Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1956-04-12
Original Uncle Tom 8 Cabin
Still Stands in Montgomery

Toms Cabin" is not.
Josiah Henson was the real
life model for Uncle Tom in Har-
riet Beecher Stoves ante-bellum
novel. He was a slave for many
years on the plantation of Isaac
Riley near what is now Luxman-
or. The cabin in which Josiah
probably ate his meals still
stands several hundred yards
from the intersection of Old
Georgetown Road and Tilden
Lane on the three-acre estate of
William H. Coburn
Actually Mrs. Stowe never Wis
tied Maryland. She met Josiah
Henson in Boston after he ran
away and became a preacher. He
no doubt told her of his expert
ences on the Riley plantation.
She probably learned additional
details of his slavery from his
book, 1.-THE Life of Josiah Hen
son" published in 1849, three
years before her own monument
tai volume.
Uncle Tom - or Josiah Hen
son wouldn't recognize his ca
bin, now attached to the main
Coburn house. Because its walls
are nothing more than weather
beaten logs chinked with stone
studded cement, the cabin in the
winter is too cold to use for any
thing but storing summer lawn
furniture. In the warm months
1t is used as a reasonably cool
recreation room.
On Low Level
The cabin is on lower level
than the main house. 1t has two
small high windows, two small
low windows, and a plank door
to the outside. The peaked cell
ing is plastered. The room is
furnished in rickty old furniture.
A big brick fireplace is in one
corner Outside the chimney is
moss-covered.
In his book Historic Montgom-
cry County Old Homes and His
tory" Roger Brooke Farquhar
says the cabin was probably the
kitchen of the Riley plantation.
He notes, 1T had a second floor
or lift where slaves slept, prob
ably including the cook, although
Uncle Tom may have slept there
to be within easy call of his mas
ter. Riley depended upon "Si''
Henson, his body servant and
overseer."
The loft was removed by Mrs.
Levina w. Bolten who owned the
estate before the Coburns. Mrs.
Bolten hired one-time White
House architect Lorenzo Winslow
to remodel the cabin and main
house.
Mr.. Coburn, a Congressional
committee attorney, says there
were other cabins on the estate
when he bought it in 1850 but
they have been torn down.
Cabin FictionaIized
While Josiah Henson was the
model for the novels Uncle Tom,
Josiah Henson's real-life cabin
certainly wasn't like Uncle Toms
fictional cabin.
In his book Josiah Henson de.
scribes conditions on the Riley
plantation: Our lodging was in
log huts of single small room
with no other floor than the trod-
den earth in which 10 or a dozen
persons - men, women, and the
children might sleep but
which could not protect them
from the dampness and cold nor
permit the existance of the COM
mon decencies of life.
There were neither beds nor
furniture in the hovels," says Mr..
Henson. The slaves slept on "a
heap of rags" In a later book,
Mr., Henson said of his cabin,
"The wind whistled and the rain
and snow blew in and the damp
earth soaked in the moisture till
the floor was miry as pig sty."
Mrs. Stoves book saw Uncle
Toms cabin as cozy little flow
er-decked cottage. "The cabin of
Uncle Tom was a small log build
ing, close adjoining to the house.
In front it had a neat garden
patch where every summer
strawberries, raspberries and a
variety of fruits and vegetables
flourished under careful tending.
The whole front of it was cover.
ed by large scarlet begonia and
a native multiflora rose which,
entwined and interlaced, left
scarce a vestige of the rough logs
to be SEEM"
CoZy Furniture
Inside Mrs. Stowe pictured "a
bed covered neatly with a snowy
spread, and by the side of it was
a piece of carpeting of some con.
siderable size" The cabin was
also adorned with "some very
brilliant Scriptural prints
and portrait of George Wash