Carter Log House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker on the Carter Log House tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Picture this: three miles east of Kirvin, out in Freestone County, a man named David L. Carter came up from Alabama and did what pioneers did in 1845.

He built a house. But not just any house. A house that was going to last.

Carter fitted those logs together tongue-and-groove style, locked them in place not with nails but with wooden pins, the way a man builds when he means it to stand. The rafters, though, those he fastened with square nails, and if you know anything about early Texas construction, you know square nails were not exactly something you picked up at the corner store. Now here is the part that makes you stop and think about what building a home actually cost a pioneer.

The materials for the floor and the ceiling had to be hauled in by ox-wagon, seventy miles, from somewhere near Rusk. Seventy miles by ox-wagon. You feel every one of those miles just hearing it.

And when Carter finally got that house standing, he made sure every room had what a Texas family needed most on a cold Freestone County night. A fireplace. Two downstairs, one upstairs.

Three fireplaces total, because comfort was earned out here, not assumed. David L. Carter went on to serve in the Confederate Army, and he helped start Woodland Boys' College, so the house was only the beginning of the mark he left on this part of Texas.

The Carter Log House. Typical of pioneer dwellings, the marker says. Typical.

Seventy miles by ox-wagon, wooden pins, three fireplaces. If that's typical, I'd love to see what extraordinary looked like.

What the marker says

(originally located 3 miles east of Kirvin) Typical of pioneer dwellings in early Texas, this house was built in 1845 by David L. Carter, from Alabama. He later served in the Confederate Army and helped start Woodland Boys' College. The tongue-and-groove logs were joined with wooden pins. Square nails were used on the rafters. Materials for floor and ceiling were hauled 70 miles by ox-wagon from near Rusk. A huge fireplace stood in each room-- two downstairs, one upstairs. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1968