Throwback Thursday by Matson Insurance: Jefferson County Log Houses

JEFFERSON CO., Pa. (EYT) – Matson Insurance is partnering with Jefferson County History Center to offer exploreJeffersonpa.com readers a look in Jefferson County’s past. Today a Jefferson County Log House is being showcased.

Photo above: Brandon thinks the oldest log structure existing in the county today is more than likely a spring house in the Beechwoods area that was built sometime between 1826 and 1840.

According to Tom Brandon, who has documented many old log structures in Western Pennsylvania, the corner notches of the remains of log structures found in Jefferson County are indicative of two different groups of people. In the north where the Scots-Irish dominated, builders used the ½ dovetail and square notch. In the south where German descendants settled, the “V” notch predominated.  Other corner notches are the double notch, square, steeple, and round.

McKnight describes these first cabins as small, perhaps fifteen or sixteen feet square, and one or one and a half stories high with a ladder to the sleeping loft. As the population grew, more people were around to help with building a house. On the first day of a house raising, materials were gathered including puncheons for the floor and clapboards for the roof. Men used broadaxes to smooth the face of split logs for floor puncheons. Stones outlined the cabin perimeter.

The next day the four “corner men” began the job of notching the logs and laying them atop each other. As soon as the walls were “a few rounds high” others began laying puncheons for the floor. Men cut a three-foot wide opening for the door and a wider opening at one end for the chimney. They might cut a window opening, too, that would be covered with greased paper.

Throwback Thursday is brought to you by Matson Insurance in Brookville.

Submitted by the Jefferson County History Center.
Copyright©Jefferson County Historical Society, Inc. 2010.