Sanderford Log Cabin

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Sanderford Log Cabin, out in Bell County. Settle in, because this one's got layers. Now, when a man picks up and moves to Texas in 1867, he's not exactly doing the easy thing.

The Civil War had just finished leaving its mark on the country, and John Rice Sanderford, a veteran of that war, came to Nolan Valley and got to work. He was born in 1841, and he'd live all the way to 1923, but right there in 1867 he put his hands to something that would outlast nearly everything around it. He built a cabin.

Not just any cabin. A cabin of hand-hewn oak logs, built for his first wife, Elvira Keith. Think about that for a moment.

Every log in those walls was shaped by hand. John Rice didn't order it from a catalog. He cut it, he squared it, he stacked it.

And he built it for Elvira. Elvira Keith Sanderford died in 1884. The cabin stood.

John Rice went on to marry his second wife, Emily Viola Lacy, and he went on to raise, are you ready for this, twelve children in and around that valley. Twelve. One of the earliest homes in the Nolan Valley community, and it was busy.

In 1895, inside those hand-hewn oak walls, a boy was born. John Roy Sanderford. That birthplace didn't stay quiet long.

John Roy grew up to become a State Senator from this district, serving from 1933 to 1937. Born in a log cabin, seated in the Texas Senate. That's the kind of arc that makes a story worth telling around a fire.

Now, the cabin itself had some years on it by the middle of the twentieth century. But here's the thing about families that put down roots. They tend to hold on.

The youngest son of John Rice Sanderford, Judge T.E. Sanderford, took it upon himself to restore the cabin in 1964. The youngest son, honoring what his father built with his own hands nearly a century before.

The marker tells us the descendants of John Rice Sanderford are area leaders in civic and business life. And looking at what came out of one hand-hewn log cabin in Nolan Valley, built in 1867, birthplace of a state senator, restored by a judge, well. That's not a coincidence.

That's a family.

What the marker says

One of earliest homes in Nolan Valley community. Built when he moved to Texas in 1867 by John Rice Sanderford (1841-1923), a veteran of the Civil War. Birthplace, 1895, of John Roy Sanderford, State Senator from this district from 1933 to 1937. Settler John Rice Sanderford was father of 12 children. First wife, Elvira Keith, for whom he built this cabin of hand-hewn oak logs, died in 1884; his second wife was Emily Viola Lacy. The descendants are area leaders in civic and business life. Cabin restored by youngest son, Judge T.E. Sanderford, 1964. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1967.