The Usher House is considered to be the "Founding Father's" home here at Ushers Ferry. Although there never was an actual town at this location, the Usher family owned all of the land that the Village sits on, as well as a portion of the land on the northern edge of Seminole Valley Park where the real Ushers Ferry was located.

In 1839, Dyer Usher and his family arrived in Linn County and took up claims in the Seminole Valley area. Dyer soon established a ferry boat operation across the Cedar River at what is now the end of 42nd street. The other half of his operation can be found at the end of "Old Ferry Road" near Covington in northwest Cedar Rapids.

In the early 1850's Dyer's cousin, Henry Aaron Usher, came to Iowa from Ashtabula County, Ohio and settled for a time in Iowa City. While there, he established a blacksmith shop, and is said to have helped in the construction of the Old Capitol building. In 1855, Henry moved his family to join the rest of the Ushers settled in the Seminole Valley area. He staked a large timber claim upon the section of land where the Village is now located, and a smaller claim, farther up the river that adjoined his Cousin Dyer's ferryboat operation. He soon established a steam sawmill operation, and with lumber logged and milled from his timber claim he built this simple, saltbox style farmhouse.

Twelve years later, Henry once again decided to move to farmland he had obtained across the river near the small town of Covington. Not wishing to go to the trouble of building another house, he decided to move this one across the river to his new farm. In the middle of the winter of 1867, he cut the house in half (between the parlor and the kitchen) loaded each section onto a bobsled and pulled it across the frozen river with teams of horses to its new location. There, he reassembled it and he and his descendants continued to live in it until the early 1980's, when it was to be torn down in order to make way for a new home to be constructed. With the help of many historically minded individuals and organizations, money was raised to bring the house to the recently created historical Village -which, ironically enough-- had been established on Henry Usher's original timber claim. As a result, the house not only came home, but also received the notoriety of being "the house that crossed the river twice."