Hoyle Cabin

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, the story of the Hoyle Cabin doesn't start in Waco, where you might be lookin' at it today. It starts way out in Rusk County, sometime around 1853, when a piece of land was patented to a woman named Matilda Holye, who would later become Mrs.

Purviance Williams. That's where this cabin's roots are buried deep. Then, in 1858, somebody put an axe to native yellow pine, hewed those logs by hand, notched them by saw, and stacked them into something that meant to last.

And last it did. Hand-hewn and saw-notched yellow pine doesn't apologize to the weather. It just stands there, quiet and stubborn, daring the years to do their worst.

After 1880, the cabin passed to the family of Eli Benjamin, born in 1845 and gone by 1911, and his wife Julia Kilgore Snelgrove, born in 1850 and gone by 1928. Their son John B. Snelgrove and his wife Georgia Ann Waldrop Snelgrove carried it forward from there, keeping those old pine walls in the family for many years.

Now here's where the story takes one last turn. In 1955, a man named Roger N. Conger purchased the cabin, moved it all the way to Waco, and restored it.

A hundred years of Rusk County weather, two families, and one careful man with a vision for preservation. That cabin made the trip, and it's still standin' to prove it.

What the marker says

Originally situated on and patented in Rusk County about 1853 to Matilda Holye (later Mrs. Purviance Williams). Built 1858 of hand-hewn and saw-notched native yellow pine logs. After 1880, cabin was owned for many years by family of Eli Benjamin (1845-1911) and Julia Kilgore Snelgrove (1850-1928) and their son John B. and his wife Georgia Ann Waldrop Snelgrove. Purchased 1955, moved to Waco, and restored by Roger N. Conger.