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"We found this when we tore away the more recent layers of the wall put up over the years," Gillespie said, his voice racing with excitement. "Now, we have no absolute proof of this, but we think we know who drew this."
The physician pointed to a signature floating over the ship; the large, cursive letters nearly faded to nothing.
"M-O-S-E-S A-U-S-T-I-N," Gillespie spelled as his index finger traced the air above to letters.
"We looked back at all the house’s previous owners and their families," he said.
"No one had the initials ‘M. A.’ You can imagine an 8 or 9-year-old boy drawing on the walls."
The chalk drawing is only one of many treasures William and Susan Gillespie found when they renovated the Elias Austin House -- the house where the Lone Star State was born -- five years ago.
The couple bought the house in 1998, after its former owner, Elizabeth Masfield, died at the age of 92.
"Buying and renovating this house seemed like a cool way of closing the loop for us," Gillespie said as his voice switched between a Texan and Yankee accent"We love the house’s history and taking care of its legacy."
William met Susan, a Durham native, while attending Wesleyan University as an undergraduate.
The two migrated south and eventually moved to Texas where he finished his medical degree at the University of Texas in San Antonio and practiced as a physician from 1982 to 1998.
"My youngest child and my oldest dog are Texans," he said. "Who better than a family from Texas to move into the house Moses Austin grew up in?"
For more than a year, William and Susan tore up walls and floors and hunted antique stores in an effort to uncover and restore as much of the house Elias Austin built in 1745.
They removed a Victorian era front porch, rebuilt the original staircases, replaced the Victorian windows with the eight-over-12 sash windows of the 1700s and reinstalled the original wide board floors.
The house’s 19th and 20th century additions at the rear were also removed and replaced.
The family even connected the Austin’s old barn to the house and turned the building into a master bedroom.
As William and Susan peered past the centuries-old accumulation of plaster and flooring into the house’s post and beam skeleton, they discovered artifacts of the Austin family’s life.
Elias Austin, born in Suffield, Mass., moved to Durham in 1743 where he married his sweetheart, Eunice Phelps, and built his house two years later.
"Originally, the house’s front section didn’t exist," Gillespie said. "The first house was skinny and three stories tall."
He said the original house’s first floor only had room for a storage area, pantry and kitchen. The upstairs served as the bedroom for Elias and Eunice and a barracks-like area for their nine children.
The house’s front door actually faced west toward the rolling hills the family owned, which once stretched down to Maple Avenue.
While clearing out the attic, Gillespie discovered piles of dried up corn cobs, berries and leaves the Austin family and other owners used to insulate the house.
"When we were pulling out a wall in the back of the house, we found these old children’s shoes hidden inside," he said.
The Gillespie family kept two of the children’s shoes, blackened and withered by age, in a glass case in their living room.
"They’re concealment shoes," he said. "During the 1700s and 1800s, families used to put their children’s shoes inside of the walls of their homes for good luck and to ward off evil spirits."
In 1765, Elias Austin built an addition on the side of the house facing Main Street, and switched careers from farmer and tailor to tavern owner.
"He wanted to take advantage of the traffic going up and down the highway," Gillespie said. "The old post road was the major route between New Haven and Hartford."
Born in 1761, Moses Austin was the youngest of Elias and Eunice’s offspring.
"The Austin children probably worked in the tavern with their father," Gillespie said.
Of course, Moses Austin was not destined to follow in his father’s footsteps. He became a successful businessman, first in dry goods in Middletown and later in the lead mining business in the South and Midwest.
"He was so successful with mining, that there was even a book written about him called, ‘The Lead King,’" Gillespie said.
When his lead mining business failed, Moses sought permission from the Spanish government in Texas to start an Anglo colony there. The Spanish granted him permission to start the colony in 1820, but, like his namesake, Moses did not make it to the land of his goal.
"Moses got everything set, but when he got back to Missouri to pick up his family, he died," Gillespie said. "The legend goes that on his deathbed he asked his son, Stephen F. Austin, to complete his plan for a colony in Texas.
"Well, Stephen was true to his word and the rest is history," he said.
Stephen settled 300 families at what is now know as Austin, Texas, becoming known as the "Father of Texas."
Gillespie said many Texans have no idea that their state had its genesis in Durham, Conn.
"A lot of my friends in Texas struggle with the concept that a Yankee started the whole enterprise," he said. "Still, every once in a while a car pulls up with a Texas license plate and the driver asks to see the house and have their photo taken in front of it.
"We love that," Gillespie said.
To contact John Christie, call (860) 347-3331 ext. 220 or e-mail jchristie@middletownpress.com.
