Fire destroys century-old Hoover’s Valley house

By CHRIS PORTER • Daily Tribune Staff

HOOVER’S VALLEY - Lou Adah Wells sat on the tailgate of a pickup and watched as more than a dozen firefighters battled the blaze that destroyed a 107-year-old farmhouse on her family’s ranch.

“We’re just glad no one was hurt,” she said matter-of-factly. “It’s a blessing.”

Flames still licked what remained of the wooden home’s roof as a third tanker truck pulled up late Thursday night.

Firefighters were called to Bluff View Ranch in the 7200 block of Park Road 4 around 7:05 p.m., where flames had already engulfed the one-story, three-bedroom home. Fire crews from Hoover’s Valley, Granite Shoals, Burnet and Cassie responded, according to Hoover Valley Volunteer Fire Department Chief Carl Ginsburg.

Witnesses said the blaze started near the rear of the house, where trash was burning in a barrel. However, the cause of the fire is under investigation.

“I looked up, and my house was on fire,” said Jason Toner, a Burnet High School sophomore who lived in the house with his father Curtis, the ranch foreman. He was in a nearby field laying sod when the blaze started. He immediately called 9-1-1, then ran toward the burning building.

“I ran over to the house, and I saw the fire coming from the kitchen. It was so hot, the aluminum door to the kitchen was melting.”

Toner was able to get his two pets, 8-year-old dachshund Tack and a young cat named C.C., out of the house. He also had to push a pair of cars away from the burning structure. Toner’s father wasn’t home at the time of the fire, he said.

Fire crews arrived minutes later.

“We could see the smoke rising from the fire hall,” said Ginsburg, who lives next door to the ranch.

Firefighters were on the scene for about 2 1/2 hours, using rakes to uncover and douse smoldering remains, Ginsburg said.

“It’s a total loss,” he said. “The whole structure will probably be pulled down before we’re through.”

The house was a fixture on the ranch, which has been owned by the Norris family since 1870.

“This house was built in 1900 by a man named Oscar Norris,” Wells said. “He built it for his bride, Adah Haynes.”

The original building was built of available wood and featured a faux finish to give the appearance of brick facing, Toner said.

“It was actually built so that the outside wouldn’t catch on fire first,” he said.

Wells said the ranch property was originally purchased by Norris’ father from the Rev. Issac Hoover, a Methodist minister and founder of Hoover’s Valley in the 1850s. In those days, the community consisted of Hoover’s 640-acre ranch, several scattered homes, a cemetery, and a church building that doubled as a schoolhouse.

Wells’ mother was born in the house in 1902 and her brother in 1918, around the time the Hoover’s Valley school boasted 60 students. Norris family members have lived continually on the ranch more more than 130 years.

The house was first located at the base of a nearby hill, but Wells said Norris, her grandfather, later moved his home several hundred yards to the south to take advantage of several shade trees.

“When Papaw was finished working in the fields, he was just burning up,” she said. “So, he put the house on cedar log rollers, and moved it down the hill.”

After the relocation, Wells’ uncle added a portion of a different house onto the Norris residence when he moved in several years later, forming what Wells called “a combination of two buildings.”

Toner and his father worked about 90 head of cattle on the 400-acre ranch, and Wells and her brother still live on the family property.

Ginsburg said the family’s insurance adjusters will likely order an investigation of the blaze, but said he wasn’t sure of the cause Thursday night. He also thanked assisting fire crews from the Granite Shoals Fire Department, the Burnet Volunteer Fire Department and the Cassie Volunteer Fire Department.

While no one was harmed in the fire, Toner said his family’s future has been cast into uncertainty.

“I don’t know where we’re staying tonight,” he said, as firefighters sprayed more water on the remains of his bedroom. “I think we might stay with my sister over in Granite Shoals, but I don’t know yet.”

chris@thepicayune.com

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Fire destroys century-old
Hoover’s Valley house