Cypress log cabin

[caveman]

My great grandparents' house was moved from Lacoochee to Dade City's Pioneer Museum recently.  This evening was the ribbon cutting ceremony and the presentation to the community.  My cousin Scott is the mayor of Dade City and the chief historian for my mama's side of the family.  He did most of the talking tonight.  Until tonight, I thought that my maternal grandmother grew up in this house.  Her family lived in a railroad section house until the 50's.  She would have been married and moved out by the time my great grandparents and the younger siblings lived in this house.  

They did a great job of moving the house and I am thankful to my cousin Elaine and some others for sponsoring the project.  Her dad lived in the house until his death 10 years ago or so. 
 The house is made out of cypress logs.  The diagonal
 floorboards, which are under the tongue and groove cypress are pecky as is the roof decking.  The rafters are cypress poles, and the joists were hand hewn cypress.

Cummer and Sons owned the big cypress mill in Lacoochee and brought in logs from all over Florida and even mahogany from Honduras until the Honduran government stopped that practice.  Cummer made his way to Florida in the 1890's from Michigan and Canada.

Today was the first time I've been in the house since I was probably 10 years old or younger.  There is a historic house in Cracker Country at the Florida State Fairgrounds that belonged to my Daddy's side of the family.  It's referred to as the Carlton house and now my Mama's side of the family (Black's) have their place in Dade City, which is about 20 miles north of where we live.  

The porch never had a railing around it until it was moved to the museum.  


My mother is on the porch wearing the dress, her brother is wearing the cap, and the rest of the folks are some of my cousins.  All of them spent a great deal of their childhood in this house.  They even planted a fig tree in the side yard as it was in Lacoochee.  My cousin, Scott, is now planning to plant a hydrangea on the other side as it used to be.


This is the kitchen, which also had a double bed and a crib.  There were seven children in the family, although my grandmother was grown before the last son was born.  Notice the painted, wide cypress wall boards and the tongue and groove cypress floor with the scrap material rug.  I remember my great aunt making the rugs with remnants of cloth when I was young.  Some of the handmade chairs at the table have rawhide seats.

The Black side of the family made it to Florida in the 1850's from Alabama and the Carlton side got here a bit earlier, they came down from North Carolina and Georgia.


My great granddaddy worked for the railroad.  One of his sons, my late Uncle Bud, had a job keeping the engine fed with fuel.  He later became an engineer for the Seaboard Coastline.  I occasionally got to ride on his engine while he hauled phosphate from the mines.  

[barbender]

 That is cool family history!

[DbltreeBelgians]

Very cool Kyle, that's a great story.
It's nice to know your family history is being preserved. 

Brent 

[SwampDonkey]

Nice old house. Nice to see it preserved. Lots of family history to be retold. 

[Ianab]

You can see how the roof overhang extends around the house. Keeps the logs dry(ish), which is why the house is still sound and worth preserving. That simple weather resistance seems to be forgotten in a lot modern construction.

[TreefarmerNN]

What a great cabin and it's very cool that it's preserved. With that many kids, there was a lot of "togetherness" in the cabin.  That's something we've lost in the McMansion and cell phone era.  I'll bet your Mom and siblings have a great time when they get together.

[Magicman]

Very Nice and I loved reading the family history. 

[customsawyer]

Great cabin and family history. It should bring a smile to the whole family.

[Jeff]

I would love to tour that old house. The house my dad was born in and that my Grandfather built in 1904 is still standing and used as my cousins up norh cabin.  North being a relative thing. Its about 225 miles south of me here, and about 85 miles north of my cousins.

[NE Woodburner]

Great story and family history. The inside reminds me of a very remote and isolated old vertical log fishing camp I have the privilege of being invited to spend a weekend at every year or so. No other houses or camps for miles, no electricity, nice clean outhouse. Makes me think of the way people must have lived a couple of generations before me...

[SwampDonkey]

As far as an outhouse goes, that was common on the back of old houses up here when I was a kid. I'm only 57. I don't think we put in a full bathroom until I was 8. That was a cold seat in winter on the NW corner of the woodshed.  And for awhile the bathtub was the kitchen sink. The old people never even had an iron tub that you see ads for in old newspapers. Like the old timer said who lived through the depression, a loaf of bread was 15 cents, where was the 15 cents suppose to come from? :D

[NE Woodburner]

Swamp, we had family up in northern Maine, not far from you. I should say had family there because most have passed. Most people in the area had outhouses until about the mid-70's, then they started putting bathrooms in.

At the old camp I mentioned, I am told that when it was used for winter hunting the outhouse toilet seat would get hung inside by the wood stove. When nature called, you grabbed the warm toilet seat and headed out to the outhouse.

[scsmith42]

What a cool house and great story!

I may be able to attend Daytona Bike Week next year, and a visit to the museum might make a good day trip.

Hmmm....

[caveman]

If you are ever in the area and have the time, I'll put you in contact with one of the men who was instrumental in moving and setting up the old house.  He has a collection at his home of a lot of logging, construction and agricultural equipment.  Our family donated the cane grinder that was at the homeplace of that old house to his collection several years ago.  His collection/museum is worth seeing.  He keeps most of it in operating condition.  He even has a black smith shop in there.


They will be doing the annual cane grinding on December 14 this year. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Cavey,

   Neat story and I'm glad they preserved the house and memories. I know lots of old Fla homes of that era had a dog run or dog trot. One cabin was the kitchen and eating side and another was the living/sleeping area and a covered/shaded area between them was where the family hung out and did any chores they could like shelling peas, maybe sewing, leatherworking working (if they wore shoes), etc.

    https://www.columbusstate.edu/archives/findingaids/mc348.php

    This link is to the "town" of Westville near Columbus Ga. People collected a bunch of 1850's era buildings and moved and reconstructed them as a sort of living museum. It would be neat if there was anything like that near you where your family home could be part of a larger community of home.

    I had a buddy in Albany who was a part time actor and they did some of the movie "The long riders" at the Westville site. (He was the "Squarehed who tried to buy the James Gang's horses in the movie at the shootout/failed bank robbery in Minnesota.)

[scsmith42]

If you are ever in the area and have the time, I'll put you in contact with one of the men who was instrumental in moving and setting up the old house.  He has a collection at his home of a lot of logging, construction and agricultural equipment.  Our family donated the cane grinder that was at the homeplace of that old house to his collection several years ago.  His collection/museum is worth seeing.  He keeps most of it in operating condition.  He even has a black smith shop in there.


They will be doing the annual cane grinding on December 14 this year.

Thx!  I may take you up on that...