The study of history through the excavation of discarded items, exploring people's attics, flying drones, and stuff….
It’s not easy restoring old log cabins. Fortunately, we only have the inside to deal with, since the outside got to keep its board and baten siding, and it now mostly finished. Once the old pre-Civil War plaster comes down off the walls inside, it’s a big mess. Even after it’s cleaned up, it’s still a mess.
I spent an entire summer with my three brothers, and some friends doing all the demo work and plaster removal, etc., off of this old house. You couldn’t tell before we started, but there were logs hidden inside the old plaster walls . . . .
I recently found the 1816 Last Will and Testament of John Byrnside, who lived at Willowbrook from 1770 through his death in 1816. He was the owner of the plantation itself, beginning in 1788, when it was deeded to him by his father, James Byrnside. John then took over running the plantation, as well as …
In the past couple of months there’s been a lot of progress on restoration of “our fort,” – Byrnside’s Fort, which is technically inside the larger home of Willowbrook. We temporarily stopped interior work in an attempt to get the outside painted and sealed before winter. Most of our followers will be happy to see …
Read moreRestoration Progress on Byrnside’s Fort, a.k.a. Willowbrook
This is the actual site of Fort Clendenin – also called “Fort Lee” – on the North bank of the Kanawha River in present day Charleston, West Virginia. The spot is located exactly at the corner of Brooks Street and Kanawha Boulevard, in downtown Charleston, West Virginia, and is now the site of a somewhat …
Read moreThe site of Fort Clendenin and the origin story of Charleston, WV
This impressive log cabin was built 1770-1772 by Col. James Graham. It was the site of a bloody attack in 1777. This special structure is one of the few other surviving frontier blockhouses of the 18th century Virginia frontier, all of which lie within a fairly small radius of the Greenbrier Valley: the Graham Cabin, Byrnside’s Fort, and the Estill Blockhouse (the latter two being in modern day Monroe County on Indian Creek). The Graham cabin is on the Greenbrier River.
Donnally’s Fort, in Greenbrier County, was the site of the 2nd largest Revolutionary War era battle between Native Americans and white settlers in West Virginia, second only to the epic Battle of Point Pleasant. This battle was epic in its own way. Check out the connection we made with this event…..
This log cabin has been used as a barn for a long, long time. But we believe it was a primitive 18th century log cabin dwelling originally. We have to move this structure of the current property, which sits very close to the site of the frontier fort known as Thompson’s Fort – somewhat of a fortified home, located in Pickaway, West Virginia.
Samuel Gwinn is believed to have settled on the Greenbrier River at the same time as his friend James Graham, building a log cabin across the Greenbrier River from Graham, circa 1770. The log cabin is now gone, unlike the Graham cabin, but I did track it down. And there is an old photo of it still standing. Originally this was in Greenbrier County. Then Monroe County…. and finally, Summers County.
When I originally found this huge iron object at the fort, I first assumed it was a big forged hinge of some sort, or other architectural hardware. After examining it, it’s not a hinge at all, it’s part of a very large fireplace trammel, which would have been used as an adjustable hanger for kettles for cooking in an open fireplace.