Cass County, Missouri

The William Steen home in western Cass County, near Drexel, Missouri was constructed in 1909.  The native limestone used in the home was quarried from behind the house.  At the time of construction it was valued at $10,000.00.  Called “one of the most beautiful in Missouri” it was modern throughout its 14 rooms.

Woodside Farm – Home of William Steen – Built 1909
The native limestone was quarried on the farm behind the house.

William H. Steen was born in 1846 in Garrard County, Kentucky. At age 16, he enlisted in the Union army and served from 1863 until the close of the war.  His father, Elijah M. Steen enlisted in the Confederate army and was killed in 1863. 

After the war he purchased 60 acres of land in Everett township, Cass County, Missouri and engaged in stock raising and farming.  In 1873 he married Mary Miles and to this union were born two children.  Mary and the children died in 1878.  In 1880 he married Ora Perkins.  They had five children.

In his biography in the History of Cass and Bates County, 1918, it says of him:

“He well remembers when a man was at liberty to go any place at any time to cut hay.  They traveled then by instinct, for there were no roads and their only safeguard and hope of safely returning lay in their sense of direction.

For twelve or fifteen miles west of Everett there was not one house when Mr. Steen was a boy.  Oxen hitched to wooden plows were used to aid in breaking the ground….

He has experienced all the hardships and privations of pioneer life, as well as many simple pleasures.  Life was not always dull for social gatherings of all kinds frequently broke the monotony of hard, daily toil….

After a few years Mr. Steen began to prosper. He has by industry and cautious business management enabled to purchase tract after tract of land, until his holdings now comprise seven hundred acres of very valuable land, well improved with fine barns and excellent silos….

Mr. and Mrs. Steen are eminent among the many honored pioneer citizens of Cass County.”

His stone house is part of “Woodside Farm”, located on the south fork of Grand River.

Source:  History of Cass and BatesCounty, 1918.