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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



exceeding one day's ride on horseback among the moun- 

 tains of West Virginia a traveler might recently have 

 passed three log structures each more than a century old 

 and all still in use. One was the Westfall Indian fort at 

 Beverly, built during the Dunmore war in 1774; one was 

 a barn near Parsons, built in 1814, and its original white 

 pine shingle roof kept it dry during 102 years ; and the 

 third was a memorial church built prior to 1790 by a 

 pioneer in memory of his child. A Methodist preacher 

 still occupies the pulpit every Sunday, and the church 

 still is known by the name of the child in whose memory 



build a log house than a plain board house of equal size. 

 Measurements recently made of the logs in an average 

 log house showed that had they been sawed into plain 

 inch boards, six houses of upright boards (walls only) 

 could have been built of the same material. It is evi- 

 dent that the log cabin builders made a pretty heavy 

 demand on the forests, in proportion to the number of 

 houses they built. They used logs, also, for barns, cribs, 

 and other farm buildings, though in justice to the his- 

 torical truth of the matter, it must be said that most of 

 the pioneers were shiftless in regard to both residences 

 and barns. Their horses and cattle too often roamed 

 the snowy hills in winter with no other roof than the 

 sky and clouds and no other bed than the snow, while the 

 surrounding forests held enough timber to have shedded 

 every hoof of stock on the place, without missing what 

 might have been cut for barns. The primitive log build- 

 ings were seldom large, and nearly always pitifully small 

 and mean. A halo of romance is often thrown round the 



IN EXISTENCE BUT OUT OF DATE 



Here is shown an old corn crib built of fence rails and puncheons and 

 a roof of split clapboards. It is a survival of a type of farm buildings 

 common in pioneer days among the southern Appalachian Mountains. 

 This crib was half full of corn when the photograph was made in 1913. 



it was built, 'Ann Eliza." The building was weather- 

 boarded half a century ago and the logs do not now 

 appear in view. These venerable log structures are in- 

 teresting chiefly as examples of the substantial character 

 of the material of which they were built. They are not 

 isolated cases, for, without doubt all forested regions 

 of the eastern part of the country have similar old and 

 venerable log houses whose periods of existence extend 

 farther into the past than the memory of any living 

 man can go. 



The builders of log houses, particularly those of older 

 date, did not worry themselves over any conservation 

 questions. They used all the logs they wanted and took 

 no thought of the morrow. The trees which they cut 

 were seldom missed from the abundance in the forests. 

 In this connection it may be of some interest to know 

 approximately how much more material is required to 



MEMORIAL LOG CHURCH COVERED WITH WEATHER BOARDING 



This venerable edifice crossed the century mark years ago, and is still 

 served by a Methodist circuit rider. It is claimed to be the oldest 

 memorial church west of the Appalachian Mountains, built by a Revolu- 

 tionary soldier, and named Ann Eliza, for his dead child. It stands at 

 St. George, West Virginia. It is yet known by its original name. 



memories of the frontiersmen, but if an impartial wit- 

 ness should judge them by the houses in which they 

 raised their families, and by the barns that afforded all 

 the shelter their horses and cattle got in winter, some 

 of the enchantment which distance lends to the view 

 would disappear. 



Wood is an ideal building material. It has a few un- 

 desirable qualities, but it possesses a far greater number 



