Fairfield Recorder newspaper clipping - unknown date but around June 22, 1969.


Old Watson Log Cabin
On Display At Museum

by Elizabeth Daugherty

The one room log cabin on the grounds of the Freestone County Museum was
donated in the name of the Ed. M. Watson family of Stewards Mill by Edward M.
Watson, Jr., who inherited this cabin from his father's estate on Dec 23, 1966.

The log room was the "family room" of a six room house which had been deeded to
Ed Watson by his father, A. T. (Taz) Watson on January 1, 1910.  Ed had been
living in the house since his marriage to Grace Beauchamp of Dew on
Thanksgiving Day 1904.  Edward and his two older sisters, Dorothy Bragg and
Elizabeth Daugherty, were born in this log room.

Taz Watson owned and operated the Stewards Mill Store when he bought the
property from W. A. (Bud) Potter for $3,000 on Dec 4, 1901.  Bud had built the
additions to the log room when he married Tilthy Willard possibly in 1885.  Taz
tried to persuade them to remain in the count but promised to resell to Bud at
the same price if he returned within the year.

Bud's father, Daniel Potter, had built the log room when he first came to
Texas.  Deed records show that Daniel's patent specified the land to be in
"Robertson District, Freestone County, on Cottonwood Creek about 5 miles N 30
AM of Fairfield by virtue of Certificate No. 999 issued by the Commissioners of
Mercers Colony on the 4th day of June 1850."  Actual deed was signed by J. H.
Bell, Governor of the State of Texas on June 13, 1852.

Mr. Jim York of Fairfield who was born in 1873, spent his childhood on land
adjacent to the Potter Place and he and Mrs. York lived with the Potters for
some time helping care for "old man" Potter.  Mr. York says that Mr. Potter was
an Englishman who came to Texas from Arkansas to round up and tame wild horses.
He told Mr. York many times that he paid $50.00 in gold for the section of land
on which the house was built.

There was no little timber on the land where the house was built.  Just big
trees and grass so high that you could only see the head of the deer.  Logs to
build the cabin were cut from timber on Tehuacana Creek by slave labor.  It was
built without nails.  The walls were hewn to fit.  Willie Earl Canady, who
helped move the cabin to the Museum, said he was surprised the way the cabin
was put together as the logs almost locked together.

The roof for the cabin was made from logs covered with split boards with holes
drilled where they could be stacked on top of each other and secured with
wooden pegs.  These slant boards turned the rain.  The floor was of cedar logs
cut in half.  The logs were split with one slave on the ground and another in a
pit dug into the ground for him to stand in.  There was a rock chimney in the
east wall.

You can now visit the 'Watson Cabin' at the museum while it is being restored.
It was possibly built in 1851 or 1852 and has seen much Texas history.   It was
built during Indian days for Mr. York said that Mr. Potter told him of a party
of 30 Indians riding out of the creek bottom towards him one Sunday morning as
he was feeding hogs.  How one old Indian dropped behind indicating he wanted
corn.  Mr. Potter gave him an arm load after which he muttered "UG" and rode
after the others.  The two volume diary kept by Mr. and Mrs. Ed Watson tell of
visitors from the Teacher's Institute in Fairfield, birthday parties, church
affairs, cattle drives, and other daily happenings.  The log cabin was a home
for many years.  It is now yours to enjoy.