DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way back in 1847, somebody picked up a hand adze — not a saw, mind you, a hand adze — and started hewing cedar logs, one by one, shaping them by muscle and patience until they had enough to build a cabin. Those logs got pegged in place, then caulked with clay to keep the Texas wind where it belonged: outside.
The floor came from hand-hewn cedar boards, same material, same sweat. And the chimney stones? Somebody quarried those near Mountain Creek.
Every single piece of that cabin earned its place the hard way. The man behind it all was William B. Miller, born in 1807, and he'd go on to live until 1899 — long enough to see the world change around him several times over.
This cabin was his first Texas home, and from that beginning he would eventually build an ante-bellum mansion called Millermore. But before any of that grandeur, there was just this cabin, cedar and clay and chimney stone. Now here's the part that tends to stop people in their tracks.
That same humble cabin — the one Miller built to shelter his family — became one of the first schools in Dallas. His five daughters went there, along with seven other local girls, all of them gathering inside those cedar walls to learn. And at the end of the school day?
The students and their teacher didn't go home. They slept in the loft. Just up above where the lessons happened, under that same cedar-log roof.
The whole enterprise — learning and living — folded into one small space. That cabin was moved to its present site in 1964, still standing, still telling the story of a place where Dallas was just getting started.
What the marker says
Built 1847 of cedar logs hewn by hand adzes, pegged in place and caulked with clay. Floored with hand-hewn cedar boards. Chimney stones were quarried near Mountain Creek. First Texas home of Wm. B. Miller (1807 - 1899), who built ante-bellum mansion "Millermore." His 5 daughters, and 7 other local girls went to one of the first schools in Dallas, held in this cabin. They and the teacher slept in left. Placed on present site 1964. RTHL - 1965