In
examining this photo of the first bean harvest on the Julian (Jack) Dobson homestead (see post of Sept. 20), Mike and son Murray discovered an obscure image of the “original" cabin, the first cabin that Grandpa Jack built here. Look closely, and you’ll
see it just over the head of the man farthest left. (See enlargement.)
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This one-room cabin was rough and rustic but served as their home base while they cleared the land and began their farming operation.
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| The "original" cabin, 1912 |
My aunt, Ethel Dobson Robinson, said that the cabin was built in November and December 1895 and was the first cabin in the Gilbert community. The Gilbert post office closed in 1920, but the general area on Russell Ridge is still known as Gilbert.
I don’t know when the cabin was demolished, but according to Aunt Ethel, her sister Myrtle Dobson (known to me as Aunt Lynn) took the picture in 1912. The family was living in the new cabin by 1900, and the present farmhouse was built in 1917. KW
4 comments:
Interesting. That’s not where I would have expected the first cabin to be.
Hi Hallie! Where would you envision the first cabin? It makes sense to me because they came up from Peck on the "backside" of the ridge, which would put them right there at the north field. As we know, there's not a lot of flat places, so they called that location, "down on the flat."
Well, first I was confused and thought you said this was the field behind the house. Still, I pictured the house in the north field but closer to the lane. It DOES make better sense in this photo because they wouldn’t want to be in a low spot.
The north field is the one we see from the kitchen window, and of course, the present lane wasn't there until the late 1940s. And I think they did experience some water problems in that spot. I'll have to research that. Just imagine living in that cabin with three little children, one just an infant.
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