Act of 1873; it is not known whether Prescott had built a dwelling on the parcel. The blocks for the house were cut from bluestem sod, probably obtained from a site very close to the house. The grass was mown to a height of 1/4 inch (); the blocks were then cut with a grasshopper plow, to dimensions of about long by wide by thick. Blocks were laid with the grass side down, in a one-course common bond; the walls were battered, measuring thick at ground level and thick at the top. The plan of the house was L-shaped, with stems projecting to the east and to the south. It occupied a rectangle measuring 29 feet by 31 feet 3 inches ( by ); each stem of the L was approximately wide. The single-story house was topped with a steeply-pitched wood-shingled hip roof. The interior was divided by wood partition walls into three rooms. A small bedroom occupied the northwest corner, at the angle of the L. The eastward projection contained a large kitchen and hall; the southward projection, a somewhat smaller parlor and dining room. A steep stairway led up to an unfinished attic. The floors were packed dirt; the ceiling was muslin tacked beneath boards. The interior of the sod walls was plastered with a mixture of clay, straw, and hog hair. Two east-facing doors led into the house. One, at the end of the eastern projection of the L, led into the kitchen-hall. A second, on the east side of the southern projection, led from the space enclosed by the arms of the L into the parlor-dining room. Two windows faced northward: one from the kitchen-hall, one from the bedroom. Two more faced southward: one from the kitchen-hall and one from the parlor-dining room. A single window faced eastward from the kitchen-hall. Windows were flush with the exterior walls of the house. The window wells were beveled, widening toward the interior of the house; this admitted more light to the house. The configuration of the west wall is not known, since the wall was removed in 1924. Living in the house William and Florence Dowse raised five sons, born between 1905 and 1919: Harold, William Jr., Philip, Curtis, and Kermit. After occupying a crib in his parents' bedroom, each son moved up to the attic room, where they slept on straw ticks. As the family expanded, the