When this cabin was built, fledgling America was just getting used to its hard-won freedom. In the early 1800’s, as settlement moved West, a pioneer could homestead a plot of land and claim it as his own. With the land needing to be cleared for cultivation, a sharp ax took down the trees and simultaneously provided material for shelter. Log cabins were the order of the day.

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We know that the back portion of the cabin, which is made of oak logs, was built prior to 1820, as the hand-wrought nails found in it were not used after that time. The front two-story section consists of poplar logs (with a different notch style) and is probably a little newer, as the nails found in it were the cut nails used after 1820. The two separate cabins were joined together to make a larger house (was the older section moved in, or the newer section built next to the old one?), with the double wall remaining between them.

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Raymond Castleberry had it moved here from Rogersville, Tennessee, in the northeast section of the state. Rogersville, the second oldest town in the state, was founded by the grandparents of Davy Crockett.

 

Raymond reassembled it himself. He positioned the cabin in front of the vines with the idea that it would be his tasting room. But when the cabin was almost complete, he realized that it would be too small to be a tasting room. So it became a guesthouse for vacation rental. It has never been used as a tasting room as some of our customers claim.

 

Our restored log cabin now rests on a concrete foundation, as opposed to the dry-stacked pile of rocks it was originally built upon. Bathrooms were added in the back bedroom (formerly the kitchen) and in the upstairs bedroom, using vintage fixtures. Although not truly authentic to the time, they, along with the old drain board sink and replica wood-burning cookstove in the kitchen, help maintain the historic feel of the cabin. The house also has two working fireplaces.

 

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