"Orson S. Fowler, a Yankee individualist and progressive social thinker, published The Octagon House: A Home for All in 1848. In it he presented the advantages of an eight-sided house, including inexpensive construction costs and an abundance of windows useful for light and air circulation. In New England, Fowler’s ideas and progressive thinking were adopted by numerous homeowners".
Two Rock. Octagon house. The house was built about 1857 by Charles Blackburn, who came west in 1852 in the same wagon train as Silas and Nancy Martin. A diary suggests the Martin's lived in the house by 1857. Evelyn McClure relates the following information:
He was born in Kentucky but moved to Illinois at age 4. He learned the harness making trade. He served as justice of the peace in Iowa and California. He served a term in the CA State Legislature from 1867 and in 1882. A charter member of the Grange and Odd Fellows and a deacon of the Presbyterian Church. He established a dairy herd on 326 acres in Two Rock in 1853. Silas married Nancy Cameron of Illinois. they had 4 daughters and 2 sons. Silas Martin died in 1894. The house stood vacant for a about a 20 year period, but miraculously was not badly vandalized, and was then occupied by Harold Martin, a great grandson of Silas Martin, in 1946.
Two story, with a large cupola, the house no longer has the porch which extended entirely around it. There is a spiral staircase to the second floor from a circular hallway in the center of the house.
According to information supply by Carolyn Winters, a great great granddaughter of Silas Martin, and who lived in the house starting in 1946, the seventh generation of Martins is living in the house today.
http://www.octagon.bobanna.com/CA.html
Also found a family photo of the Blackburns. Charles is the second feller from the left, backrow. He built this house with his own hands. Kind of amazing and creepy. The internet is crazy futuristic dude.
