I Bought An Abandoned Log Cabin that was built in 1780 

I live in the South and actually, there would more than likely have been many kids plus the parents living in the cabin. Back then it was not uncommon to have 12 or more children. They would usually sleep 4 to a bed. The chinking is mostly red Clay which is plentiful in the South. It is a wonderful heritage to own a place like this! You’re lucky to own it!

I’m so happy to hear that you’re going to repair the foundation and keep the historic house.

This was a very big cabin for 1780 and it had enough room for a family of 8 or more and they had a room above the fireplace too, where the family slept several children to a small bed (by today’s standard). In 1784 there was a big influx from Virginia and NC areas southward to recently vacated British cabins and land. The forests at that time were virgin and wagons could be driven straight thru the woods as the trees were so tall that there was little ground growth. There were flocks of parrots and parakeets and large panther cats. It was a paradise. Georgia had been kept relatively free of settlers,as they had deamed it Creek Indian hunting land. Settlers had to get a passport to pass thru GA to get to Alabama, which is a reason why many settlers chose to travel over to Tennessee and then south to AL.

That house is in amazing condition for its age. They took great pride in their work back then and things were made to last. Unlike today. Can’t wait to see what you do with it! Absolutely gorgeous 😍

We have an old log tavern built in the 1700s on our farm. German immigrants built it. It has two stories, a full basement, and a huge attic. There is an added on kitchen from the 1800s. Robert E. Lee and his daughter used to stay there on their travels.

I am honestly happy your family purchased this. ( I noticed a few offensive comments over historic buildings and y’all being new to this country). I see that u have a respect, honor, morality and gratitude that so many born here in the 🇺🇸 have lost and those who would want to make it “modern” or tear it down in the name of selfish greed. Thank you for saving a little more of our history, that now is part of your family’s history also! ❤ from North Carolina!

I love that you appreciate the house and the history to preserve it! So many people want to modernize. There are so many modern houses, yet only a few historic homes left. Thank you!

The low door way wasn't about saving heat but self defense. It made the attackers bend down as they entered the room unable to use their weapons giving the home owners a chance to defend themselves.

House used to have more rooms upstairs, you can see slots in the logs where the other floor joists used to be. Cool house.

Pretty sure they didn't have "indoor" restrooms in 1780. I would say that the closet is a later addition, they didn't build closets back then either. They had armoires, wardrobes, and trunks. All of which were pieces of furniture.

My grandmother was raised in a house a little smaller than that one along with her 14 brothers and sisters. I'm pretty sure the original family that lived there had more than 3 or 4 people.

Love how excited you are about the history, It's yours, too! Glad to have you here!

This is the coolest! I spent my summers in the coal mine of KY. Stayed in a house built the same way. Please don't change it other than fixing it. I'd add on of course, but what a gem. Good luck & keep us posted

Very gorgeous and so original I love it. I'm amazed that it lasted so many years without someone putting drywall up. You are very blessed to have a original log cabin

My grandfather, on my dad's side, built a log house when he and my grandmother were married. It had 2 rooms downstairs, kitchen and living room, which double as their bedroom. He built a captain's bed on one side of the room, under the stairs to the upstairs. The upstairs was one big room, 7 children were raised in it, 4 boys and 3 girls. My grandfather ran a heavy wire across the middle of the room and they put sheets over it. Girls on one side and boys on the other. Grandmother had a huge wood burning cook stove in the kitchen. Bath night was in a big wash tub in front of it, freeze on one side and cook on the other. This was built in Iowa with very cold winters, the outhouse was built up the hill beside house. They had a hand pump in the kitchen to pump water in from the well.

I really enjoy seeing the pleasure you have in this beautiful old settelers home. The doors were short because the people were short, for the most part.

Houses built now won't be standing a few hundred years later like this beauty !! Nothing seems to last now. Here in rural Alabama, we have historic cabins from the 1700s too.

Neat house and it's great to hear that you're planning to restore it. Looking forward to watching part 2. I spent 10 years as the maintenance technician at a historic site consisting of 15 buildings from the mid 18th to early 19th centuries and I will say is this - it's painfully obvious that there was a full second floor originally and somebody (probably in the last 20 years or so, judging by the recycled timbers in the kitchen area that are being used as supports for that loft area above it - note the modern zinc dipped brackets) decided to be trendy and make it an "open floor plan" which may or may not be what caused the foundation issues and the noticeable sag on the gable end wall to either side of the fireplace. This is what happens when people who don't understand historic building practices decide to go all self-appointed HGTV and end up causing severe damage. Good luck in your restoration, you at least seem to have a good head on your shoulders and a desire to see this place looking beautiful again

Back in the day people were alo shorter :) Man I absolutely LOVE this.. and I love you have bought it because we all know it will be taken care of and allowed to live on for MANY years! Thank you for preserving things such as this... Means a lot!

If you haven't leveled the house yet...before you do so,...take pictures of the stone placement. Number them..and reinstall them back in the original place. Cool stuff. I used to do stuff like this back in the day. Portland Oregon area.

There are many cottages and houses in Sweden which are built the same way and are as old. Yes it is fascinating how healthy this houses are! Greetings from Sweden 🇸🇪

I would be totally down with living in a house like this one. It is really cool. The house didn't start out having an indoor bathroom. You should try to find the location of the original outhouse. I might guess it would be behind the house and downhill. If you use a metal detector at the outhouse site you might find interesting items that fell out of Abe Lincoln's pocket as he did his business. You should methodically go over the entire site with a metal detector. No telling what you may find there. If you do that, please make a video about what you find.

I'm wondering if that crawl space was used to hide runaway slaves or a part of the Underground Railroad. If you ever do explore it, please let us know!

If you do an airbnb, we will love to stay there. Beautiful piece of history right there.

Thanks for the tour of your historic old wooden cabin. You certainly have your work cut-out for yourself. What an exciting adventure!

What a neat structure. I hope you do something really cool to restore it. And for what it's worth, welcome to America.

Imagine having a time machine to go back & see daily life here. Christmas mornings... conversation around the dinner table etc. I'd be proud to live there.

What a beautiful cabin. Things just aren’t built with that kind of quality anymore 😊❤

Love your excitement and respect for history. I believe the reason for the short doors was mainly because people were much shorter then because of less nutrition while young. Have you ever noticed how short antique beds are? Abraham Lincoln was considered freakishly tall.

That cabinet has magnet closures. I agree that the structure is very old, but there was a lot of modernization that went on. Still a VERY cool cabin to have!! I’d LOVE one!

You're right! It's not clay! It's actually a mixture of cow/horse manure, straw & mud. And, often it was simply cow pies. They had no smell once they dried out, and hardened almost like concrete.

It's in phenomenal shape! That cabin was built to last and it certainly did. *_Score!_*

Usually back then the kitchen was sperate from the house to keep from burning the house down. The original kitchen was most likely lost long ago. They would have had an outhouse for the bathroom, and a wash tub for bathing with water heater from the fireplace. So the kitchen and bathroom areas were much much later additions to the home.

That is totally awesome! Glad I found this channel ☺

Thank you for saving a piece of history

Wow! Very interesting to actually see a home from years ago still standing and safe (some what) to walk in. Excited to see the end results. Good luck, and keep posting.

Absolutely wonderful thank you for posting

Im going to say I believe the cabin has been altered quite a bit over the years. It appears the second floor was cut back to open up the grand room. You can see the remnants of where the joists were once protruding from the upper walls. (The squares) Also the kitchen and cupboards are an add on. Back then there would not have been a separate kitchen and at least not that far away from the fireplace. The cupboards are sporting modern hinges made to look old that were popular in the 1970s. They can still be bought. The chinking has been redone also. Its a nice cabin.....Just not as original as you think.

I love the little cabin💜so cozy it will be once it's done. Fireplace is just beautiful. Thanks for sharing

Such a pretty cabin, whoever built it years ago did a beautiful job !! They definitely deserve credit for it for sure 💯! Amazing it's still standing !!

What an awesome cabin.

What a piece of history you own to actually live in home built over 200 years ago with so much of it being original Hope you and your family honor and enjoy it

Thank you for realizing what a magnificent treasure this cabin is, and preserving it.

That’s a beautiful home!

We've been learning about this ancient foundation technology. It looks pretty great, prevents flooding/ allows for drainage. Thank you for sharing. Love that in the 1780s they had an open concept Floorplan. Very nice house. Fireplace is amazing. Thank you for buying it and taking the time to restore it.

Gorgeous! Please restore/preserve this historical beauty to it's original condition!! Subscribed and can't wait to see your videos of it's progress. Congratulations!

Thanks for sharing I like it

That's a very very rare find. My grandparents old place also has rocks and large timbers for the foundation ,but it's not a log cabin. You definitely have your work cut out for you to get the house moved back up to replace the foundation without something breaking or shifting the wrong direction. Good luck. Hope it all works out good.

What a gem of a structure and so fantastic that it's found a genuinely appreciative owner😊👍x

Wow!!!! Even has an air conditioner. So much potential there. It needs someone like you who can appreciate it. Good for you.

Small doors for several reasons. Defense was the main reason. Small width door means only one invader can enter at a time. Short in height means they had to duck to enter making them easy targets.

The house is in great shape for being from 1780. I would love to see it fixed up and updated.

Seeing this cabin and the rocks it’s standing on made me think of God being our solid rock- Really gave new meaning and visual to Him being our cornerstone! Loving your guys’ channel! Keep it up! God bless you guys ❤️

I hope you plan on keeping that cabin as original as possible. The historical value of the cabin in that good of a condition is priceless. Originally there wouldn't have been a bathroom, running water or any of the kitchen appliances or sink. The fireplace and a table was the original kitchen. An outhouse was the original bathroom. There probably weren't any closets. The stairs don't look original either. It may have had a loft with a ladder maybe. But I guess it's possible the timbers support it look really old. You should look up the history of who lived there. Look at the notches in the logs outside. You can see that it used to have a porch. The original roof would have probably been cedar shake shingles. But if they hadn't put the metal roof on it would probably not have survived this long.

I'm a retired ex-builder/home inspector. That is not the original second floor. You can see where the floor joists for the original second floor used to be let into ALL of the perimeter walls. I'd wager that entire floor was removed at some point, due to settling/spreading of the perimeter walls. You can also see on the right side of the fireplace/chimney, as seen from the inside, where that corner of the foundation has crumbled and caused that corner of the house to severely settle. They should have rebuilt the foundation at that corner, eliminated any rotted logs in that wall, and re-leveled the logs on that side. Instead, it looks like they just tore out the second floor to reduce pressure at that corner and arrested the settling. Then the current second floor was installed to replace half of the original second floor, so that they'd have bedrooms, a bathroom and a closet. Another reason the door was so low was because nutrition in those days was not what it is today and people were, in general, much shorter when full grown than they are today, 250 years later. I'll give you an example. My wife is Korea and when I was in the army I spent a total of four years stationed in Korea over a period of 19 years. If, in the seventies, one compared the height of most north Koreans to that of most south Koreans, and south Koreans to Americans, one would have seen not-to-great of a difference in height of the north Koreans to the height of most south Koreans, and a significant difference in height between Americans and most south Koreans, because in those days the nutritional differences between north and south Korean meals wasn't that great. However, if you compare the height of today's north Koreans to today's south Koreans, and to today's Americans, there is a substantial height difference between today's average north Korean and today's average south Koreans, but not that much of a difference between the height of the average south Korean and the average American. That's because south Koreans eat very well today compared to forty years ago. In fact, in the seventies one would notice a huge difference in the height of south Korean teenagers and that of ethnic Korean teenagers born and raised in the US. Today though, that height difference in kids is marginal and most Korean-American kids, whose parents are Korean immigrants, are taller than both of their parents by the end of Junior High and are of the same average height of any other American kid. One doesn't have to be a scientist to notice this - one just needs to spend forty years or so observing the changes wrought by the addition of quality vitamins and improved nutrition in the average daily diet of south Korean children and adults, and then compare south Koreans side-by-side to north Koreans. At the rate we're going, I imagine that in another fifty years the code-mandated minimum height of doorways will be about 6-inches (15 centimeters) higher than it is today.

Fabulous cottage ,better than anything today . It has character

This is so cool, I love this cabin and can see it having an amazing transformation 😋

Amazing cabin and I appreciate it so much! I hope you are able to save it. I owned a cabin in the mountains & wanted an onground deck for the BBQ & spa. So I built it out of 2"x12"x12' beams and i used rock for the foundatio. The rocks were big & only partially exposed. I reinforced it with blocking. It held a spa full of water, our BBQ and picnic bench with out any probs. Wood on or in the ground deteriorates.

Beautiful. Probably a lot more than 2 or 3 people lived in there way back. Wouldn't take much to bring that place back to life or at least preserve it. Good luck!

That is really something! Do yourself a BIG favor and fix the roof. Don't lose that structure!

Awesome! Love it! 😊😊😊😊

Awesome to see someone with an actual reason as to why doorways in simple houses from the past often were small, usually people just say "oh well everyone was shorter than" which is untrue as there are many examples of taller individuals aswell as military recruiting height requirements. Such an epic house!

Nice to see some preservation of historic homes. The doors were smaller because people were smaller.

Good to see someone keeping this cabin up

Wow just love that fireplace! What a gorgeous old home! Thank you for showing this and very happy for you

It's amazing how the craftsmanship was with antique hand tools

That place is awesome. Hats off to the new owner. That cabin is a once in a lifetime find. Keep it for future generations

My grandparents built their house during the depression and most of it was built with stone, large timbers and stucco. The house isn't going anywhere for a very long time.

The house looks amazing and your enthusiasm is contagious. I am so happy that you are committed to saving it. Thank you for preserving history.

I live in TN and I've never seen a cabin built like that. I'm surprised it held up this long. I'd love to have a house like that compared to nowadays.

This an historic heirloom! And to think Abraham Lincoln once stayed there a while. From here in New Zealand.

This house is amazing... incredible build, and enchanting...

There is a company that salvages old log cabins and barns, I think they're in Virginia. They have their own TV show called Barnwood Builders and you can contact them for any guidance and replacement beams needed if you want to rebuild the cabin with authentic historical salvaged beams or want to add on to the cabin. That gap in the roof above the chimney looks like the main roof beam may be sagging or cracked too.

Thank you for preserving some of America's history❣️ Your passion for this type of work is evident and inspiring❣️ Keep up the good work❣️❣️

The cabin where my Grammy was born is still on the family property in KY. Very livable, thankful for family that takes care of it, still have Family Reunions there

Doors may have been smaller as beds were also very short. What a treasure to explore and restore!

Wow! Its almost 240 years passed but it is still beautiful 😇😇😇

This sounds like a historical national treasure. How lucky for you to be able to purchase this property

Congratulations with the new house. People where a lot smaller 150 years ago , that's way the doors where smaller. There could easily lived a couple with 5 to 10 kids in houses like that .

Love the attention and passion you’re putting in this project. People like you are indispensable. Thanks for doing it.

This house originally had a larger 3ed. floor, line in stone above the mantle and notches in beams on both walls left and right of fireplace wall. Very nice little place.

I am in awe of the workmanship and pride that went into building this cabin. How did they transport all those stones and what did they use to stack them? This structure is built better than most structures built today and will outlast them as well. We can learn a lot from these treasures. Good luck and thanks for sharing.

The rock pile is likely from when they cleared the land for planting. But yes, for the foundation as well. Nothing went to waste. Back then everything had value.

It's beautiful, back in the day people were shorter. My grandmother told me back in her day there were no kitchens like now, they washed their dishes and stored them on straw in a trunk, between meals.

Very very nice property and cabin. Somebody very wealthy built that cabin the quality of construction is amazing it was top of the line Frontier type home stonemasons and Sawyers built that home the doors are so small because the people were smaller has nothing to do with heat really it's a practical matter and the windows are not period,they've obviously been replaced but such wonderful restoration and care and proof of how well built that home truly is. You have yourself a real gem there as I'm sure you know. Good luck to you and yours. Stay safe

This is so great! Thank you for shairing this and how amazing the engineering/architecture is from back in the day! So cool! Can't wait to see a finished restoration!

I lived in Loudoun County Virginia and my house was built in the 1700s and was a captains house during the civil war. There were graves on the property also. This was over 20 years ago. I miss that place. Now it's owned by the State and I am hoping they preserve the land instead of making horrible cookie cutter homes on it.

I live in a hundred and 19 yr old house. It was made by a engineer. After the city did street and sewer repairs my house is sinking slowly. They gotta fix the issuers have lawyers.. it’s their fault. 😂. I’m enjoy y’all fixing that Lucy cabin. It’s too bad there wasn’t an attic. In mine you can see the axe chops in the frame work good luck 👍

240 years? Very historic! Woaaah that's really amazing✨

I soooo love this house!! You are very fortunate to have been able to get ahold of such a beautiful and historical treasure..!🙂I love it! Beautiful house!

Absolutely amazing that it is still standing, I wish you the best of luck in preserving this piece of history. Just be ever so careful with fire.

Enjoyed the video , and now I know why the doors on these old places where so small . keep up the good work .

Vintage cabin yet looks classy and stunning🤩

Very cool!! I’m so glad you are excited about restoring it!!! It’s a marvelous bit of history that shouldn’t be lost!!!

I love old cabins, old houses!

Love your cabin!, I dream of having one. I'm glad that you're restoring it. Let us see it as your restoring it, thanks for sharing, have a blessed weekend 😊

Beautiful. I can't wait to see you renovate it.

Beautiful house 🏡

I would say the pile of rocks in the yard is an old well....& the loft actually ran the whole length of the old house....no indoor plumbing when it was built....most likely one big room up stairs accessed by a ladder....

Very cool old place. The fireplace is spectacular. First thing I would do is make sure its safe to use. I'm glad it went to someone who appreciates it and doesn't want to raze it like Pia Zadora and her husband did to Pick Fair.