Cabin’s original location revealed
It’s an empty patch of land now, nestled between what is now Timbercrest Lane, Glasgow Road and Highlands Blvd.
But more than a century ago, a family lived and farmed on this patch of land, pulling water from the well, taking a horse and buggy into town, and caring for cattle which were used for meat and milk alike.
Bella Vista Historical Society president Xyta Lucas and board member Carole Harter, who recently voted to acquire the morethan-a-century-old log cabin that once was situated on this plot, went out to examine it with Donald Crabtree, a descendant of the family who built the cabin.
Crabtree said he spent some time there when he was a child and remembers the old place. His grandfather was Christopher Cooper — unrelated to Cooper Communities — who built the cabin in 1912 and raised eight children there, he said.
“I was about 12, 13. It’d probably be ‘49, ‘50,” he said. “I went to school in the fourth grade there.”
The family had a pair of twins about two years older, he said, and a boy about his age, so he had plenty of company.
Today, the cabin is 16-by-16 feet with a sleeping loft, not unlike how it was when it was built in 1912. But at that time, Crabtree said, an addition was in place that nearly doubled its size, adding a kitchen with a wood stove. It was right alongside a patch of road that isn’t there anymore, he said, and the family had a pair of barns on the opposite side. There were a few other structures in the area, he said, including a doctor’s house down the road.
The 65-foot deep well, he said, was located behind the house, utilizing a 36-to-40-foot deep cylinder with a trap door. The trap door would open, he said, filling the bucket quickly.
The family had two horses to pull its buggy, he said, and a mule to help work the fields, in addition to cattle which provided milk and meat. The milk was often sold, he said, and the family kept it fresh by placing the jug of milk in a pail of cool water.
The family used to take the buggy down to Sugar Creek to fish, he said, and the catch was often used to fertilize the family’s crops, including squash and tomatoes. Crabtree said he recalls seeing a few eels among the creatures pulled from the creek.
“They must’ve got ‘em all, ‘cause I fished it when I was growing up and I never did see any more eels,” he said.
Vegetables were preserved through the winter, he said, utilizing a pole near the barn. His grandfather would stack hay around the base of the pole, he said, and piled up pumpkins, squash, carrots and other vegetables, then covered them with cane and corn stalks. Retrieving food, he said, was as simple as parting the stalks and reaching in.
His grandmother, he said, had a conch shell she would blow on to let everyone know when food was ready — though he isn’t sure where she got it. She didn’t appreciate some of his youthful antics, either, Crabtree said.
He liked to climb trees as a boy, he explained, and at one point he was climbing her cherry tree. He tumbled and tore up some branches on the way down.
“Grandma looked her head out and yelled ‘get your butt out of there!’” Crabtree recalled.
On another occasion, he said, he was out squirrel hunting with his .22 and, a few hills off the road, found a compact cabin. He later learned it belonged to another doctor from out of state, who built himself a place to stay with his family when he was working in the area.
It was small, he said, with bunks built into the walls and, perhaps most unusually, a wire
hanging from the ceiling with a single light bulb attached. His grandfather, he said, didn’t have electricity until 1949.
“It was amazing to me,” Crabtree said. “Out there, no road going to it and yet it had electricity at that time.”
He discovered the small cabin had a small creek running alongside it, with a paddle set up to generate current from the stream’s current.
Xyta Lucas and Carole Harter said they appreciated Crabtree’s time and help, even after they climbed hills and stepped through brush looking for a remnant of this ancient cabin he spotted as a boy.
The site couldn’t be found while he was out looking with members of the historical society, and Crabtree wondered aloud if there would be anything to find today.
“There’s a whole lot of history in a lot of them places if a person could get it,” he said.