By DARRELL W. BROWN
Chairman of the Sherwood History and Heritage Committee
The Matthews-Clauson House, located at 10226 Miller Road in Sherwood, was built by Justin Matthews Sr. in 1928. Matthews is best known as the visionary and builder of the Park Hill and Lakewood subdivisions, the Old Mill, the Sylvan Hills Country Club (now The Greens at North Hills) and the Roundtop Filling Station.
The historic 5,000-plus-square-foot home is for sale with an asking price of $575,000.
According to Miller Road resident Tom Eubanks, whose father, C.C. Eubanks, worked as a builder for Matthews, Matthews built two homes on Miller Road in the late 1920s.
One of the houses on the west end of Miller Road (pictured) was three stories and built by C.C. Eubanks for Matthews’ mother. A second “Dutch barn style” house was also built on Miller Road for Matthews’ mother-in-law.
From the story told by C.C. Eubanks to his son, Tom, the two women “got into a snit about whose house was the more grand.”
Since neither seemed to be satisfied with their respective homes, neither one moved in, and they both sat vacant for several years.
Eventually a family leased the home built for Matthews’ mother and started a moonshine operation on the third floor of the house.
Local law enforcement learned of the illegal liquor operation and went to stop it. Tom Eubanks said his father, who at the time lived at the corner of Hwy. 5 (now Hwy. 107) and Woodruff Avenue, followed the officers to the house on Miller Road and watched as the authorities busted the barrels of liquor and poured the alcohol out of the western most windows on the third floor.
Apparently, in the backyard, hogs were kept in pens to eat the mash corn after it was used in the liquor-making process. After arresting the moonshiners, the authorities cut the ropes on the gates of the pig pens, so that the hogs would be set free. They ran out into the woods, where the old Kellogg Mines were located.
The home continued to be leased to various residents until 1944, when Metropolitan Trust Company (formerly the Justin Matthews Company) sold the home to Donald B. Clauson and his wife, Evelyn. In 1950, Murray G. McCullough purchased the house. After McCullough’s death in 2006, his son, John McCullough, lived in the house until he died in June.
