George Tromley Sr. House

806 N. Cody Rd.
http://www.visitleclaire.com/pilothomes.html

Acreage: less than one Physical Description: House was built in two sections, the first, according to local tradition, c. 1840, although a mid-century date is more likely. The house is two stories, with a low-pitched hipped roof. The older section is constructed of brick, now painted white, The three-bay front has main entrance to the left, sheltered by a small gable-roofed porch on square posts which is probably a rather late addition. Windows have lintels with nearly flat pediments. The later section is of frame construction, with windows set in flat enframements topped with narrow cornices . In the angle formed b the two sections (south side) is a one-story porch with pent roof, supported on slender turned posts. On the south side of the older section is a two-story rectangular bay, a small pent roof separating the stories. A similar bay, though polygonal, is found on the southeast corner of the later section. Significance: George Tromley Sr. began his career on the floating log rafts common before the Civil War. After the war, Tromley and a local engineer, Thomas Doughty, took the small steamer "LeClaire" upriver, to conduct an experiment involving the use of a steamboat to push a log raft. Although the " Le Claire" was not powerful enough to control the raft, this venture set an example for Samuel Van Sant, who in 1870 built a boat sufficiently large and powerful to "tow" a log raft. The Doughty/Tromley experiment was thus a precursor of a major development in the transportation of logs from the northern forests to the mills.