Nelson Log House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. In 1861, a man named Robert Carroll Nelson arrived in Cooke County, and he didn't waste much time settling in. He got to work building a log house, and not just any log house.

He went straight to the land itself for what he needed. Post oak logs for the walls. Hewn ironstone for the chimney and the foundation.

The kind of construction that says: I am not leaving. Robert Carroll Nelson, born in 1835, was putting down roots, and he was putting them down deep. Now, a house is one thing.

Filling it up is another. Robert and his wife Elizabeth raised six children within those post oak walls. Six.

And all the while, Nelson was serving his community. Cooke County commissioner. Justice of the peace.

A man people turned to for decisions that mattered. But here is the part that ought to stop you for a moment. That house, built from the timber and stone of the very ground it stands on, still has its original materials.

The logs are exposed. The craftsmanship of a pioneer working in 1861 is still right there for anyone with eyes to see. And the family.

The Nelson family has held onto that house for most of its existence. Robert Carroll Nelson passed in 1914, but the house he raised with post oak and ironstone and his own two hands, that house stayed. Some things are just built to last.

What the marker says

Robert Carroll Nelson (1835-1914) constructed this log house for his family soon after arriving in the area in 1861. Using readily available resources, Nelson built the house of post oak logs, with a chimney and foundation of hewn ironstone. A Cooke County commissioner and justice of the peace, Nelson and his wife, Elizabeth, reared their six children here. Noteworthy for its retention of original materials and exposed log construction, the Nelson log cabin exhibits fine pioneer craftsmanship and has remained in the Nelson family for most of its existence. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2000