CLARNO TOWNSHIP - A Juda couple is tearing apart a house on the outskirts of Monroe to reveal a log cabin hidden inside that they estimate dates to the 1830s.
The house-encased cabin stands at N2408 Bethel Road in Clarno Township, just west of the Monroe Estates Mobile Home Park and on land belonging since 1980 to Zweifel Construction.
Lauren Meinert, owner of Zweifel Construction, recently gave Ron and Amanda Fernandes the house after working with their business, R&S Barns in Orangeville. The couple specializes in reclaiming old barn wood and other antique building materials.
"We were going to tear it down regardless," Meinert said.
By giving the house to the Fernandeses to deconstruct, he's giving the home a new chance at life.
The couple have stripped away much of the front siding and an inner wall to reveal a one-story log cabin built with a mixture of elm and oak - likely cut from trees on the very land where the builder dug the home's foundation and lined the basement with limestone. From the second floor, where a wall is knocked out, the cabin's shingled roof is now visible.
Back then, homesteaders would typically etch the date the cabin was made on a log near the front door. Ron hasn't yet found that etching on this log cabin, but he still has a door frame to strip away that may reveal it.
He and his wife guess the cabin was constructed by early settlers and dates as far back as the 1830s, about the time Green County was formed as a territorial county. They found a one-sided Confederate dollar bill while uncovering the cabin. For being so old, they say the logs have held up remarkably well. Some logs are dotted with holes left by powder post beetles, but most logs appear sturdy and in good shape.
Antique wood is in high demand in new construction - R&S Barns has sourced wood for Oprah Winfrey's and Jerry Seinfeld's homes - but the Fernandeses are keeping this cabin whole.
"It's kind of a neat piece to have. We'd rather keep it together," Amanda said.
Her husband plans to mark and tag each log as he dismantles the cabin, then reconstruct it, piece for piece, on their land on Oakley Road in Juda within the next few weeks. Amanda wants to eventually open a small antique shop inside.
The tornado-proof cabin
The early history of the log cabin isn't easily found. The earliest plat book at the Green County Register of Deeds, from 1861, shows the property belonged to W.O. Sherman, or possibly people by the last names of Munson or Martin.
At least one person in Monroe knows the history of the cabin going back three-quarters of a century.
Monroe resident Nate Bloom said his parents bought the cabin before or around the time he was born in 1942 from a man named Josie West. Back then, Bloom recalls, the edge of Monroe only went as far as the Lucky 7 gas station. The Monroe airport was where the Monroe Estates trailer park is now.
"It was all grass landings," he said.
A few years later, Bloom's parents built the house around the cabin as an addition. The Fernandeses are now finding newspapers from 1941 and 1948 that were left in the insulation during that construction. The newspapers have weathered the decades well and are only a little yellowed. A headline in the June 26, 1948 edition of The Monroe Evening Times announces "British Will Stay in Berlin."
The history of the cabin takes a heroic turn in 1965, when a ruthless tornado swept through the area on Palm Sunday. Bloom remembers neighbors' houses and barns being completely flattened by the storm, but his family's home stayed standing.
"The only thing that saved the house was that log cabin," he said. His parents crawled down into the basement for protection, and the solid cabin anchored the rest of the house.
The cabin wasn't totally unscathed, however. Ever since the tornado that year, it had "a twist," Bloom said.
The house-encased cabin stands at N2408 Bethel Road in Clarno Township, just west of the Monroe Estates Mobile Home Park and on land belonging since 1980 to Zweifel Construction.
Lauren Meinert, owner of Zweifel Construction, recently gave Ron and Amanda Fernandes the house after working with their business, R&S Barns in Orangeville. The couple specializes in reclaiming old barn wood and other antique building materials.
"We were going to tear it down regardless," Meinert said.
By giving the house to the Fernandeses to deconstruct, he's giving the home a new chance at life.
The couple have stripped away much of the front siding and an inner wall to reveal a one-story log cabin built with a mixture of elm and oak - likely cut from trees on the very land where the builder dug the home's foundation and lined the basement with limestone. From the second floor, where a wall is knocked out, the cabin's shingled roof is now visible.
Back then, homesteaders would typically etch the date the cabin was made on a log near the front door. Ron hasn't yet found that etching on this log cabin, but he still has a door frame to strip away that may reveal it.
He and his wife guess the cabin was constructed by early settlers and dates as far back as the 1830s, about the time Green County was formed as a territorial county. They found a one-sided Confederate dollar bill while uncovering the cabin. For being so old, they say the logs have held up remarkably well. Some logs are dotted with holes left by powder post beetles, but most logs appear sturdy and in good shape.
Antique wood is in high demand in new construction - R&S Barns has sourced wood for Oprah Winfrey's and Jerry Seinfeld's homes - but the Fernandeses are keeping this cabin whole.
"It's kind of a neat piece to have. We'd rather keep it together," Amanda said.
Her husband plans to mark and tag each log as he dismantles the cabin, then reconstruct it, piece for piece, on their land on Oakley Road in Juda within the next few weeks. Amanda wants to eventually open a small antique shop inside.
The tornado-proof cabin
The early history of the log cabin isn't easily found. The earliest plat book at the Green County Register of Deeds, from 1861, shows the property belonged to W.O. Sherman, or possibly people by the last names of Munson or Martin.
At least one person in Monroe knows the history of the cabin going back three-quarters of a century.
Monroe resident Nate Bloom said his parents bought the cabin before or around the time he was born in 1942 from a man named Josie West. Back then, Bloom recalls, the edge of Monroe only went as far as the Lucky 7 gas station. The Monroe airport was where the Monroe Estates trailer park is now.
"It was all grass landings," he said.
A few years later, Bloom's parents built the house around the cabin as an addition. The Fernandeses are now finding newspapers from 1941 and 1948 that were left in the insulation during that construction. The newspapers have weathered the decades well and are only a little yellowed. A headline in the June 26, 1948 edition of The Monroe Evening Times announces "British Will Stay in Berlin."
The history of the cabin takes a heroic turn in 1965, when a ruthless tornado swept through the area on Palm Sunday. Bloom remembers neighbors' houses and barns being completely flattened by the storm, but his family's home stayed standing.
"The only thing that saved the house was that log cabin," he said. His parents crawled down into the basement for protection, and the solid cabin anchored the rest of the house.
The cabin wasn't totally unscathed, however. Ever since the tornado that year, it had "a twist," Bloom said.