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(GHOST HOUSE--NO LONGER IN EXISTENCE) This old house is often referred to as the old Martin Van Buren home. Others refer to it as the old Winchester home. To each of these claims, it has been impossible to run down the real builder but the land on which the house is built belonged to the Dial estate. David Dial, born 1787 and died 1846, was one of the first settlers to come out of Tennessee and take roots in this part of Illinois. Later, one of his sons, a William Dial. born February 22, 1811, in the County of Jackson, Tennessee acquired land in the Six Mile Township of Franklin County ,Illinois on which that house was built. It is possible that this is the Dial that built the bouse. William Dial died in the year 1875. Mrs. Julia Browning born in 1898, has stated that the log house was built around the Martin Van Buren house by Dial, a son of William Dial, and Mrs. Browning also stated that to the best of her knowledge, Martin Van Buren built the bouse. Although this house is often referred to as the old ghost house, many families in and around Royalton, Illinois can remember some of the good times their folks had while they lived there. The old house is located in the SE 1/4 of the SE 1/4 of Section 21, township 7 South Range 1 East of the Six Mile Township in Franklin County, Illinois. It is located Dear the Dial Cemetery on the road between Zeigler and Royalton, Illinois. Martin VanBuren Dial and his wife Margaret are buried in this cemetery. A picture was taken by Lyle O. Smith of Zeigler, Illinois and has taken several awards including first prize at the DuQuoin State Fair and first prize at a picture display at Dalgren, Illinois. Several people have bought the picture to use it as a model for a painted picture. At present Mr. Smith had sold over 140 of these pictures so the sentimental value of the old house is great regardless of who built it. It is so greatly involved in the early history of the Six-Mile Township and its' settling by the early pioneers from Tennessee. This old house is one of the last remaining houses built by these early settlers, the rest have been torn down and replaced with modern homes. Lyle O. Smith |
