John Greene Shastid, the builder of the house, was born in Kentucky in 1798. By 1828, he and his family had settled in Illinois at the Sangamon County town of New Salem. Seeking economic opportunities in sparsely-settled Pike County, Shastid and his family moved to Pittsfield in 1836; at the time, the city had only six other houses. Shastid built his house two years later, where he lived with his wife Elizabeth and his four children. Shastid worked as a farmer and eventually held public office, serving as Pike County Sheriff for eight years. Elizabeth died in 1863, and John Shastid died in 1874; while their children had moved elsewhere by this point, the family owned and rented the house until 1927.