House at 926 N. Washington Street

The house at 926 N. Washington Street stands on land with a documented title history reaching back to the nineteenth century. A historic abstract of title, found in the house and preserved in a private research collection, traces transactions involving the Osburn, Mosher, and Pierpont families. A recent Shiawassee County parcel report helps connect those older, broader land holdings to the modern property, identified as Lots 2 and 3, Block 1, Osburn's Subdivision. The two-lot parcel is approximately 0.46 acre according to the county's 2026 GIS record.^[1][2]

This is a history of the land and its recorded title, as well as a starting point for the history of the house itself. A deed can identify an owner without establishing who lived there, and the surviving title documents do not establish when the present dwelling was built.

From Kelley's Addition to Osburn's Subdivision

The old abstract describes part of Osburn's Subdivision of Out Lots 14 and 15 of Jennett H. Kelley's Addition to Owosso. County GIS records abbreviate the name as “Jennett H. Kellys Add.” These descriptions place the property within a sequence of additions and subdivisions as Owosso's residential streets developed. The original abstract initially covered Lots 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7, not just today's two-lot parcel.^[1][2]

An Osburn-family quitclaim transaction recorded April 10, 1893 included Lots 2 and 3 among a larger tract. The abstract cites Liber 78, page 521 and lists a consideration of $1,400. Later entries describe probate matters and transfers involving the Osburn family in 1917. Because the early records encompass multiple lots, these transactions should not be mistaken for sales of an already existing house at 926 N. Washington.^[1]

On September 22, 1919, Anne O. Laughlin, formerly Baxter, conveyed several lots to Edwin W. Mosher by warranty deed. The abstract records a consideration of $1,450, and cites Liber 155, page 518 for the deed recorded October 6, 1919. This, too, was a larger holding containing the two lots associated with the present property.^[1]

Warren and Bertha Pierpont acquire the land

The property enters the Pierpont title history through a September 28, 1920 warranty deed from Edwin W. Mosher to Warren Pierpont and Bertha H. Pierpont, husband and wife. The deed embraced several lots—Lots 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6, plus the north ten feet of Lot 7—and the abstract notes that the buyers assumed sidewalk taxes. It was recorded the following day as Liber 164, page 278.^[1]

A second instrument from May 20, 1933, executed by Edwin W. and Nellie Mosher to Warren and Bertha Pierpont, corrected an omission in the 1920 legal description: the original deed had left out the block number. The abstract identifies this as a corrective quitclaim deed (Liber 199, page 287), not necessarily another purchase. That distinction matters when reconstructing a chain of title from old records.^[1]

The abstract also records that Warren Pierpont died December 10, 1943; his death certificate was entered in county land records in September 1948. On September 16, 1948, the county abstracter recertified the title with an especially useful handwritten restriction: “RENEWED ON LOTS 2 and 3 ONLY.” That notation ties the later examination more closely to the exact lots associated with the present-day parcel. It does not, by itself, show when the larger holding was divided or when a house was built.^[1]

The later Pierpont and Cline years

A photographed continuation of the title abstract reports April 1951 transactions involving Arthur E. Pierpont and Neva B. Pierpont, using an intermediary, Theresa M. Prendergast, in arrangements described as survivorship-related deeds. This is a useful lead for the property's midcentury history, although the underlying recorded deeds still need to be compared against the abstract's wording before the legal arrangement can be described more definitively.^[3]

On September 11, 1967, Neva B. Pierpont conveyed Lots 2 and 3 to James B. and Marjorie J. Cline. Both the continuation abstract and the county's later GIS transaction history identify this transfer. The abstract also notes an $18,000 mortgage executed by the Clines with Owosso Savings Bank on September 18, 1967. That mortgage amount is not evidence of the house's purchase price.^[3][2]

The GIS records contain a 2011 death-certificate-related entry involving James Beswick Cline and Marjorie J. Cline. That entry is a land-record event; it should not be treated as independent proof of a specific death date. A warranty deed dated September 27, 2013 then records Marjorie J. Cline's transfer of the property to Howard F. and Elizabeth A. Galloway. The records suggest a long period of Cline ownership, but they do not establish who occupied the residence during every year of that period.^[2]

The house and a question about its age

The home has been described in earlier property research as dating to around 1926, but that remains a working estimate rather than a verified construction date. Neither the historic abstract nor the 2026 county GIS parcel report establishes the building year, identifies an original architect or builder, or proves that the Pierpont family constructed or occupied the house. City assessment cards, older maps, building permits if preserved, newspapers, and address-based city directories may help resolve those questions.^[1][2]

A photograph dated July 2022, reproduced with contributor permission above, shows a light-colored house with green shutters, a columned entrance and a brick chimney. These are visible architectural features, not sufficient evidence of a precise construction year or a documented architectural attribution.

Documents discovered inside the house

The title abstract is unusually useful because it preserves a connected record of early transfers, dates, deed-book references, corrections and later certifications. Its original scanned pages are being retained in a private archive so the handwritten portions can be checked against recorded deeds. The scan set is incomplete, and the title document should not be used as a current title opinion.^[1]

Other material found at the property includes a title page bearing the name Arthur E. Pierpont for a paper titled The Legal Issues Involved in the Struggle Between Henry II and Thomas Becket. The cover also reads “History III” and “Professor Cross.” The author's identity, the school, the paper's date, and its connection to the Arthur E. Pierpont named in the land records remain unverified. Its discovery is an intriguing research lead, not proof of residence.^[4]

The 2026 historic home tour

In 2026, the house appeared in Owosso's historic home tour materials as the “Schlaak Home.” The official tour listing ↗ documents that public-history appearance. It is not a record of past occupants or an indication of ongoing public access.^[5]

See Owosso's historic home tour homes for other featured properties.

What remains to be established

The paper trail now connects a nineteenth-century subdivision with twentieth-century Pierpont ownership, the 1967 transfer to the Clines and the property's later history. Still to be verified are the construction year, first builder and occupants, the circumstances of the 1951 Pierpont deeds, the date Lots 2 and 3 became a distinct holding, and the identity of the author of the Pierpont academic paper. The original county deed and plat records, not just summaries in the abstract, are the next sources to consult.^[1][3][2]