Evening star., 1925-10-25
BY GEORGE III. DACY.

b An all at oncet the fire ats been put out
Stats up agin. an other things begin to
The dor,irnS an tn crane an hooks an
A-bakin' on the boad. the way it did in
An purity soon. thar comes a knock upon
The haf-closed door.
An Uncle Abe with saddlehags is here asn
xaA same tall fom. the homes face. an
':Js. drapt in. jim, to eli snack an pass
the tim, O. day
T WO centuries ago. log cabins
such as this provided roof
and shelter and hearthSide
i fire for the hardy settlers oe
the Potomac River country.
Scotch. English. Irish and Germans
they Were-those adopted sons of
the WildernesS-the first white men
to fell trees and to build their houses
Of logs in the vicinity of what later
became the District of Columbia.
With their loaded rifles close by,
hey welded sharp axes while they
kept on the lockout for hostile
Indians. for those were the days
when the bloodthirsty Anacostans
were on the warpath after white
scalpS.
The Jamestown colony in Virginia
was settled in 1907, and st. Mary's
on Chesapeake Bay over in Mary
land came into being 80 years later
hut it was not until the dawn days
of the eighteenth century that set
tiers in numbers penetrated to the
Potomac and began to establish their
homes in Prince William County.
Va. which then comprised that
vast eXpanse of country from Dunn
fries, a Scotch settlement on Guam
tico Creek, to the Ohio Valley from
tier.
The new Scottish Hundred. one Of
The political divisions OF Charles
County, included all land which to-
day Is in the city of Washington.
The Anacostan Indians had a village
named Tohogae where Georgetown
now stands.
The first white man to gaze upon
that section of the Potomac River
which lends beauty and charm TO
our National Capital was Henry
Fleete. an English fur trader and for
rner captive of the Anacostan Indians.
After his mira culous escape from the
redskins Fleete returned to England.
Subsequently. in 1881, he revisited
the New World in quest of fur
treasure and camped on the banks
of the Potomac not far from where
the Washington Monument now
stands.
In the pioneering era which fol-
lowed log cabins constructed of
cedar, pine and fir We're the first
habitations in the District of Column
bia. AS farms We're staked out and
plantations established tobacco came
10 be the dominant crop. Hogsheads
OF tobacco were used as mediums Of
exchange, to pay taxes and church
tithes, and for general trade. Dur
ing those eventful log cabin days
fax and cotton were raised and spun
into clothing; Sleeps wool was
combed and carded and made into
wearing apparel for Winter use.
household was home produced. 1t
was an era of self-sufficiency.
= x X
HOUSES of log have been init
mately associated with the White
House, for a number of our Presidents
successfully completed the difficult
journey from log cabin to Executive
Mansion. At one time or another most
of our early Presidents lived for
months or years in simple houses of
logs. Abraham Lincoln, the Illinois
railsplitter, was son of the log
cabin period, and Gen. u. S. Grant
lived in log house during the days
when he sold wood in st. Louis. The
Grant cabin, III fact, is still preserved
in a private estate near st. Louis is
q historical relic.
William Henry Harrison, the hero
of Tippecanoe and Wing President
from 1S41 to 1S45, is another log
cabin dweller who won his way to
the White House. One of the most eX-
citing political campaigns on record
was waged and the country reSounded
with cries of "Tippecanoe and Tyler
too" The opposition ridiculed the idea
of making such a man as Harrison
our Chief Executive, saying, Give
him a log cabin and a barrel of hard
cider, and he will stay content in
Ohio These words became the rally
ing cry Of the Whig party. They elect
ed the "log-cabin candidate" in spite
Of strenuous opposition.
And thus. from the days of the
white mans first occupancy of the Po-
tomac River country. the dwelling
place made of logs from the neigh
boring forest has played an epochal
part in our local history. Even today,
more than a century after log cabins
have given away to houses CT frame,
brick, Stucco and concrete construc-
ton, Washington still boasts three at
tractive homes made of cedar and
spruce logs. And these attractive
houses cannot be dismissed with
cursory phrase as the last stand of
tngton." For the evidence is that po-
tenttally, when our citizens learn
about the comfortable, commodious
homes which can be built of logs, at
one half to one-third of the cost of a
similar sized frame house, more and
more of them will revert to the type
Of dwelling which was usa2 by white
men in their first settlements in the
New World.
DR.. S. s. Jaffe. a ashington dentist,
who has lived In Somerset for many
wears, could have built any kind of a
home that he wished when he decided
to erect a new house about one and
one-half years ago. He decided to
build a mansion of cedar logs, because
his wife and he had become enthusi-
astio over this type of construction
as a result of many vacations spent in
such houses at Lake Memphremagog,
which is midway between Newport.
Vt, and Magok, Quebec. They also
visited former Representative Bar
rows of Massachusetts, who owns one
of the best Summer houses made of
logs In New England.
The Jaffes ultimately elected to build
a new home of logs. They aspired to
bring the settings and romantic en-
ehantment of the Northern woods
country right down into the Wash
ington vicinity. Their four-aCre lot in
Somerset was large enough, and well
ornamented with Il variety of shade
trees. to lend the distinctive setting
and proper primeval forest background
TO their proposed home.
You who have motored the outlying
and ain-traveled highways which ex
tend into Virginia and Maryland have
probably noted the scrubby growth of
cedar trees which adorns fence rows
i I~&e NtY,.