Former Owners

1. Charles Hibbard purchased seven acres from Christopher Sponable and started to build the house around 1846. It was finished and occupied in 1847. Charles was born in Rochester, New York, in 1816. He moved to Marengo in 1838 from Charleston, South Carolina. He was one of the first storekeepers, going into a wholesale hardware firm of Hibbard, Spencer and Bartlett. He was an experienced horticulturist, preferring fruit trees, and had an excellent reputation for his produce. In 1843 he married Jane Marie (Jenny/Jane/Jain) Osborne. They had six children During the Civil War, it is thought that the Hibbard house was used as a safe stop for runaway slaves. If it was safe for them to stop for food and lodging, a light would be hung in the window of the cupola.

An underground room was located in the yard with a secret entrance near the front porch. Charles died in Lawson, Missouri in 1872.

2. J. M. (Joseph) Dietz and his wife owned the home from 1874 to 1896. Born in 1817, Joseph M. Dietz was the son of William and Martha (Maguire) Dietz of Oneonta, New York. He married Caroline Sponable, the first white child to be born in Seneca Township, and daughter of William Sponable. Joseph ran a machine shop in Marengo around 1877.

3. A. H. (C. H. or A. L.) Hale owned the house from 1896 to 1950.

4. Jane Stanford owned the home from 1950 to 1955. Daughter of George and Sarah Stanford, Jane taught in the Marengo schools for ten years and 12 in the Woodstock area. She became very well known as an educator in primary work and was called upon to demonstrate her methods. She was a charter member of the Marengo Women's Club in 1895.

5. Mr. and Mrs. Francis (Mary) Muzzy owned the home from 1956 to 1980. Jane Stanford's niece, Mary Stanford Muzzy (daughter of Charles Stanford, Jane's brother) and her husband purchased the home from her aunt's estate.

6. Mary S. Muzzy Neal has owned the home since 1980.

This house is an exact replica of C. H. Hibbards childhood home. It has 14 rooms and was reported to cost around $16,000 to build in 1846. The octagonal shaped cupola which tops the house gives the home its name--the Cupola House--as well as provided ventilation and supposedly a lookout during the Civil War. The upstairs contains six bedrooms, a long hall, back staircase and a bath. The first floor has two back bedrooms, believed to have been used for servants quarters