Hiram Horton was a civil engineer and bridge builder.  After building several bridges throughout the West including several across the Mississippi River, Horton became president of the Chicago Bridge and Iron Works Company in 1889.  Chicago Bridge and Iron Works established in 1887 served as a major employer in the area.  Horton commissioned John Long to build a frame house to sit upon the ridge at a cost of $10,000.  Upon completion the Horton House had 20 rooms and a 3rd floor ballroom.   Historian Harold Wolff claims that the Horton House is basically a knockoff of the H.A.C. Taylor House at Newport, Rhode Island (1885-1886), designed by McKim, Mead and White in a severly academic Colonial Revival mode.