Famous Bronaugh Home

 Perhaps the most "famous" house in Bronaugh (yet today) is the former home of Vernon and Gladyce (Linn) Holland. This house was featured in the October, 1948 issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine as part of a series of articles about remodeling houses.

This article is intriguing because it was in a famous magazine and Bronaugh seldom made national news. It is also interesting in that it shows the before and after photos of the home. Can anyone tell us who had built or lived in the old abandoned square house before Vernon and Gladyce remodeled it? In the bottom photo, I assume that is Gladyce in front of the house. I think everyone loved Vernon Holland. He was the long time rural mail carrier.

September 24, 2015 update: I was in Nevada visiting my mother. Marjorie Noel Range is a resident at the same place. Marjorie recently celebrated her 97th birthday and has a great memory for things historical, having grown up near Bronaugh. I had the Better Homes & Gardens magazine with me and so I showed this article to her. I asked her if she remembered the Vernon Holland house when it was the 30 ft.² house - she said "Yes in fact I stayed there a couple of times because I was a good friend with Nelma." She went on to say that it was one of the places where Pearl (Feller) Thompson had lived. She also said the Pearl actually lived many different places trying to "get by" with her many children after the early death of her husband, Chauncey, who died in 1923. Nelma was the youngest daughter and she and Marjorie had been childhood friends who stayed in each other's home. Continuing the story about the box house that Vernon remodeled, she said that she thought before Pearl lived there, the house was vacant for a few years because nobody would live in it because the man who had lived there had committed suicide.

September 26, 2015 update: While at the Bronaugh Fall Festival, I visited with Linn Holland (son of Vernon and Gladyce) about the article. He also has a copy. He indicated that there is some doubt that the "before" picture in the magazine was truly the house that was re-modeled. He thought that it might just be a similar one in town. However, he went on to say that the re-modeling of the Vernon Holland house was done by Percy Hawkins. When I mentioned the suicide story, he confirmed that he had heard it also and that the man who committed suicide in that house did so because he had been spurned by his girlfriend.

It will be interesting to see if we can find that story!

Regarding the Holland/Thompson relationships. Vernon Holland was the son of Forest Holland and his wife, Carrie Feller Holland. Pearl Feller was Carrie's sister and she had married Chancey Thompson who died in 1923. Pearl was a widow for many years. Carrie Feller Holland died in 1951 and in 1953, widower Forrest Holland married his widowed sister-in-law, Pearl. They were married until their deaths in 1974.

This page is designed and maintained by Lyndon Irwin.