DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little Rusk County flavor. Now, there are log cabins, and then there are log cabins that have earned the right to still be standing. The T.
J. Walling cabin is the second kind. In 1841, Thomas Jefferson Walling and his wife Nancy — she was a Price before she married him — raised up this one-room cabin right here in Rusk County.
One room. That's it. But don't let the simplicity fool you, because what went into building this place was anything but simple.
Every timber was hand-hewn. Every corner was joined by square notches, cut to fit so tight the wood did the work. That was the way of pioneer farm homes in this part of Texas, and the Wallings did it right.
Now, Thomas Jefferson Walling was not a man who came to this frontier unprepared. He'd already seen the hard edge of things. He was a veteran of the Cordova Rebellion and the Indian wars — that stretch of 1838 to 1839 that tested the mettle of men across this region.
By the time he and Nancy put up this cabin, he knew exactly what kind of country he was building in. And build he did. The Wallings lived in that one room with their family from 1841 all the way until 1859.
Walling himself, born in 1811, lived on until 1902 — long enough to see the world change so many times over it would make your head swim. The cabin eventually left its original site — ten miles northeast of where you're standing right now. But in 1982, somebody made sure it didn't disappear.
It was moved, carefully, to this location. One room of hand-hewn history, square-notched corners and all, finding a new patch of ground to anchor itself to. Some things, if they're built right, just refuse to quit.
What the marker says
In 1841 Thomas Jefferson Walling (1811-1902) and his wife Nancy (Price) erected this one-room log cabin. Typical of many pioneer farm homes in this area, it was built of hand-hewn timbers joined at the corners by square notches. Walling was a veteran of the Cordova Rebellion and Indian wars, 1838-1839, and lived here with his family until 1859. The Walling log cabin was moved from its original site (10 mi. NE) to this location in 1982. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1983