Antedating of "shotgun house" 1903

[Sam Clements]

I originally went looking for the term "shotgun house" when it was brought
up on a thread over at The Straight Dope. I wasn't familiar with it.

In that thread, http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=250054
reference is made to the possibility of the term coming from Yoruba(a West
African language?)--'to-gun' meaning? a place of assembly.  This is put
forth in a book by James Deetz _In Small Things Forgotten_ , quoting John
Vlatch, "shotgun Houses," Natural History, Vol. 87, no. 2(1977), pp. 50-57.

Any ideas?

Sam Clements