Historic Frizel-Welling House built in Jackson, Missouri over 180 years ago is still impressive

Frizel-Welling House in Jackson, Missouri.Photo bySkye Marthaler, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The historic two-and-a-half-story Frizel-Welling House is at 209 West Main Street in Jackson, Missouri (Cape Girardeau County). It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 25, 1999.

This house is also known as the Charles Welling House and Joseph Frizel House. The main portion of the house built in 1838 carries the architectural style of Greek Revival. This is an amazing home dating back to over 180 years ago, so imagine how impressive it was in that era.

The one-and-one-half story wing built in about 1818 was the original house portion. It was a version of a Cape Cod cottage with a kitchen in the rear. This house is important because of its early Greek Revival architecture in the main portion of the house of 1838.

Joseph Frizel

It had only been three years since Jackson, Missouri was laid out when the Cape Cod cottage was built by Joseph Frizel (1794-1823).

Frizel was a native of Maine. It's believed he built the cottage for his new wife, Sarah Bollinger (1799-1882). Sarah was the only daughter of Col. George Frederick Bollinger (1770-1842) who arrived in the area in 1796 or 1797 from North Carolina. The mill he built was significant in the development of Cape Girardeau County.

Originally, Frizel owned Lots 64 and 65. His holdings included the main house, slave quarters, a barn, outhouses, and wood sheds. He also had a pasture for livestock, gardens, and orchards. Through the years, parts of Lot 65 were sold. The outbuildings were razed and the orchards and gardens were removed. What was left was Lot 64.

Jackson was only a few miles inland from the Mississippi River. There was a federal land office in Jackson in which Frizel was employed. In 1818, a brief Masonic lodge was organized in Frizel's cottage by Frizel and Alexander Buckner. Buckner later became a United States Senator.

Known as Unity Lodge No. 6, it was likely the first Masonic lodge in the Cape Girardeau District. Frizel was also involved in politics and served as a judge in Cape Girardeau County from 1821 to 1823. He was an early state representative in 1822. As a merchant, Frizel operated a general store on Main Street from 1817 to 1823.

By 1821 when Frizel was in poor health, he sold their house to a man named Henry Von Pul. Frizel was hoping to get better while staying with the Bollingers along the Whitewater River. Two years later as he didn't improve, he died and was buried in the Bollinger family cemetery. Frizel was only 29.

Interior of the parlor in the Welling section of the house.Photo byHistoric American Buildings Survey, Creator, via Library of Congress.

Charles Welling

In 1838, Charles Welling incorporated the Frizel cottage into the main house portion. The house continued to be linked with the Bollinger family because Charles had married Joseph and Sarah Frizel's daughter, Elizabeth Bollinger Frizel (1820-1860), who was also George Bollinger's granddaughter.

Elizabeth was born in the 1818 cottage on January 31, 1820. The Bollinger name is also part of the history of southeastern Missouri. The city of Fredericktown and Bollinger County are named after George Frederick Bollinger.

George Bollinger settled near Burfordville which is where he built a water-powered grain mill on the Whitewater River. This was important in the early settlements because it's where the settlers would go or travel to so their corn and wheat could be grounded into meal and flour. (The Bollinger Mill was also listed on the National Register on May 27, 1971.)

In 1867 after a public school system was established, Welling was elected president of the first Board of Education. He also served as county treasurer from 1871-1884. By 1888, after he sold his general store, he became postmaster. He also served as a cashier at the Cape County Savings Bank which he helped to establish.

Before the Civil War, a few slaves were owned by the Welling family. According to family history, one or more slaves lived in the loft above the kitchen, which was not in use after the Civil War.

Welling ran a business on Main Street for close to 57 years. He experienced financial problems after the Civil War. His level of wealth was affected by extending credit to debtors. He had to close the store but eventually recovered.

Welling died on June 11, 1900.

Exterior of the Frizel-Welling house.Photo byHistoric American Buildings Survey, Creator via Library of Congress.

Joseph's wife, Sarah Bollinger Frizel

Sarah Bollinger Frizel remarried to Ralph Daugherty whose family came from Virginia. Sarah likely inherited some of her father's attributes too. In 1842, after her father, George Bollinger, died, she took over the operation of the Bollinger Mill.

Sarah ran the mill from 1843 until it was partly burned in the Civil War. It seems the Frizel-Welling House was spared. Sarah was also musically inclined and owned the first piano brought to Cape Girardeau County.

In 1908, this historic home was the first private residence to have electric lights in Jackson. This is because a renter at that time was an electrician hired by the city and volunteered to install lights in the house at his own expense. The owner of the house then was Mrs. Juliette Welling Granger (1859-1946) who was Charles Welling's daughter.

In 1926, Jackson's first public library was opened in the Frizel wing of the house. Juliette replaced the original front door with a more modern one with a window so she would know who was coming.

Welling was the founder of the Presbyterian Church in Jackson, with the house serving as the initial home for the church. In addition, the house served as the site of the first public library in Jackson. (Source.)

The home was in the same family for nine generations and was purchased in 2015 to preserve the second-oldest home in Jackson.

Once the restoration is completed, it will become a public museum. The extensive work has been performed by Legacy Preservation Enterprise.

When the owner of Legacy received the house, it included its contents which also included documents and artifacts going back to the 1800s. Amazing.

Thanks for reading.