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Log Cabins:

Log Cabins: image Log Cabins: image
Parent Issue
Day
10
Month
December
Year
1975
Copyright
Copyright Protected
Rights Held By
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OCR Text

Tfiere oren't many log cabins left in Washtenaw County and most of those that remain are in a state of physical and historical neglect. But o brief exploration by our reporter of pne log cab'n on Esch Road uncovers enough fascinating history to suggest a worthy project for those interested in preserving the annals of our county. You head south on Esch Road in Freedom Township, the road makes a jog, you pass Altenbernt Road, and suddenly on your left you see a log house. The log house is sturdy and handsome, sitting there on the side of a knoll in the wooded, rolling countryside. You stop. When you come closer you see that it is abandoned and has become the victim of neglect and vandalism. Doors and windows are gone, pieces of broken furniture lie about, part of a stairway is missing ... But still the cabin is impressive. You can see that the walls are massive and well built. The roof is largely intact. What a history it must have had! The sound of hammering comes from a house up the slope and beyond a barn to the east. You set off across the field in hopes of finding out something about the log cabin. You are in luck, for the man who puts down his hammer and answers your knock is Irvin Mertz, a lifelong resident of the area who knew the cabin well - and the people who lived in it. "My dad passed away recently and he was close to 90. Will Kleinschmidt was about the same and he was bom in the cabin. His mother was born there, too, as I understand it." Mertz says the cabin is well over 100 years old. It was occupied mainly by the William Kleinschmidt family, who had some 40 acres of land, "rangin' from clay to muck - fertile soil," says Mertz. "Their fence ran south 40 rods, then east 40 rods, then south about 40 more rods," he explains. "And the farm lay on the west side of the road, too." Although Mertz and the Kleinschmidt youths went to different country schools ("Altenbernt Road was the dividing line"), Mertz had many occasions to visit the Kleinschmidts' log home, both as a boy and as an adult. The log home was occupied up into the 1950s. "The logs are all solid black walnut," continúes Mertz, "and they were all taken from the farm premises. Inside ing was all knotty pine. Tongue-andgroove construction was used throughout. "The house 'was very cozy and warm in the wintertime. It was heated by a big Round Oak stove. That was the brand name. You could feed it from a doublé, door in front or from a lid on top. "I can recall going to get wood for it when I was 7 or 8 years old." The basement level was used for stor- ing vegetables and fruit, Mertz tells us. "I once stored corn there," he adds. "The first story was for living quarters, and the top story had two big bedrooms. Up there they had what was called a heating drum, about 30 inches in diameter and 30 inches high. The drum was connected to the Round Oak stove, and had a baffle-typë arrangement that retained the heat, but let the smoke escape out the chimney. This drum heated the two bedrooms," says Mertz. "Plus those big old warm featherbeds." Mrs. Herman Romelhardt, granddaughter of the William Kleinschmidt'srj remembers the log house well. "We lived over the hill to the south. i My grandparents lived in the log house all their lives, from the time they carne from Germany. "I remember there was a lean-to kitchen built on the east side of the cabin toward the barn. It had a big old woodburning stove that I used to sit in front of. It was like a fireplace. "They had a woodshed, too, out toward the barn, where they heated water for washing. There was a spring down the hill, boxed in so nothing could get in to it, which supplied drinking water. There were two milk houses down by the spring. The garden was on the south side of the log cabin." "There used to be a lot of log houses in this territory," says Mertz. "Christian Ernst had one on Ernst Road. 'Bank' Sodt had one. He was a giant of a man. All the Sodts were big. John Bertke had alog house on Pleasant Lake Road and, there was the Dresselhouse place on Esch Road. "Now most of them are gone. And itt a shame this one is going downhill." l[ Owner of the log cabin on Esch Road &. Alian Faulhaber, who has many acre in corn. We find him at the barn door of his place on Esch Road. We learn that he acuired the log cabin property seven or eight years ago. He, too, knew the Kleinschmidts and became familiar with the log cabin when it was" lived in. j "Quite a few people cóme out and take pictures of it," he says., "One lady whocame two or three weeks ago said she was from an historical society." Faulhaber says she may have been interested in seeing that the cabin is preserved. "I believe it is worth preserving and restoring," he says. Torn Lacy, president of the Washtenaw County Historical Society, says there are still quite a few log cabins around the county, although he has not been aware of the one on Esch Road. "I think it would be a good project for the Washtenaw County Historical Society to dig into this and find out where all the log cabins are and the condition they're in. I think this would be a real good thing." But time seems to be running out. As Irvin Mertz says, "They're here one day and gone the nexL" But the one on Esch Road won't disappear too easily. "A hurricane wouldn't blow down those black walnut walls!" says Mertz.

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Old News