Bill Root’ s Family Home Model
river town of Vincennes, then in the middle of the wilderness.
The original house was one story, about 16 by 30 feet, and was built around 1790. Its rafters and floor joists are made of logs. Bill’ s great-grandfather built a two-story 24-by-32 addition onto the house in 1870.
Bill knows the dimensions well, since his model is a 1:12 ratio replica of the actual house. The house and all of its furnishings— from the grand piano to the rolltop desk and the cowboy boots at the foot of the bed— were built or carved by Bill. The detail is exquisite, down to the portrait of Abraham Lincoln on one of the walls.
Bill conservatively estimates he has 500 hours in the project, which includes 11,000 hand-cut cedar shingles on the roof( which, he notes, if stacked end to end, would reach almost to the top of the Eiffel Tower). Patience and discipline, he said, were the keys to building the model, which includes cedar, poplar, walnut, cherry, oak, pine, and other woods.
A Brown County resident since 1981, Bill has been a woodworker all his life, dating back to the wooden toys he made for his brothers and himself as a child, through sculptures of carousel horses which won acclaim in recent years, to the scale model of his childhood home. The model recently won first place in the professional woodcarver’ s division of the 2016 Indiana State Fair. He
also works in clay and does pen and ink drawings, and works construction.
He says the model was not built for competition, but began as a demonstration project. The outside of the home is a 95-pecent accurate replica of the house, with some frills added, but Bill admits there is some“ artistic interpretation” in the furnishings inside, made to represent life in the 1870s.
The excitement of the 1870s, and its simpler lifestyle, appeals to Bill. He longs to see the huge walnut and oak trees— some with a six-foot diameter— which graced the land before clearcutting.
“ Every farm had a catfish pond, beehives, apple orchards,” he said.“ It was a‘ Charlotte’ s Web’-type atmosphere.”
“ If I could take my dentist, I’ d go back there in a heartbeat,” he said.“ But I wouldn’ t want somebody to take my teeth with a pair of pliers.” photo by Bob Gustin
Alice Lorenz, treasurer of the Brown County Historical Society, says the model is one of the center’ s popular attractions.
“ Everybody is fascinated to look inside and see the detail and craftsmanship,” she said.“ It’ s such a remarkable piece of artwork.”
Work on the house began three years ago while Bill was demonstrating woodworking at Pioneer Village, and continued at the Indiana State Fair and during his spare time at home.
“ I always wanted to build a model of the house so my cousins and others could see what it looked like in the 1800s,” he said.
The pioneer Roots knew William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States and former governor of the Indiana Territory. One of the Root family stories tells of a time Harrison had breakfast with them.
The Brown County History Center is located at 90 E. Gould St., downhill from the Brown County Public Library. It is open 11 a. m.– 4 p. m. Thursday through Sunday most of the year, but on Tuesdays and Fridays during winter months. Group tours by reservation are available at other times.
For more information, call( 812) 988-2899. •
Nov./ Dec. 2016 • Our Brown County 21