THE HARRY CLUBB FARM
Located one and a quarter miles due north of North Pleasureville, Kentucky, on the Bethlehem pike, is the old Isaac Banta Farm now owned by Harry Clubb. This farm is a part of the Henderson – Squire Boone tract of land that was bought up by Low Dutch settlers that came into Kentucky from Pennsylvania.
One hundred and eighty-two acres of the Henderson – Squire Boone tract was acquired by Isaac Banta’s father. Isaac Banta was born in 1809. Their first pioneer home was built on a mound of land just above the present spring. This cabin was made of logs, had several rooms, and was completed several years before a new brick house was begun.
In addition to being farmers, the Bantas ran a tannery located in a slate rock building which is still standing beside the present feed barn. This tannery was completed in 1827 according to the date stone in the tannery wall, with the date are the initials P.D.B. It is believed these were Isaac Banta’s father’s initials. (P probably stood for Peter.) Adjacent to the tannery was a tanbark barn in which white oak bark was bruised, or cut, for us in tanning. The Bantas sold leather to itinerant cobblers for shoes, saddles, and harness. It has always been a mystery where the slate rock was obtained for the tanner walls since there is no slate rock on the farm or in the immediate neighborhood.
Several years later a large house, the present home, was begun. This house is one and one-half stories high and is made of handmade bricks kilned in a part of the present garden spot. The walls are thirteen inches in thickness. Much of the labor in building the house was done by slaves.
Yellow poplar grown on the Banta farm was carved by skilled labor for the woodwork. The white oak floors were laid in wide planks. Several of the rooms have tall hand carved mantles. In the right parlor are the tall ceiling-to-floor built-in closets on each side of the fireplace. All the woodwork was put together with wooden pegs and old iron hinges are used in the dining room. Some of the door knobs are solid brass.
In most of the rooms oak shakes, or lathes, are beneath the plaster. These shakes were hand rived with a frow. Most of the plaster is the same creek gravel, lime and hog hair plaster that was put on in 1835. Lime used was kilned and slaked on the place. Old fashioned square iron nails join the lathes to the joists.
Beneath the parlor is an old stone cellar. A servants’ kitchen was built adjacent to the main house. The present house was completed in 1835 and very few structural changes have been made. Work on the house was under the supervision of Griff Banta. In 1846 a kinsman of his, Grafton Banta, built the Joel Harrison Clubb home near Franklinton.
In front of the Banta farm along the highway was a limestone rock wall. This was removed by Harry Clubb to widen the highway. Set aside in the deed to the land is a plot for a family burying ground. Among the graves are members of the Banta family, and several members of the neighboring Pepper family.
In 1881 Joel Harrison Clubb bought the Isaac Banta farm and in 1882 his eldest son, Burlington Clubb, his wife Sarah, and their three sons, Clarence, Harry and Curt moved to this home. Harry Clubb, the second son, inherited the farm from his father.
As told by Harry Clubb to his daughter, Mary Isabelle Clubb Wood
August 28, 1948
This home was sold to J. C. Dowden, Jr. on June 2, 1954.
Half of one wall of the old tannery fell during a storm and had the building torn down in Spring of 1972.
Additional Note of Genealogical Interest: Isaac Banta’s wife, Cassandra, and Joel H. Clubb’s wife, Elizabeth Ann (Betsy) were sisters. Cassandra and Elizabeth were daughters of Abraham Ditto and his wife Martha Fore (Foree).