The Barton Cabin

None of the Oscar W. McConkie descendants (as far as I know) are descendants of the Bluff Fort Bartons, but the Barton Cabin at Bluff fort is very significant for us because it is the only structure out of all of the buildings at the fort  that actually dates to the time of the building of the fort at Bluff.  All of the other buildings are reconstructions of what modern researches believe the original buildings would have looked like, and in some instances we are aware of inconsistencies that we have chosen to accept for the sake of getting something in place.  With the Barton cabin, however we can see exactly how these Bluff pioneers built a cabin.  We can observe the interesting joinery in the logs and between logs, and we can get a feel for what our ancestors' cabin would have looked like or been like.

The Bluff pioneers undoubtedly helped each other build their cabins, hence our ancestors were also likely to have assisted in building the Barton cabin.

In this shot we are looking at the Barton cabin across the garden to the North.  We can see some of the restored cabins in the distance.

This picture is from the north-east corner of the Barton cabin.    Whenever I see an old pioneer cabin I like to study the notching in the logs where they are joined together.   There are several other interesting things to note in this picture.  All the cabins we built as part of the reconstruction, and all of the cabins built by others, as well as the old school house have straight logs.   The Barton cabin shows us that these pioneers didn't have the luxury of building with straight logs.  Most of these logs are rather curvy.  No matter.   These pioneers were amazingly adept at working with curved logs or at building a stone wall with irregular stones.  The secret at how they could make these curved logs hold together will become apparent later on below.

Another thing to observe here is that this cabin does not look like one little square cabin, but has several rooms, each of which seem to have been a distinct cabin.  This is because when the fort was abandoned and the land in Bluff was partitioned and assignments were made to the original settlers, the Barton family was assigned the land the original fort was on, and other families were assigned other lots in town, so the Bartons connected a couple of the original cabins by building a log room in between them.  We will see the in-between room below.

Another curious detail:  Notice the interesting door-jam.

So which of the original log homes was the original Barton cabin?  And who was the owner of the other log cabin that was eventually joined to the Barton cabin? 

The north-east corner looking west.

 Inside the middle chamber--the room built between the two cabins, looking toward the cabin to the south.  Notice the joinery here--especially in the little wall between the two doorways.   There are large dowels (like 2 inch diameter)  that have been inserted into holes that have been bored into the logs from one log to the next.  This holds these logs together in vertical position so that the wall holds itself up.  (Click on the picture to see an enlarged view where this detail will be more apparent.)  When we were building the reconstructed cabins we used long screws for this function, but if we were being authentic, like the pioneers who had precious little iron, we would have used dowels like this.

Note here on the right, where the doorway on the right hand side is, you can observe the corner of one of the original cabins.

A dresser in the Barton cabin.  (This is the north room or the room which originally was the cabin on the north.)

 Looking from the north room (i.e. the original Barton cabin) into the room that was built between two cabins.

 Another view from the middle room into the additional room built onto the south cabin.

A view from the west side of the Barton cabin looking south into one of the original cabins.  Again notice the joinery here.   There are large dowels inserted into holes that have been bored into the logs, thus holding the logs together and the wall in an upright position.  The chinking has fallen out of many of the rooms on this cabin or you would not be able to see this joinery--but it would be good to restore the chinking.  You can see the reconstructed Lemuel Hardison Redd cabin through the far window.

A view from the west looking into the room that was built between the two cabins, linking them together into one home.

 A view of the Barton cabin from the west.  To the left here we see the original Barton cabin, and to the right is the room built between two cabins.

 A view from inside the Add-on room in the Barton Cabin, looking east.

 Inside the one of the Barton cabin rooms.

 This wooden plank floor in in the room between the two cabins.

 Another view of the wooden plank floor in the room between two cabins, looking west.

 Looking out of the room between two cabins to the east.

A view of the add-on room from the east.  Notice a pavilion has been built above the cabin to protect it from the weather.   There appears to have been a low door cut into this wall at one time.  What was it used for?

A view from inside the room between two of the original cabins, looking toward a corner of one of the original cabins on the south. 

A view of the Barton cabin from the south.  Here we can see additional detail of the joinery.  You can see vertical dowels between logs holding them in place.  You can also see two places where logs have been spliced together--logs cut on a diagonal wedge, then two wedge pieces held together with a dowel inserted to hold the graft together.

The young woman in this picture is Keziah Adams who was named after her great (^4) grand mother Keziah Jane (Butler) Redd.

(This last picture was taken at the October 2008 McConkie reunion when we rebuilt the James Monroe Redd cabin.)