Orrin L. Winters Cabin

Duane's take

Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, most cabins in Texas just sit there and age gracefully. Maybe they lean a little, maybe the porch sags, but they hold their shape.

The cabin of Orrin L. Winters had a different destiny entirely, and friend, it is one of the more roundabout journeys a pile of oak logs has ever taken in this state. It starts about 1853, out near the Lavaca River, roughly two miles northeast of where you might be standin' right now.

A Tennessee man named Orin L. Winters, born in 1811, put up a two-room cabin out of oak logs. Just two rooms.

Modest. Solid. He lived in that structure for twenty years, clear through until 1873.

You imagine the things those walls held, the seasons they weathered, the river running nearby through all of it. Then the cabin sat empty for a spell, as cabins do. And here is where the story takes its first unexpected turn.

Around 1902, a man named Adam Schutz tore the old oak log cabin down. Now, he didn't waste the timber. Not one bit.

He used those very logs to build a barn and a blacksmith shop. So the cabin became two things at once, split across two new purposes, which is either practical or a little heartbreaking, depending on your disposition. The blacksmith shop later burned.

Gone. But the barn, that barn held on. It held on all the way to 1973, when it was dismantled, moved, and restored as a cabin, right here, to represent the pioneer heritage of Lavaca County.

Those oak logs, felled sometime around 1853, had now been a cabin, a barn, a blacksmith shop, and then a cabin again. The restoration was no one-person undertaking. The building itself came by way of the Adolph Petrek family.

Restoration and the fence were supported by William W. Allen, Mr. and Mrs. Alton C.

Allen, Wilbur H. Baber Jr. The marker was provided by the descendants of the Winters family.

The site was given by the City of Moulton. And the man who put it all back together was restoration contractor Newton Peschel. Orin L.

Winters was born in 1811 and lived until 1902, the same year, as it happens, that Adam Schutz was taking apart his old home to build something new. He never saw what those logs would eventually become. But the wood he chose, strong Tennessee-Texan determination cut into oak, outlasted just about everything.

That cabin stood twice, and it is standin' still.

What the marker says

Originally a two-room cabin, built about 1853 near the Lavaca River (2 miles northeast) by Orin L. Winters (1811-1902), a native of Tennessee. He lived in the structure until 1873. About 1902, the oak log cabin was torn down by Adam Schutz, and used to construct a barn and a blacksmith shop. The blacksmith shop later burned, and in 1973, the barn was dismantled, moved here, and restored as a cabin, to represent the pioneer heritage of Lavaca County. Incise on back: Donors: Building - The Adolph Petrek family Restoration and fence - William W. Allen, Mr. and Mrs. Alton C. Allen, Wilbur H. Baber, Jr. Marker - Descendants of Winters Family Site - City of Moulton Restoration contractor - Newton Peschel Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1974