Waco Tribune-Herald from Waco, Texas • 41

''4 Years of Borning Dying 4fV 4 15 jt PMUvd 4 aX4v tX £uvAr4 Jf zs 34 4 Zt arr' 't' cai i '7" 1 5 tMES3KrwMM 1KK WkIMI jOgnjfelgr LWMBMMMMBMMhgr7 TwImBf ar Al AXB Xf 'ir KjSkf CkKO'c? fiMt' gf 4 £'C 'Vf? XMMtKiBHilKHMMHI Wap IKT fiSTTs b'xSKii a 4 A s' i 'y I 'lfc ia i's lsA Sx'w X'S OMvisz rank Jhite house is oj logs now boarded over It was built in 1860 near Bosqueville ij' wKloaMor8 BAfrsw' Xr rt 'M iEafe AwMOMIM uiiir SMKiKBiKhi i i i jit MEf 1 1 i MBrX JM6isar vKQgKIWMMKKIlKK! Hg rr4 Ct rTWBMHnTMQRBKHHb! yfcJ LJUiACT74 3ilBMgRKaHBlMMBaMMM iMKKgS 4 1 BMnSSigE 4SfaKaS tC51 RMKMKllMHMMHNsBtiHMMKBKBMKlHKB3iKHMKalHHiKKlHHIHBIBMIw91HL Davis house al Speegleville has oak pegs in walls Conger is puzzled by them CONTINUED ROM PAGE ONE SECTION III THE squaring of the logs was done with a so called broad axe which had a very wide and perfectly straight cutting edge flat on one side and beveled op the other for Another tool usually utilized in squaring the logs was an adze similar In appearance to a mattock but ground to a sharp edge like an axe With the broad axe and adze a skilled woodsman could square an oak or cedar log almost as perfectly from end to end as if it had been done with saw mill equipment The logs how ever always bore the interesting and unmistakable marks of the tools with which they had been shaped or four different styles of notching were used by different workmen in fitting the buildings Conger goes on style we have found most plentiful in this vicinity has been the quarter notched joint It is generally accepted that this style of notching had its origin in the deep South Georgia Alabama and Virginia A somewhat more difficult joint is the dove tail notch and there are several examples of this joint in McLennan County also This style of notching came from Pennsylvania and Ohio A third style of joint is the saddle notch which is said to have been used generally through Missouri and Iowa prime requirement for the trees to be se lected was straightness There were two types of material in this region which met that require ment as well as being of a proper diameter One of these was the post oak and the other was the red cedar On the east side of the Brazos River for example in the Gholson region post oak was used almost exclusively There still are many groves of excellent straight post oak trees in that vicinity and as a matter of fact post oak cribs have been built in that region in the fairly recent past say up to 25 or 30 years ago of the Conger goes on solidly informative red cedar was decidedly the fa vored material Just beyond Bosqueville the Brazos River sweeps eastward in a vast horseshoe encir cling some 2000 acres of fertile bottom land known as Steinbeck Bend John Steinbeck lives in Waco today but he was born at the family home in the Bend in 1S73 Mr Steinbeck states that there was a broad vein of pure white sand which extended through and across this great bottom and that it was in this belt of white sand that the red cedars grew to heroic proportions The Steinbeck plantation had upon it 13 tenant cabins all built of red cedar logs These great cedars also were used in the production of fence rails John Steinbeck states that thousands of them were felled measuring 30 feet in length almost as large in diameter at the upper end as at the bottom and cut into three 10 foot lengths before being split for rails could generally be split as clean as a die with an ordinary cutting axe but whenever a knot was encountered a wedge and maul were brought into use to lay the fragrant log apart roofs of these tenant cabins were made of shakes heavy shingles riven or split from burr oak blocks 30 inches in length They were riven off With a tool known as a froe driven into the block with a mallet and the shakes would split off with geometric uniformity They were from five to eight inches in width and were generally from one fourth inch to one half inch in thickness No nails were used in fastening down these shakes but in stead they were weighted down by laying heavy poles across them These shake roofs were surpris ingly water tight and wind Conger describes a typical double log house one of the earliest in the county built by Neil McLen nan for whom the county was named when he moved to the South Bosque in 1845 type con writes Conger of two log rpoms about 10 feet square ith a 10 foot half or dog trot between them and a ridgepole and roof across the entire structure A lean to room as generally added at the back and used as a Conger says he remembers a log cabin of this exact type on the Kennedy ranch on the Bosque near China Spring occupied when Conger a child by the parents of Ben Kennedy The Neil McLennan house was at McLennan Crossing of the South Bosque on the ish Pond Road It was destroyed by fire several years ago but the site is marked by a stone erected in 1936 A hundred yards beyond the site of the Neil McLennan house there still stands a log house said to have been used by brother Calhoun McLennan Conger remarks it is between two gnarled and majestic liveoak trees here it seems to slumber like an aged Conger found the house of another of the clan Duncan McLennan son a mile and a half west of Highw ay 6 on the north side of the old South Bosque channel now part of Lake Waco He describes it as but enough left to show massive chimneys one at each end of the two story front section with fireplaces on both levels and another fireplace in the extreme rear of the Conger says of the sills of this house are hewrn from massive cedar A cedar at the rear is in ruins Con ger says the Dune McLennan house was as a stopping place and social center in the early days of the Two log houses Conger believes were designed by William Eichelberger who came to new El on the Bosque from Milam County in 1853 still stand near Crossing in the China Spring area own house is on the north side of the Bosque and the Lee Davis house a mile awray across the river are identical in construction and virtually identical in present Conger notes is not remarkable in view of the fact that they were both constructed at the same time starting in 1858 of the sills and floor Conger reports hewn from cedar logs and all of the studding and rafters are sawn from massive red cedar timber Architecture is long narrow one story but with spa cious attic rooms as well with stairway leading up from the airy breezeway running through the middle of the house picturesque old gallery extends across the entire front of the house and there is a massive chimney at either end with fireplaces entering into each chimney on both the ground floor and attic room haji to c'jctt 9 A 5 A 4 4 mnnpr fm jpy 7 trstons I i1? 1 1 2 1 71 4 hv 1 fc1' pv'' 1 i baMpKBMuKBgiMMKIKlIMIMMIIMMSMKIIRlK II jo4 Vm I nr Robert Wortham's barn is built of cedar cut at Chalk Bluff floated to Bosqueville CONGER quotes an Eichelberger grandson as say ing that the time the Civil War broke out there was a crew7 of five neighborly frontiersmen on each of these houses and all 10 immediately left their projects and volunteered in the Confederate Army The houses were not completed until the soldiers returned at the end and while all five of the Eichelberger workmen returned all five of the Davis workmen were killed or and never returned to their Obviously however somebody finished the house Conger describes the Eddie Rose house in the Steinbeck Bend community as double structure w'ith a lean to at the back and still another room adjoining from one front He says tw7o main rooms and this special third room which was the kitchen all had fireplaces and chimneys built of bricks made from red Brazos He reports Albert Rentz bought the house and used the mate rials for the of a large dairy barn splendid cedar beams can still be seen in this barn Conger notes The Rose log barn is still standing very poor The rank White cabin near Bosqueville was says Conger originally a double log house but was boarded up years ago Mrs Tipton of Waco w7ho was brought up in that house has a photograph of it made in 1885 and Conger quotes Mrs Tipton as saying wdien her uncle Selah White bought the place in 1878 the log house was there Conger thinks it must have been built around I860 In Bosqueville Conger found very interest ing cedar log on the Robert Wortham place log barn is of the double type to enable wragons to be driven in and unloaded into the cribs on either side The logs in the cribs were more than 20 feet relates Conger according to Robert Wortham of Waco a son of the original builder were cut on the east side of the Brazos at Chalk Bluff floated across and hauled to the loca Conger mentions interesting cabin of hew7ed oak on the John McNamara place at Bosqueville same now serving as a barn but plainly showing its original construction as a He notes sev eral log cribs in the Patrick community on Childers Creek and several post oak cribs in the Wortham Bend community north of Rock Creek In the Speegleville community he says is an excellent old log crib on the Wells place a large log barn on the Lawson and a good barn on the Bright farm which was once the dwell ing of a family named Davis A feature of this Davis house wdiich Conger says observed in many of the log is a number of large auger holes bored into or through the logs He says they are one and a quarter inches to one and a half inches in diameter and some still have oak pegs in them Conger says he know7 w7hat they were for Conger reports a servant house built by Caufield on the Caufield ranch near Harris Creek is still standing and is occupied corners show7 an extremely fine example of dove tail remarks Conger Caufield came here from Alabama in 1851 Conger describes him as master crafts man with pioneer Conger said he found a few log cribs in the southern section of the county but none of par 'ticular antiquity He says on the Scott place at Harrison Switch is a double log structure which looks as if it had alw7ays been a crib or a barn but he is assured a family named Donahue once lived comfortably and respected in it The Gholson area was a particularly rich one for Conger in his log house hunting about one mile north on the Dripping Springs Road from he writes the remains of one of most historic log cabins It was erected in about 1852 by Kellum It was of the double cabin type with saddle notch corners One cabin has completely fallen but the other is still standing and this fine old landmark is near the main road in open pasture and can readily be visited and (Information on the antiquity of the Kellum house is conflicting George and Kellum George recall the old timers saying the house was there when Kellum bought the land in 1852 the tradition being it was built by Spaniards At any rate it seems to be the oldest structure of any portion remains in this county One of the timbers of the est wall facing the w7oods pierced with a rifle slot That timber is now lost) At Gholson Conger also notes one room Hesse residence the chimney has long since fallen but the chinking between the post oak logs is still About 10 years ago Conger relates he spent a couple of nights w7ith a group of hunters (not log cabin hunters but game hunters) in the old Rogers house at Rogers Hill sleeping in its toric upper and drying his soaked garments in front of the ancient fireplace a thorough wetting in the sloughs of the Aquilla Sb he has a particular fondness for that house Let him describe it and give the story that goes with it: uThe Rogers cabin on a sandy hill above Aquilla Creek is the only two story log residence in the county to the knowledge Its mas sive stone chimney furnishes a large fireplace to the ground floor and a smaller one to the upstairs Rogers came to McLennan County in the late acquired a 1200 acre tract cleared this hill top and erected his cabin The original roof was of course of oak shakes There Is a deep cistern on the side gallery from which splendid drinking water was always available to the traveler this connection however it is legendary that in the early days there were quite a few rene gades and outlaws hanging out in the remote Aquilla bottoms and the Rogers family was decidedly cau tious at the approach of a stranger If Mr Rogers was suspicious of the appearance of an approach ing rider he would ascend to the upper room and cover the road with rifle or pistol from a chink just to the left of the upstairs window If the stran ger was able to give a satisfactory introduction and identification to Mrs Rogers he was promptly in vited in for rest and refreshment But if he was not able to give a satisfactory introduction it was brought to his attention that he was duly covered and that it would be well for him to move on up the Conger ghes credit to who aided him in his survey mentioning Lee Glasgow Robert Wortham Mrs Tipton Sam Horne Conger John Steinbeck Watson Arnold Rogers Miss Dorothy Rogers Mrs Kellum George Mrs Henry Dunning especially Dr Hamorzsky an ardent antiquarian who accojn panieu the writer on most all of the week end field trips about the BwufhosrW wmm A li' 7 7' BgiMM xjKMTticu iMnw jQiiKHMMMMMMSgiaBiiihiir 1 iMagiy w3Mi WKS hMHKJ MB 9M3iiSMMaSiiHiMMKH AjBfcrr mMII JVMMBME3VSnKi9iMk jfcSxK I KKf a The five who started Lee Davis house at China Spring were all tear casualties I WlWna'iWt 4SW 4.