Liveoak Creek Log Cabin

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm passing it along to you. Out here in Gillespie County, along Liveoak Creek, there stands a dogtrot cabin that was probably already old before most folks in this part of Texas had even unpacked their trunks. Best the record shows, it was built before 1852.

Now, how do we know that? Because 1852 is the year a surveyor by the name of J. L.

Ankrin sold this property, and a cabin already on the land tends to predate the sale. That's the trail the marker lays down, anyway. Ankrin sold it to a man named John Peter Keller, and Keller was no ordinary newcomer.

He was one of the first Gillespie County commissioners. One of the very first. So this little dogtrot was already standing when the county itself was still finding its feet.

The property passed on, the way land does, and it came into the hands of Francis Kettner, who was Keller's son-in-law, and a public official in both Gillespie and Mason counties. Then in 1886, Anton and Anna Loth bought the land, and they put down roots the way people do when they mean to stay. By 1901, they erected a two-story native stone house nearby, and when that fine house went up, well, the old dogtrot cabin got reassigned.

It became a barn. A corn crib. From a family home to a place for feed and grain.

That's not a sad ending, exactly, it's just the way time works on a working farm. But here's where the story turns back around. In 1973, Mr. and Mrs.

I. D. Lewis restored the cabin.

Brought it back. All those layers of history, the surveyor, the commissioner, the county official, the farming couple and their stone house, they're all folded into those logs. The creek's still called Liveoak Creek, and that cabin is still standing, which is more than most things built before 1852 can say.

What the marker says

This dogtrot cabin was probably built before 1852, when surveyor J. L. Ankrin sold this property to John Peter Keller, one of the first Gillespie County commissioners. It was later owned by Keller's son-in-law, Francis Kettner, Gillespie and Mason County public official. Anton and Anna Loth bought the land in 1886 and in 1901 erected a 2-story native stone house nearby. The cabin was then used as a barn and corn crib. It was restored in 1973 by Mr. and Mrs. I. D. Lewis. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1976