residents may recall details about the house’s past.

Diana (23m 28s):
And finally, Architectural Analysis. Your house has a Gothic Revival influence with Victorian-era elements, which was popular in the late 19th century. Features such as the steeply pitched roof, gabled dormers, and decorative trim could indicate specific architectural trends of the period. So that gave me a lot of interesting ideas. I of course, already had done the census and you know, I had pictures, but I hadn’t done everything on that list, so there’s a lot more I could research.

Nicole (23m 43s):
Right, yeah, that’s a really good idea to ask for ideas for what to research from AI, especially in a new research area like houses. Well what about maps? Looking at the maps, the idea to look into the Sanborn fire insurance maps was really interesting. And there were some Sanborn fire insurance maps at the Library of Congress website. There were seven for 1908 that were available. And looking at each one, mom, you were able to find a map showing 1st East and 1st South. And so you were actually able to find the specific place where the house is on the fire insurance map and you put a little star on it, annotating it.

Nicole (24m 30s):
That’s really neat. The first map in the series contains a key to the map. So we can see that a red building is constructed of brick. and this home has one and a half stories and a shingle roof. The D label likely denotes a Dwelling. The yellow boxes with dashed lines represent the covered porches, also with shingle roofs. The lot is 34 feet deep, which is property number 105, probably the lot number.

Nicole (25m 10s):
So if you didn’t have a photograph or if the house wasn’t still standing, this would be a really neat source to help get an idea of what the house was like and the type of materials used and the roof and, and this is such a good example also of looking at the entire source. You know, if you only looked at this one map and you saw the houses and they were in different colors, you might not know to look on the first page and figure out what the colors meant. So we really do need to look at the key of maps and all of the source so that we can understand it.

Diana (25m 32s):
Yeah, one of the tricky things was actually finding the right map, and I had to track down the actual address of the house, and so I thought I was on the right track with the address because I’d found an address of one of the sons who had lived in the house for a bit, but it just wasn’t matching up with my memory of where the house should be located. And then I realized that that son was living in another house in Spanish Fork, and so I was looking at the completely wrong address. Anyway, it was kind of tricky tracking that down and getting the actual address, but I could have run down there, you know, about 30 minutes south of me, but I just wanna figure this out using my resources online.

Diana (26m 12s):
So I finally found the address through one of the older sons and then found this map, which was so fun. And it was fun to find that these Sanborn maps are in all sorts of different areas. But I was happy that the Library of Congress had this collection. So it was fun. And you’re right, the key really is the key. You really do have to look at that to learn about things. And the reason these were created were, you know, for fire stations. So they could grab a map if there’s something on fire, they could see where they could go in, the entrances and what the house is made of. You know, a brick house is going to not burn down as fast as the wood house, so I’m imagining that that is why they really wanted to know all about it.

Nicole (26m 59s):
Absolutely, that makes perfect sense. Well, viewing the home on Google Maps, we can see a current view looking east and using the Zoom feature, we can zoom in and really see the intricate details above the windows and over the porch. It’s really neat. So that’s another thing you can do, and I’ve done that quite a bit with various houses from the 1940 or 1950 censuses where you wonder if they’re still standing. You can use Google Map street view to zoom in and see the houses that are at that address. Digging into the story behind the house and analyzing it further, really added depth to the history of my second great grandparents. Charles certainly built a house for his bride Mary that lasted the test of time, and we can go visit the house and it’s really neat to learn about the house and their lives.

Nicole (27m 45s):
If you have an ancestral home researching the architecture, the histories, the stories, the records could provide additional insights and depth to your ancestors’ life story as well.

Diana (27m 56s):
Well, thanks everyone for listening. I hope that you’ve got some ideas for maybe researching a house and using artificial intelligence to help. What a great tool to be able to upload pictures and get an idea of the architectural elements and put that in context with the community and the history and what was going on. So I had so much fun researching this house that I have seen and been to and the family that I’ve researched a lot, but something I’d never researched, the actual house. So good luck on your research and thanks for listening. We’ll talk to you next time. Bye-bye.

Nicole (28m 34s):
Bye-bye. Thank you for listening. We hope that something you heard today will help you make progress in your research. If you want to learn more, purchase our books, Research Like a Pro and Research Like a Pro with DNA on Amazon.com and other booksellers. You can also register for our online courses or study groups of the same names. Learn more at FamilyLocket.com/services. To share your progress and ask questions, join our private Facebook group by sending us your book receipt or joining our courses to get updates in your email inbox each Monday, subscribe to our newsletter at FamilyLocket.com/newsletter. Please subscribe, rate and review our podcast. We read each review and are so thankful for them. We hope you’ll start now to Research Like a Pro.