The John Stark Edwards House

After John Stark Edwards constructed the house in 1807 and the addition in 1809, he and Louisa Maria Morris raised their three children, Pierpont, Lewis Morris, and William, in the growing town of Warren. Edwards was one of the first lawyers in the Western Reserve and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in in 1812. In 1813, Edwards fell ill while traveling to survey family holdings near Put-In-Bay. He was not able to recover from the sickness and died during the journey home. A year later, his sons Pierpont and Lewis Morris also passed away. William was the only son who survived into adulthood.

Following her husband’s death in 1813, Louisa Maria Morris remarried to a man named Robert Montgomery in 1814. After her remarriage, she sold the Edwards house to Thomas Denny Webb. The legacy of the Edwards house continued with Webb and his wife Betsey Stanton. Webb started the first newspaper press of the Western Reserve in a neighboring building. He named the newspaper the Trump of Fame. The Trump of Fame is the predecessor of Warren’s current newspaper: Tribune Chronicle. They also raised their three daughters in the home: Adaline, Laura, and Elizabeth. Unfortunately, Elizabeth passed away at the age of ten. Adaline demonstrated conditions of intellectual disability or mental illness. Throughout her life, she remained at the Edwards house and remained close with her mother Betsey.

When Webb’s daughter, Laura, married Dr. Warren T. Iddings, the Iddings family inherited the Edwards house. They added their own stories to the house’s history and raised six children on the property. As a pioneer of the medical field, Dr. Iddings was one of the first doctors to practice embalming. Their son, William T. Iddings, inherited the house and was one of the last to live in the home.

In 1938, the Trumbull County Historical Society was given the Edwards house. The house has been at its current location since 1986 and serves as the Trumbull County Museum with exhibits representing history of Warren and Trumbull County. From the house’s original owners establishing themselves as pioneers of the Western Reserve to the house’s current use for education, interpretation, and preservation of Trumbull County’s history, the Edwards house has served as a location for family, innovation, and the recognition of local history. 

History of Trumbull and Mahoning Counties. Cleveland, OH. H. Z. Williams & Bro., 1882.

Mathews, Alfred. Ohio and her Western Reserve, with a story of three states, leading to the latter, from Connecticut, by way of Wyoming, its Indian wars and massacre. New York, NY. D. Appleton and Co., 1902.

The Historical Magazine, and Notes and Queries concerning the Antiquities, History and Biography of America. Edited by John Ward Dean, George Folsom, John Gilmary Shea, Henry Reed Stiles, and Henry Barton Dawson. New York, NY. Charles B. Richardson, 1859.