Hughes Cabin — 1876

Hughes Cabin — 1876. . , After being acquired for public offices in 2000, succeeding layers of stucco and clapboard siding were removed from the exterior of the historic Hughes cabin to reveal hand-hewn log beams of the original small, one-room structure which is now surrounded to the west and north by newer frame additions. , The original structure is a rare 1876 cabin which may originally have been constructed with a relatively flat earth roof and apparently hurriedly-erected squared logs, the wide spacing between logs being filled with spliced log sections, wadded newspapers, and mortar chinking. , Even more notable than its early construction-date, however, is the fact that this cabin is closely associated with the first wedding to occur in Lake City. , The wedge of land on which this cabin is located was originally owned by Pennsylvania native D.T. “Davie” Hughes who worked as a compositor for Lake City's pioneer weekly newspaper, the Lake City SILVER WORLD, founded in 1875 by H.M. Woods and Clark L. Peyton. , Lake City's first recorded wedding took place on May 7, 1876, when County Judge A.R. Thomson officiated at the wedding of D.T. Hughes and Miss Kitty Eastman. The daughter of E.E. and Jennie (Bartholf) Eastman, Kitty Eastman was the granddaughter of Lake City town founder John D. Bartholf who accompanied Enos T. Hotchkiss when the Saguache and San Juan Toll Road was built from Saguache, Colorado, in 1874. The rough toll road crossed the Cochetopa, dropped into the Powderhorn Valley and then continued up the Lake Fork Valley past the present site of Lake City before crossing into the Upper Animas Valley near Baker's Park. , The wedding of D.T. Hughes and Kitty Eastman was understandably chronicled as a “Red Letter Day” in the local newspaper and was celebrated with a largely attended evening serenade during which many toasts were made to the future health of the bride and groom. Among these was a humorous, newspaper-inspired celebratory toast offered by H.M. Woods, as follows: , “May his stick ever work on solid matter; may her form be well justified and always stand the press; may their proofs ever be correct; and may they never be ashamed of their imprint.” , Among those attending the nuptials in 1876 was W.F.E. Gurley who years later recalled that the Hughes-Eastman shivaree continued far into the night, at the conclusion of which guests put the couple to bed... “the women attending the bride while the men handled Davie, who made a great struggle and assumed all sorts of funny and ludicrous positions in his resistance, but he was finally 'landed' and, after the couple had kissed each other, the guests retired.” Gurley concluded his reminiscence by stating that the next day “the men turned in to build a log cabin for the couple.” , Davie and Kitty Hughes occupied this wedding gift cabin for only a matter of months. By the June, 1880, Federal Census, D.T. Hughes, 26, was listed as a farmer in Trumball County, Ohio, with his 18-year old wife, Cathrine, and “imprints” Jennie, 3, and Cathrine, 1. , [photo caption] The original squared-log portion of the Hughes-Bell Cabin is shown far right after successive layers of stucco and clapboard were removed in 2000.