Rural Life and Culture in the Upper Cumberland

2. Sheltering the People

Sheltering the People 35 35 Chapter 2 SHELTERING THE PEOPLE Folk Architecture in the Upper Cumberland Region W. CALVIN DICKINSON The first American settlers in the Upper Cumberland region before 1800 built temporary dwellings, one-room structures constructed of round logs and crude notches, with a door and a few windows. Many had dirt floors, and many probably had stick and mud chimneys; some may have had no chimney. Second homes for these early settlers may also have been log, but they were built more carefully for permanent occupancy. Now the logs were hewn with broadax and adze, usually only on two sides. Yellow poplar, chestnut, and the various varieties of oak were the woods most commonly used. Notches were cut into the ends of the logs as substitutes for nails. Of the eight or ten notches used in America, pioneers in the Upper Cumberland region used the square notch, the V notch, and the halfdovetail notch. The half-dovetail was by far the most popular because of its beauty and practicality. The slopes of the notch pulled each log toward the inside of the house, securing it against kicking out and eliminating the necessity for pins or nails. Though some of the earliest log houses were built near rivers or navigable creeks, which were the easiest mode of transportation, the majority were built on hills rather than in valleys because “the river bottoms were quite unhealthy when the country was new.”1 They usually faced south, southeast, or southwest, with the second largest number facing north; thus the south-north axis was most common.2 Growing families necessitated expansion of the houses in all directions . Original cabins may have been single-pen—one room—structures, 36 W. CALVIN DICKINSON either square or rectangular, almost always with even measurements— twelve by twelve, sixteen by sixteen, fourteen by sixteen, sixteen by eighteen, and so on. Most were also story-and-a-half structures, with the half-story being about four feet high. The upper level was useful for storage and for children. A full second story might be added later, an open porch added to the front, and a shed addition to the rear.3 One of the earliest log houses still standing is the Greenberry Wilson house in the Burke Community of Cumberland County. Built in 1797 by Wilson, the original house was a story-and-a-half single-pen structure constructed of cedar logs, twenty-four by fourteen feet. A similar structure was the John Wheeler house on Dry Fork Creek in Jackson County. This single-pen house, with one and a half stories, was built of chestnut logs with V notches. An easy method to double living space was to build a second cabin beside the first, with about ten feet of space between them. The two were connected with a breezeway, or dogtrot. It was easier to build two cabins than to join logs at the ends.4 The dogtrot could be used in the summer as a cool room or hall, and in the winter it served as a dry Elderly men examine half-dovetail notches near Cookeville, Tennessee, 1930s. The man on the far right is Potter Greenwood. Courtesy of the Tennessee State Library and Archives. Sheltering the People 37 storage area. Dixona at Dixon Springs in Smith County, built about 1788, may be the oldest dogtrot still standing. The Frank Gilliland house at Oak Hill in Overton County was an early dogtrot structure, built by Adam Gardenhire about 1800. It was story and a half with two twentyfour -by-eighteen pens. A poplar log kitchen was located in a separate building behind the house. Log barns and slave houses completed the estate. Another early dogtrot house was the Southard-Floyd home at Baker’s Crossroads in White County, built about 1796 of oak logs with square notches. This structure was a full two stories in height, with a dogtrot on each level. The Fancher house in White County, built about 1850, was another two-story dogtrot with square notched logs.5 After sawmills were established in the Upper Cumberland region, cheap milled lumber became more readily available. Many people covered log houses with weatherboard, and many constructed new houses of milled lumber. The Fanchers sheathed their log house with weatherboard , and the Matthew Cowen house in Putnam County’s Buffalo Valley , built about 1800 of logs, was expanded with a second story...