Peter Martin Log Cabin

Peter Martin, grandson of 1727 immigrant David Martin, lived in a log cabin in Earl Township, Lancaster County, Pa. before he moved to Canada in 1819. The log cabin remained standing but was eventually abandoned and deteriorated badly. Still, many of the descendants of Peter's seventeen children came from Canada to see the house and wrote their names on it.
In 1973 a group of men determined to preserve the old log cabin. They purchased it and carefully dismantled it, numbering each log so it could be put back in place whenever it was rebuilt. The logs were in storage for 28 years while the committee, known as the Swiss Pioneer Preservation Association, searched for a suitable place to rebuild the cabin.

Paul W. Martin was the last of many generations of Martins to own the farm known as the "Spring" Isaac Martin farm. The property features a strong spring that has provided water to Martins on that land since the 18th century. Paul never married and had no heirs to inherit the farm. He was active in the Swiss Pioneers and when he died a few years ago the farm was donated to the Swiss Pioneer organization. The farm is half a mile from the place where Peter Martin's log cabin stood. At last, the cabin had found a home.

Lloyd Weiler, who is both a historian and builder of log homes, supervised the rebuilding of the log cabin. In the process, samples of the logs were tested. The results showed the logs were cut in 1784 and 1785. The cabin was probably constructed in 1786, which is much later than many people had guessed.

The public was invited to an Open House today. A large crowd showed up and the affair was a huge success. It was hard to get pictures of the cabin without people getting in the way but I managed a few.

The cabin is special because the builders used round logs. The early Germans and Swiss made most of their cabins of squared-off logs. This cabin is unusual, if not (among surviving log cabins) unique. The one-and-a-half-story cabin contained three rooms. It also had a chimney outside the building, as opposed to the interior fireplace germans preferred. The limestone chimney remains intact. It probably looks as good or better than it did when it was new.

When the cabin was dismantled the entire fireplace and chimney was loaded by crane onto a truck and hauled twenty minutes away where it was stored until it made the reverse trip early this year. It is an unusual fireplace because the door to the bake oven is on the side rather than at the back of the fireplace. This is the bake oven from the outside.

There is a root cellar under part of the house with the door to the cellar conveniently locaed in the kitchen rather than on the outside of the house. The house originally had three rooms but by the time it was dismantled there were only two rooms on the first floor. The sleeping loft on the upper floor is reached by the typical German style curved staircase.

Today the dream of the Swiss Pioneer Preservation Association became reality. The Peter Martin log cabin is once again standing just a half mile from where it originally stood. Some of Peter's descendants came from Canada to touch base with their roots and participate in the Open House. More events will be held on the farm in the future, beginning with a threshing demonstration on August 7.