The Manton Cornett Farm: Shelter and Symbol

The Mantón Cornett Farm: Shelter and Symbol by Charles E. Martin 1. The Mantón Cornett House from the northeast. The Mantón Cornett House (Fig. 1), situated in the head of Sassafras Hollow, Knott County, Kentucky, could be considered both typical and atypical of vernacular housing on the Cumberland Plateau. Like the majority of area dwellings built in the latter part of the 19th century, it was constructed of hewn, horizontal logs which were interconnected by half-dovetailed notches and covered by a riven board roof. Mantón, the builder (Fig. 2), however, used enough construction techniques in his house (and outbuildings), the majority known to have parallel usage in other countries and by other American ethnic groups, but rare in his immediate context , to suggest his desire to personalize in the face of democratizing architectural custom. The reconstruction of past per114 2. Mantón Cornett (c. 1915) on his brother Kenton's porch. sonalities beyond the pale of contemporary memory can be accomplished, not only by looking at art and letters, but by probing the more commonplace structures people leave behind. An examination of the buildings Mantón fashioned illuminates his traditional context as well as his need to stand apart. Mantón was the local postmaster, justice of the peace and school teacher, as well as being a carpenter and blacksmith who made his own tools, including planes and drill bits. He was born in 1851 at the mouth (or entrance) of Sassafras Hollow, land his father, Robert, had inherited from what was originally said to have been a 20,000 acre land grant his father, William, once presided over.l Since it was the area custom that the youngest child inherit the family dwelling and some surrounding acreage in return for caring for aged parents, Mantón, not the youngest, was encouraged to build his house elsewhere. The site he chose, two miles further up the hollow nearer the headwaters, was his share of the family estate. By 1870 he had begun construction on a one and one-half story single pen of poplar and pine with the help of family members. The chimney was creek rocks mortared with mud and the loft floor joists were box notched into the logs above the doorways. Entrance to the upper story was gained by climbing a ladder made of ascending poles pounded into holes augered into gable end logs. The still visable auger holes along the front wall, however, were used to hold the loom in place. A quite ordinary structure; still it enabled Mantón to provide shelter for himself and his new wife, Julia (born in 1856). As his family expanded, it became necessary to increase the house's size. Mantón, sometime between approximately 1880 and 1894, first removed the board roof and then the upper onehalf story, substituting it with a full second story. The poplar logs comprising this new level were much more carefully hewn than those below, suggesting the haste in constructing the lower room and/or Manton's growing skills. The upper logs are smoother and fit tightly together, requiring a minimum of chinking. A stairway led to the upper doorway on the south gable end. Since the original lower room was considered to be too cool in winter, the upper floor was lowered about one foot in an effort to better hold down the wood fire's heat. Rather than box notching the new beaded floor joists into the logs, however, Mantón installed a joist suspension system whereby the joists were held up by a board which was pegged into the log under each joist (Fig. 3). This technique is rare locally but not unheard of.2 The spaces between the 115 joists along the walls were then insulated with a form of straw and mud "biscuits", in this case a porous, unbaked brick intended to absorb excessive temperatures (Fig. 4). Seemingly German in origin,3 "biscuits" were practically nonexistent among the Scotch-Irish in southern Appalachia. For appearances, the bricks were covered with sections of hand planed boards, creating a finished look. Mantón, possibly at this time, also covered the log wall interior with tongue and...