Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. 4 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1953.
From the record
“There is one black page in the history of the town that all good citizens of Eaton regret. On the evening of December 7, 1886, a man named William Mussle, a ne'er-do-well, was given a night's lodging by Daniel Christman, a well-to-do farmer some two miles northwest of Eaton.”
History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions (1915). Machine-read text.
One of 18 National Register listings published here for Preble County · listed in 1982 · category: Building.
National Register reference number.82001486- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
In the earlier days there were quite a number of country churches scattered over the county, of which but few survive. As the roads improved and methods of travel became speedier, the church, people gravitated to the village churches. Within Washington township there yet exist three country churches. Zion Evangelical Lutheran church, some four miles north of Eaton, on the North road, was founded in 1819, by Rev. Lewis Morgan, the first house of worship being a log cabin church, though the services often were held in private houses, and, when the weather permitted, were held in a barn.
The Sherer cemetery, in section 7, and Bonebrake cemetery, in sections 17 and 20, are now township cemeteries, but are little used except by the descendants of some of the pioneers who are buried therein. The Halderman cemetery, in the south half of section 11, township 7, range 2 east, just east of the Eaton and Hamilton pike, was begun by the settlers at an early day, and in it are found some very fine works of the monument builder, but, being regarded as a family cemetery, it is now but little used.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 971 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Daniel Christman Homestead between 1876 and 1974: 901 Animalia, 44 Fungi, 26 Plantae.
12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A.R. Gaufin, H.H. Ross, Arden R. Gaufin, B. Fink and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Eaton, the town this property stands in, in 75 storm reports between 1994 and 2023: 43 thunderstorm wind, 19 hail, 10 flash flood, 2 flood.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Fifteen or more large trees were knocked down near Eaton High School. An equipment trailer and a marching band tower were blown over by high wind, and there was damage to fencing at the athletic complex. Also, shingle damage occurred to roofs along Hillcrest Drive from wind and hail.
A two story 100 foot by 100 foot barn was destroyed. A camper was blown into the road near the intersection of US Route 35 and Wayne Trace Road just east of Eaton.
5 papers published in this town,
digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be
looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.
United States Geological Survey topographic
sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then
testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
entry hall has a winding staircase of cherry.The floors are six-inch poplar boards throughout altered with the addition of two windows in the 1940s).The windows are six over six with shown on early pictures have been removed.) An addition to the right rear seems to be quite early.The brick appears to be of the The Daniel Christman House is a Greek Revival dwelling of brick with a entrance porch which has been removed.) There are five bays on the front (south) side and same origin as that used for the front section of the house. -There are two bays on both the east and the west parts of this addition, with an insert' porch on the east side. (The' A brick smokehouse in excellent' condition is behind the house.
Its form--brick with cantilevered frame roof--is a classic smokehouse design, and its interior features include cate that cornice boards may have originally been attached just below the eaves.) The deteriorated unaltered two on the west side of the original rectangular section of the house.(The east side was altered.The yellow poplar painted trim is complete and of very high quality.The main with a brick fireplace still kitchen has been incorporated into a garage.) The gabled roof is standing seam metal with plain boxed eaves.(Marks on the walls indi- 8.
Statement of significance
(in one paragraph) The homestead remained in its original condition well into the twentieth century. The _economics Areas of Significance-Check and justify below with the erection of the house in1856and the barn in 1857.Christman prospered during the - archeology-prehistoric _ religion from the federal government by Daniel Christman's father in 1812. Daniel, who was born in the county, acquired the homestead in 1848. He developed the farm into its present state night. The murderer was later lynched by a mob in the nearby town of Eaton.) Builder/Architect Unknown Civil War and was able to add 160 acres to the original homestead in 1872.
(He lived until community planning landscape architecture present owners are working to preserve the homestead as much as possible in its nineteenth- a significant segment of the agricultural history of Preble County and southwestern Ohio. top fifteen counties.in the state in corn production.Tobacco and wheat were also important Specific dates 1856-1857 in southwestern Ohio.The southwestern section of the state emerged early asa key crop- 9.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 82001486, 12 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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