Jopling-Melear Log Cabin

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it: and it's a good one. Now, the story of the Jopling-Melear Log Cabin starts with a man named George Washington Jopling, born in 1833, and it starts with his hands. In 1863, right there in the Johnson Station Community, Jopling raised up a log cabin, built it for his wife Catherine, born a Thomas in 1837, and for their large family.

That's a man who knew how to get things done. Because Jopling wasn't just a builder. He was a farmer, a cattleman, a cotton gin owner, and on top of all that, a community leader who helped organize the Johnson Station Masonic Lodge.

The kind of fellow a town leans on. Catherine lived in that cabin until she passed in 1882. George kept on; he remarried, and at some point that cabin had grown, been enlarged from the structure he first put up.

And when the time came, he deeded it (signed it over) to his daughter Jane Catherine, born 1854, and her husband, a man by the name of Z.T. Melear, born 1850. Now Melear was no slouch either.

Farmer and blacksmith, owner of a livery stable and a cotton gin of his own. The cabin passed into capable hands. Jane Catherine Melear lived long enough to see a great deal of the world change; she wasn't born until 1854, and she didn't leave this earth until 1940.

Her husband Z.T. held on until 1931. That cabin outlasted them all. And in 1970, more than a hundred years after George Washington Jopling first notched those logs together, the cabin was moved to this very site.

Still standing. Still telling.

What the marker says

George Washington Jopling (1833-1903) erected this log cabin in 1863 in the Johnson Station Community for his wife Catherine (Thomas) (1837-1882) and their large family. A farmer, cattleman, and cotton gin owner, Jopling also served as a community leader, helping organizing the Johnson Station Masonic Lodge. After Catherine died he remarried and deeded the cabin, which had been enlarged, to his daughter Jane Catherine (1854-1940) and her husband Z.T. Melear 1850-1931). Melear, a farmer and blacksmith, owned a livery stable and cotton gin. In 1970 the cabin was moved to this site. (1980)