Amanda Smith was born in 1829 in eastern Virginia and moved to Wayne County as a young girl. In 1850 she married the prominent lawyer Joseph Jefferson Mansfield, and they started a family in the village of Trout's Hill, now Wayne. Joseph left for war in July 1861 with the Wayne County Militia and was killed by friendly fire. Soon afterward, Union soldiers raided Amanda's home and stole every valuable and morsel of food she had. After the war, she married the veteran Dr. Harrison Walker, and they built the home on this property. After Dr. Walker's death, Amanda married Reverend Edmund Osburn. For the last fifty years of her life, she operated a hotel and boarding house on Hendricks Street and actively supported keeping the courthouse in Wayne. After women received the right to vote, she gave a keynote speech at the Wayne County Democratic Convention. She died in 1927 at the age of 97.