|
Jun. 4, 2007
My mother's homestead cabin birth place
The Buffalo, WY, museum is having Living History Days on June 22 and 23. The homestead cabin that will be dedicated on the 23rd, on the museum/court house lawn, is the one in which my mother, Pauline Jenkins Oltion, and her older sister, Louise Jenkins Ridley, were born.
Mother's dad, Marshall DeWitt Jenkins, built it sometime around 1916 to 1918, about twelve miles north of Kaycee. He had sold the homestead when Mom was little, before 1925. Kaycee is about 46 miles south of Buffalo.
About 25 years ago, Mother bought the cabin from the owner, James Ullery. My dad, George Oltion, with help from some of the family, took it apart, marking the logs so he would be able to properly reconstruct it, and moved it to their (my parents') yard in Story, about 20 miles north of Buffalo.
Then Mother put old items in it, including the old treadle sewing machine her mother, Sylvia Jenkins, had used. Another item that Mother put in it was the big trunk that her mother had brought out from Illinois to Wyoming in August, 1914, about 2 or 3 months after she and Grandpa were married.
About two years ago, Mother donated the homestead cabin to the museum and they moved it from her yard to the museum/court house lawn, all in one piece, last fall.
Grandma used to call the home a house instead of a cabin. To her, a cabin was smaller, but this is a two-room "house" rather than a cabin. Grandpa had made it using logs from trees he had cut on the southern tip, called The Horn, of the Big Horn Mountains, a few miles west of the homestead.
If you are ever in our area, stop at the Jim Gatchell Museum in Buffalo to see the homestead house exhibit.
|
| •
Post A Comment! •
Send to a Friend!
|
Comments
|
Posted by 
Posted by 
Posted by 
Posted by 
Jun. 7, 2007 - How exciting!
Peace and Laughter,
Cristina