The original Cooper farm house.

    Originally this house was built at the foot of a low hill on the north-west quarter of section 11, Township 6, Range 3 West of the 2nd Meridian.  
(This hill, because it was one of the first places for the new grass to appear in the spring, gave the name to the first school district.  The Green Hill School District, #497 was formed, with the first log school house built only a few hundred metres away, on the north side of the section, near the municipal road and adjacent to the lane that led to the Cooper farmhouse).
    It was a well constructed house, but it was poorly located.   There was not a suitable water supply near the location, so one of the first tasks of the new owner was to locate a more suitable farm yard site.
    Charles wanted to locate his buildings as near to the centre of the section as possible.  He worked the land with horses, and being close to each field would be a time saving feature. 
    Ed Whitman discovered a well near a suitable location by "witching " with a forked willow stick.  In her own handwriting I have that description written by my aunt Isabel (Wallace) Cook.  She was about 15 years old when the well was dug.  A hole about 8 feet square was dug at the site where Mr. Whitman said they would find good water, and down about 8 feet they uncovered a spring.  The well has never been dry since.  It was (and still is) an excellent source of water for livestock and humans.  Neighbours are known to come to this well for drinking water for nearly 100 years now, because it is of such high quality.

In 1915 the house was lifted from its foundation and moved to a nice little hill not far from the well.    The house had begun as a single story, but later had the roof raised and 4 more bedrooms added.  Evidence of the addition may be seen in the location of the window on the west side of the house.  A stairway to the second story was built so that the existing window was to be partly covered by the steps.  The bottom half of the window is under the landing where the stairs make a turn to go up to the centre of the second floor.
There was an addition to the north side of the house (the door on the left in the picture above) which added a large kitchen on that side.   Thus both the barn and house were in a good location with drainage from the buildings  in all directions.  
    Grandma told us that she remained inside the house, baking bread, as it made its journey to the new foundation.  She said that the house was not lowered to the foundation for three days, as Charles waited for a clear night so he could line it up with the North Star, so he would always be "square with the world."
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