Forbis-Venn House
(ca. 1878)
One of Mint Hill’s most enduring post-Civil War structures, the Forbis-Venn House was home for three generations of the Richard Forbis family.
5607 Matthews-Mint Hill Road, Mint Hill, NC 28227
Richard Calvin Forbis, a Civil War veteran who was wounded twice during his tour of duty, returned to Mecklenburg County following the war with his second wife Jennie McCombs Forbis to become a farmer. Around 1878, with the help of neighboring friends, Forbis built this two-story house on family land using oak trees harvested from the property and repurposed logs. The structure’s extended I-house formation, along with its braced frame, cross gable dormers joined with hewn-and-pegged wooden joints, and L-shaped porch, is a notable example of the vernacular folk architectural style that characterized much of Mecklenburg County’s rural areas during the postbellum period. The home housed three generations of the Forbis family until 1978 and remains as one of Mint Hill’s most intact postwar dwellings.
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In 1870, the Forbis farm was a humble operation, consisting of only thirty acres, on which the family raised winter wheat, Indian corn, and Irish potatoes, as well as a mule, six hogs, and some cattle. That diversification served the family well. Within ten years, Forbis owned 263 acres, including seventy tilled acres and 170 acres of woodlands that he worked with the assistance of an unknown number of hired African American farm laborers. In 1879, Forbis paid his workers approximately $44 for their labor over forty-five weeks. Like many area farmers, he placed a strong emphasis on cultivating corn and cotton. However, the farm continued to model self-sufficiency by raising oats, wheat, Irish and sweet potatoes as well as some orchard produce. Their livestock operation also increased, boasting two milk cows, six sheep for wool, eleven hogs, and 125 chickens that produced some 200 dozen eggs in 1879.
Upon Richard’s death in 1926, the house and farm passed to his son and daughter-in-law Henry Baxter and Maude Allen Forbis. Henry worked for Cole Manufacturing Company while he continued to operate the farm, raising corn, cotton, strawberries, and other garden produce, as well as hogs and chickens. Henry died at age 81 in the same downstairs bedroom where he was born. The house passed to his son Richard and his wife Linda Williams Ross. Henry’s other children received lots near the house. Subsequent owners of the house have worked to restore much of the Forbis-Venn House to its original condition.