Stepp Cabin

Stepp Cabin. . Thomas and Martha Allison built and lived in this log cabin along Cane Creek, east of Old Fort, in the late 1860s, after Thomas returned home from the Civil War as a Confederate veteran., About 1880, the Allisons moved to Colorado, and William and Jane Suttlemyre briefly occupied the cabin before it was foreclosed on and sold at auction in 1902., John Lytle Stepp (Martha Allison's nephew) placed the winning bid on this small dwelling and eventually added on a three-room frame wing to accommodate his family of 12 children and 45 grandchildren, who visited often., Mr. Stepp lived in this house until 1938, when he died at age 87. It is from him the cabin got its name. The Stepp family continued to own the cabin until 1973, when they deeded it to Mountain Gateway Museum and Heritage Center., The frame wing and stone chimney had fallen down by then, but the original structure –standing 18.5 feet wide, 20 feet long, and 10 chestnut and pine logs high – was moved intact to this site aboard a lowboy trailer., Here, builders reconstructed the cabin's chimney and porch, replaced the tin roof with cedar shingles, and procured a large chestnut log to use as a mantel. The logs join at the corners in half-dovetails, and the daubing consists of mud and straw., [Captions (left to right)] , . Built ca 1865, this log cabin originally stood in the Ebenezer community of McDowell County. , . John Lytle Stepp stands on the porch of his cabin, which he had enlarged significantly to accommodate his growing family. , . Members of John Lytle Stepp's family gathered in the summer of 1927 to celebrate the 76th birthday of the family's patriarch (shown center, below woman holding baby)