The first record of the property comes when a patent for the land was obtained by Jeremiah Hadley, one of Plainfield’s first settlers from North Carolina, in 1823. From Jeremiah it passed into the hands of his son-in-law, David Carter, who in 1864 platted it as what eventually would become known as Carter’s Third Addition. The property at 303 North Vine would be Block 21, Lot 1.
Mary Jane Frost appears in the tax records for 1866 as the first owner of Lot 1, as well as Lot 12 to the immediate east. Before the house was built the land passed through the hands of several owners: 1875-1879 Jane Wilkinson Miesse, 1879-1880 Silas Beeson, and 1880-1889 Damaris Munday. In 1889 Damaris Munday and her husband Thomas sold the property to Isaac DeWees.
In 1890 Isaac sold the land to his son W.L. (William Layton) DeWees. W.L. also spelled his name DeWeese and went by the nickname “Late” (one hopes as a short version of Layton and not an indicator of his promptness). The younger DeWeese was a photographer. The Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library has over a dozen images from his studio in their collection. Tax records indicate DeWeese probably built the house in 1919, as the tax assessment for improvements on the land that year more than doubles, jumping from $750 to $1625. This deduction is further reinforced by the appearance of the dwelling on the 1920 Sanborn fire insurance map for Plainfield.
It is doubtful that Late DeWeese actually lived in the house, as he is listed in the 1920 census as living on North Center Street. He died in January of 1922. A week before his death W.L. DeWeese transferred the property at 303 North Vine to his thirty-nine year old daughter Cora.
Cora DeWeese was a schoolteacher who had graduated from the Terre Haute State Normal College (now Indiana State University). She taught at Friendswood grade school and then for many years in the “commercial department” (what we could call business courses) at Plainfield High School. In 1907, although only in her early twenties, she took part in Plainfield’s “Old Maid Parade” in an effort to raise money for a new library to be built on North Vine Street.
In August 1932 at age 48 Cora married William Henry Hack, who was a year her senior. They too lived in the DeWeese family home at 303 North Center Street and continued to rent out the house at 303 North Vine. That house was listed as in Cora’s hands up through 1943; this the latest the library has access to records. Further transfer records can be found at the Hendricks County Courthouse. In 1948 Cora Hack died.
The next appearance of the house in library records is in the 1960 Plainfield Directory where the rear of the property was listed as the Plainfield Poultry Market, while Luther Wilson, his wife Lucy, and their sons resided in the home. In 1963 the market was gone. From then until Luther’s death in 1985 Luther and Lucy lived in the house together. After that the house stayed with Lucy until her death in 2014, when it passed into the hands of the current owner.
