Menifee history: Remnants of the Pratt-Guthrie house remain

By Bill Zimmerman, Menifee Valley Historical Association

Passersby with a keen eye may have noticed the foundation of what is sometimes referred to as “the Guthrie house”, a board and batten structure that once stood on the northeast corner of Scott and Antelope roads. The farmhouse, constructed before the turn of century, was home to the Robert Penn Guthrie family.

A little research in our Historical Association’s files uncovered the story of the Guthrie family and property.

Robert Penn Guthrie’s father was Robert Milton Guthrie, born in 1830. When he was 22 years old, Robert Milton Guthrie left Missouri and served as a scout for a wagon train headed for Oregon. While on the trail, he met 21-year-old Mary Harris, who was traveling in a covered wagon with her parents. The wagon train arrived in Oregon in 1852. The following spring, Robert and Mary were married and headed south to California to raise their family, eventually making their way to the Menifee Valley around 1885.

One of their many children was Robert Penn Guthrie, born in 1867. When Robert Penn was 25, he married Josephine Clogston. The younger Guthrie family began farm life on the 160-acre property originally homesteaded by William Pratt on Menifee’s southwest quarter of Section 14. Records also show that Josephine served as the teacher at the nearby one-room Antelope School.

Robert and Josephine Guthrie eventually sold the house and property to their neighbor William Brown, who owned the 160-acre farm just north of his on Garbani Road. A hand-written agreement dated 1907 indicates that the sale price was $3,000.

The Historical Association has a photo (above) of the farmhouse that was taken in 1911, a few years after the sale. In the photo, members of the Brown family are on the front porch, and we can see the rock foundation at the base of the wall supporting the structure.

Today that crumbling foundation is still there (below), along with a few rusty remnants of early farm life scattered nearby. We can appreciate those who arrived here long ago, intent on making it their home. They faced the unknown. Their endurance was their prosperity, their dream became our certainty, and their dawn is now our day.

For more articles and information about Menifee’s heritage, please visit www.menifeehistory.com