John Smith 
General Notes
His surname was Smythe according to some sources. This, however, was the surname of his wife, Isabella Smythe according to what seem to be more reliable sources.
Letter about John Smith's house from current owner of the property (see multimedia for photos and a scale map of the property.)
Letter from:
Yvan Keller
117 Good Hope Road
Landenberg,PA 19350-9621
Dear Mrs. Smith:
As promised a while ago I dug through my old slides and found a
picture of the house my wife and myself bought at the end of
1968.
The two pictures were taken at the end of 1968. The one picture
shows the house as seen from the driveway. The other one is a
close up.
We can give you a few explanations about this house:
The left part of the house i.e. the part of the house which is
directly behind the covered porch was most probably the first
house built on the property and it was a small log house. Later
on the right part of the house was added and was made out of
stones. When we bought it the stone part of the house had a wood
floor laid directly on dirt. In the process of excavating to
make a sitting pit we found a dry pit filled with rubbish which
did not reveal anything of interest. This stone part was
probably added ca. 1850 since we found some news papers of the
1850's which had been used to seal off the frame of the backdoor
of the log house.
The addition of the stone part seems to have been a major change
since wood frame work was set on top of the log cabin to be able
to join the two parts with a common level roof as you see in the
picture.
I should add that the log cabin part had a small basement which
had in one corner a small sealed off fire place which was
probably used during the first winter before the log cabin was
completely finished.
The log part of the house has since been replaced. The stone
part is still here.
I believe that all the researach you mention in your letter is
correct. The house on the picture is at the end of the triangular
piece of land we bought in 1968. This land corresponds to the
survey made in 1798 when your ancestor bought it.
I hope I have filled in some of the questoins you had. That's
all for now.
Sincerely yours,
Y. Keller
