County of farm: Cooper County
Location of farm: MO-A, 1 mile S. of Pilot Grove
Owner: Bob & Ann Betteridge
Farm Name: Crestmead, today: formerly called Prairie View
Acres: 260
Original Owner: William Agernon Betteridge, grandfather
Built: 1859
Family Purchased: 1903
date Century Farm Status Approved: 25 June 2003
Architectural Style: Italianate
The is no town of Pleasant Green. There is a mainson by tht name near here, and why all these sites keep calling it a town is beyond me. This house is one mile S. of Pilot Grove...the Pleasant Green mansion, and church, is about 2 miles west of here, along the MKT (or Katy) Trail State Park.
"Remains salvaged from pre-Civil War mansion" ~ The Missourian, Columbia, July 21, 2008
"Ann Betteridge peers into a small room at the back of her house, Crestmead Mansion, a historic plantation home that has been in her family since the early 1900s. The room was one of only a few left standing after fire ripped through the house four years ago.
It was a cold and bleak night when fire broke out in the mansion on March 3, 2008, destroying more than half the home. Restoring Crestmead has been an arduous but gratifying process, one that has brought together friends, neighbors and relatives dedicated to saving the pre-Civil War mansion. For Betteridge, it's about preserving family history. A former school teacher, she has spent nearly her all her savings and untold hours working on the home. Crestmead has become her passion.
"Today, the house transports visitors back to the 1800s, appearing almost the same as it did before the fire. But work remains to be done. Furniture is in storage, waiting to be cleaned and restored. Many pieces are lost forever.
"Betteridge applied for a federal government grant to fix the house, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, but she was turned down. That left the family with only the insurance settlement and their own money to finance the restoration.
"The original construction of Crestmead began in 1837, using Greek Revival architecture. In 1857, an addition using Italianate architecture inspired by the Renaissance greatly expanded the front of the house." ~ The Missourian, Columbia, June 25, 2012
"Many stately old homes with period furnishings are clustered around Pilot Grove, some in the same family for a century and more.
Ravenswood (1880) and Crestmead (1859) stand out from the landscape on high prairie hills within 10 miles of Pilot Grove, and can be toured. Along the Katy Trail itself are tow other homes that welcome visitors: the Pleasant Green plantation house (1820s) and Burwood (1883), accessible from milepost 210.9
"These homes are worth seeing for their architecture and interiors, but they also tell of Cooper County's past. Because of their owners' wealth, they were among the first to take advantage of new technologies such as the automobile, central heating, gas lights and hot-water radiators. Owners of Ravenwood raised Missouri mules brought up the Santa Fe Trail, and started the shorthorn cattle industry west of the Mississippi River. Shorthorns have been raised at Crestmead since 1888. Cattle were driven to the Katy railroad at the town of Pleasant Green. During the American Civil War (1861-1865), this part of Cooper County was the scene of marches and pursuits, with Union and Confederate soldiers camping at these homes. Slave quarters still stand behind Pleasant Green, Burwood and Crestmead." ~ Missouri Department of Natural Resources