This home has a ‘twin sister’ nearby

With the cooperation of the Southeast Iowa Union/Mt. Pleasant News, The Mt. Pleasant Historic Preservation Commission will be publishing, every week or two, peeks at some of the featured homes in the 1909 book, Mt. Pleasant Beautiful.

In the series, the 1909 picture will be contrasted with one of recent vintage. The Commission has been collecting information for the eventual issuance of a new book updating the information on the still standing homes from the 1909 publication.

You can test your knowledge of historic Mt. Pleasant with this column. The identity of the featured home will be published with the next featured home. The last featured home was the Rogers House, 305 East Washington St.

This week we again feature a house with a close-by “twin sister.” Both are built on property which was once part of the large property parcel owned by Richard Ambler, younger brother of Henry Ambler of “Three Sisters” Ambler House and Union Block fame.

Both were attorneys and practiced jointly until Henry moved to Colorado. Richard later took one of his sons as a partner. At the time, the property would have been considered as being on the outer edge of town.

Unfortunately, in the fall of 1895, while on a day’s outing hunting squirrels with friends, he was accidentally shot and perished. His gun discharged when it fell over in the wagon in which they were riding.

Today law enforcement looks askance at carrying loaded weapons in a vehicle. One hundred twenty -five years ago that was probably not a consideration.

Richard’s widow, Nancy, lived on for another 28 years. An Ohio native, she was reputed to have been the first lady printer in Iowa, having learned her trade at Warren, Ohio. After coming to Iowa she worked both as a typesetter and proof reader on a newspaper in Mt. Pleasant.

In 1901, a large portion of the property, including the home, was sold by Ambler’s widow to Frank and Rose Cartwright.

They promptly built today’s featured home. The following year, Nancy Ambler sold the corner lot that she had retained and built a home elsewhere in town. The buyers were Rose Cartwright’s parents, James and Nancy Moore.

Subsequently the twin of the featured home was built. There is some speculation that Frank Cartwright was the builder of both homes, his occupation being listed as a carpenter.

Frank and Rose sold their home in 1917 to Jesse Forman, an unmarried Quaker farmer from Marion Township who was taking his second stint trying “city life.”

Earlier he had lived with his mother and sister on East Monroe, but returned to the farm. He continued farming in town, operating a fruit farm on the former Ambler property.

The Cartwrights moved on to California where Rose Cartwright died in 1931. Frank lived on to age 80 and was laid to rest next to Rose in 1947 in the famous Forest Lawn Cemetery, the resting place of many Hollywood stars.