Cabin Work Rolling Right Along

This article originally appeared in the Dec. 3, 1975 edition of The Oneida Daily Dispatch .

Construction on the log cabin is “rolling right along” with pupils and adult volunteers “busy as beavers” on the Durhamville Elementary School project.

Most of the basic phases of construction have been completed on the “community hobby,” as it has become, with “a big effort put forth” from fathers of pupils and other volunteers over the Thanksgiving holiday recess. During this four-day span, the 34 roof rafters were put into place, according to Samuel Colella, principal at the school and initiator of the project. The next step is to put on the roof board and nail down cedar roof shingles, and from there, work can go on inside the cabin. Colelle said the roof will be insulated on the interior.

The log cabin, which will eventually be a “museum for the school district, and for others who want to come to see

see it,” is being constructed in conjunctionwith a nature trail project that the Durhamville pupils made in a wooded area near the school recently. Teachers, parents, and members of the community are involved in the work and the cabin has become a hobby for the whole community.

The 40-50 foot logs used in the cabin are about eight inches in diameter. The tapered ends of the logs were used for the roof rafters, cut from the 10 feet or so left at the ends of the logs.

Thesewill also be squared off and cut to make flooring planks, measuring two by six inches, the principal noted. Themain sill beamis 30 feet long.

Much of the material for the cabin has been donated, Colella noted. Robert “Toby” Warren and John Best are co-chairmen of the project, and adult volunteers can be found at the cabin site at almost all times. Pupils are allowed to work on the cabin during the school day, after their studies and school work are done.

Detail Progress

Colella continued to note progress made on the project since the foundation for the building was laid.

A huge stone fireplace, made from rocks collected by the pupils from the fields in Durhamville, is complete, up to the roof level, Colella said. The stones were all scrubbed by the pupils, he remarked.

At one end of the cabin, facing the school building, a loft, approximately 16 by 14 feet has been completed. Thiswill be used to store artifacts and will be a replica of a bedroom used in a pioneer cabin, Colella said.

The two-by-six floor joists of rough-cut lumber have been cut and are all ready to be installed. A preservative has been applied to the joists, he said.

Porch Built

A front porch with a roof has been built. The front entrance door is a Dutch-type which was made by the volunteers. Colella noted, “in the warm summer months, the top part can be opened and the bottom part kept closed to keep the animals outside.”

The door for the side en- trance to the 28 by 16 foot cabin has been made by the volunteers out of heavy boards.

“Carriage stones,” approximately seven feet in length have been purchased by a member of the community and donated for use at the log cabin, Colella said. Two carriage stones will be placed at the front entrance and one at the side door. The principal explained that “carriage stones were used as a stepping stone by a person getting out of a carriage, and originally came from Oneida.”

Window and door frames are intact, he said, but “no glass has been placed in the windows because of all the building activity going on.” The doors, he noted, also have not been placed on their hinges because of “so much coming and going through the log cabin.”

Chinking

Chinking the logs will be done by pupils, by pushing “oakum” (a type of plumbers rope which has been tarred and repels bugs), between the cracks of the logs until it fills in the cracks tightly, Colella said. During the pioneer days, he noted, chinking was sometimes done by pushing sphagnummoss between the cracks and then holding it in place with the best clay mud in the vicinity.

Furniture, Too

Colella, who is also principal at Willard Prior School in Oneida, said that after all the exterior work on the cabin has been completed, the pupils and adult volun- teers will build some pieces of furniture for the interior area.

“The artifacts collection has increased and donations have come in the elementary school from many sources,” the principal said. To date, the collection consists of many pieces of glass from the Fox Brothers and Dunbarton Glass Works, heat- ing plates for the irons for clothing, original lanterns from the Erie Canal boats, an early Bible, a “1840 sewing machine on a loan basis,” old pictures and newspapers whichwill eventually be framed and hung on the walls of the cabin and numerous other items of the Erie Canal era which all will be itemized.