I have had this picture on here several times before. It is the cabin my ancestor John Hunter built in Union County about 1834 and is credited for being the oldest man-made structure in Union County, Georgia.
Take a good look. The cabin is about to go through some drastic changes. It will probably not be the same.
Last week in the Union Sentinel newspaper of Blairsville was a picture of my distant cousins Charley Hunter and his nephew Andrew Wallis*. Behind them was the cabin. The article said the cabin will soon be dismantled.
Above -Charlie Hunter and Andrew Wallis in front of John Hunter's cabin on the front page of the Union Sentinel.
Also on the same front page another distant cousin, Ethelene Dyer-Jones in her weekly column talked about the cabin and how it was to be torn down in the near future. She told of the good memories she had and the history of the land and cabin.
I got my Sentinel paper Monday in the mail and tried calling Charlie Hunter to find out the latest and got no answer. I got on the computer and just started typing and email to Ethelene when the phone rang. It was Charlie Hunter. He just happened to call me, he does that about every month or so.
He told me last week he was coming home from town and saw that some workmen were dismantling the cabin. They already had the front porch removed. He did some quick work and paid a healthy amount down on the cabin and it is temporarily in his name. He is expected to move it and as old as it is it will be easier to dismantled and reassembled.
To dismantle it and reassembled it will be costly. I’m not sure Charlie realized what he took on when he paid down on the cabin.
Now, another group wants to gain possession of it and have it and the first Choestoe one-room schoolhouse moved to the same area and use them both for a museum. I think there are two defined sides here both wanting two different things for John Hunter’s cabin but at least they agree on preserving it.
In the old days, a mountain feud meant guns and shooting. Now, it means brief cases, checkbooks, contracts, and deeds.
*Andrew’s mother was Austine Hunter Wallis. She and I ran into each other researching the same family. Andrew is a professor at Whittier College in California.
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ReplyDeleteet,
ReplyDeletewell I guess I will have to change my plans for what I am going to do when I win the lottery. It will now not include "restore John Hunter cabin and use it as a mtn. retreat"!
j3
J3,
ReplyDeleteIn that case, I hope you are the 2nd person in line that I hope wins it. Me, of course, being 1st.
Eddie,
ReplyDeleteDid Charlie just purchase the cabin and not the land? Who ownes the land? Where does he plan to move the cabin? The Hunter clan ownes bunch of land in Union County, I thought they still owned where the cabin is located. I went to Track Rock a few years back, I could not believe how butiful it is aroung there. I hope to go back some day.
You must be kin to half of Georgia. They need to name a town after you. How about Chicken Fat Ville? Better than Chicken Fat City.
ReplyDeleteNice to see that something as special as that cabin will be preserved either way. So many of those old building seem destined to become flooring of firewood.
Johnny,
ReplyDeleteThe land belongs to a Hunter relative - I think that may be partly what the feud is about. Charlie didn't say so, but I suspect that prime lake front property is about to be developed.
If I understand what Charley told me correctly he bought the cabin and it is up to him to move it. One group wants him to donate it to the Union County Historical Society and have it positioned near the Choestoe School.
I would tell you here who I think owns the land, but it is well known name in that community - so there could be repercussions.
They are having a Hunter Reunion this year at Track Rock the first Sunday of June.
Si,
What about All-You-Can Eat Chickenville?