TEHACHAPI, Calif. -- The original Stowell House is a small home with just one bathroom and three bedrooms, but what it lacks in size, it makes up in character.

Current owners, Bob and Patty Souza have been preserving the homes 1800s charm since they bought the home nearly 20 years ago.

Today, this ranch is better known as the Souza Family Vineyard, but 120 years ago, it was the Stowell House, and the first wooden home built in Cummings Valley.

Back in 1888, Elijah Augustus Stowell built the home as a condition for a marriage proposal to Chloe Brite.

According to Bob Souza, Chloe Brite’s father, John Moore Brite said, "'No, you can’t marry my daughter.’ but he started it out by saying, ‘what can you give my daughter that she doesn’t already have?’ and Stowell said, ‘I will build her a home.’ And so daddy said, ‘OK, that’s the deal, you have to build her a home and she has to be 16.”

Stowell, 33, built the home and married Chloe Brite on her 16th birthday.

And judging by love letters the Souza’s recovered between Elijah and Chloe, they had a happy life with two daughters and one son.

Souza explains what is written in one letter, “He starts it off, ‘my darling, sweetheart, momma,’ and he talks about how much he missed her. He went by wagon from here to El Monte to pick up nails and lumber. He was gone a month. So, they were very much in love.”

None of the Stowell kids got married or had kids of their own, and the Souza’s believe that is why they are now able to call the old Stowell house home.

“Irony is, that if any of them had married, they would have had progeny. Had that been the case, it probably would have stayed in the family, and we wouldn’t have been here,” said Souza.

For the past 20 years, the Souza’s have fixed up the ranch and home, but still kept the 1800s feel including a bear claw tub and high tank toilet, string electrical cords, original stained glass, doors and many other items.

“I think it really speaks to the craftsmanship of that era. It was a totally different world then, and yes, it was all handmade. Most of it was one-offs, they weren’t mass produced,” said Souza.

Bob and Patty Souza said they feel lucky to have this property, and every time they do something to the home or ranch, they always ask themselves if the Stowell family would approve.

And while 120 years later we remember the Stowell family putting Cummings Valley on the map by making it their home, it’s very possible that in another 120 years, people will remember the property for yet another first, Tehachapi’s first wine vineyard.