Volume 8, Number 8 - Summer 1984


Wake Cabin
From the Willow Springs News
Contributed by Ray Lovan

Another of Missouri’s historical cabins, Wake Cabin on the Willow Springs District of the Mark Twain National Forest, was destroyed by fire the spring of 1982. It had stood for a little more than 80 years on land given to Henry Wake by his mother, Nancy Freeman Wake, who had deeded 40 acres to each of her three sons. With the help of a neighbor, Henry and his wife Sarah built the cabin in 1901.

Originally the cabin stood on the north bank of the North Fork River under a huge cedar tree in Douglas County.

About 1917, Henry and Sarah decided they wanted their children in the Round Valley School District instead of the Little Zion District where they had been. This problem was solved by tearing down the cabin, moving it north about 50 feet and putting it up again. This put them in the favored school district.

There were five children, 2 boys and 3 girls, and one of the girls, Edna Wake Clinton, was a major source of information on the early history of the cabin.

The house was constructed of logs from the best virgin pine trees in the area, handsquared with a broad axe, then notched together horizontally. The chinking between the logs was made of a mud and clay mixture, covered with lime.

The dimensions of the original cabin were 12‘ 8" by 16’8", but with the birth of the third child, the Wakes added an extra room on the north side and a porch on the west. The ceiling in the cabin was only 6 feet high, and there was a storage loft above. Originally there was a cellar, but when the house was moved, no new cellar was built.

The fireplace on the east was made of sandstone and there was one window, located on the west side, with a front door on the south and a back door on the north. The doors were made of hand-sawn lumber.

"Most of the cabin’s furnishings had been handmade and consisted of bedsteads, a table, chairs, and an iron cookstove," said Mrs. Clinton. "Originally we got our water from a spring, but when the cabin was moved a well was dug." Outbuildings, barns, and sheds were added to the farm complex one at a time.

A post office, sawmill and general store were built across the river a few years after Henry and Sarah first settled the land.

"Our mail was delivered by horseback about once a week from a nearby post office," Mrs. Clinton continued. "We bought our clothing in Willow Springs. All the children completed school through the 8th grade, which was the highest school level we had in the area.

"We made our living farming-mostly grew corn. We had hogs, cattle, sheep and horses. Dad took the corn to a grist mill in Topaz to be ground. He sold most of it and we used the rest for feed.

"At night the folks around the area got together and sang and talked. There weren’t many dances when I was growing up. I remember only one dance the whole time. We went to church at Little Zion every Sunday. And I remember that a small band of Indians, maybe 24, camped on the plateau beneath the house when I was 8 or 10. That’d be 1912 or 1914."

In 1940, Roy Clinton married Edna Wake, and bought the property from Henry. There the Clintons lived with seven children being born to them through the years.

After the Clintons moved away the place went the way of many other Ozark homes. As the years passed the Wake family scattered and the elders died. The cabin deteriorated and weeds usurped the handtended flower beds and vegetable gardens. The buildings and the land were deserted.

Then, in 1971, the property was purchased for management as part of the Mark Twain National Forest.

In 1972, the Forest decided to put one of its all-girl YCC (Youth Conservation Corps) crews to work restoring the cabin and gathering facts about its history.

Doing historical research was new to the girls, but they were very enthusiastic. Under the supervision of Ron Wihebrink, whose duties included being an historian, the young women were able to come up with some remarkable bits of information. In fact, they uncovered all the facts related here.

"When we got ready to restore the cabin, we had to figure out how to do it," said Bill Moriarity, who was the District Ranger back then. "We discovered that Lawrence Collins, who worked for us, could hew logs. Ray Mitts had been taught by his father, J. W. Mitts to make shakes and he brought froes for splitting the shakes, made mallets for pounding and got some good red oak together for the shakes to be used on the cabin roof.

"Arlene Collins, a work leader, and Cecil Green knew how to build a fireplace chimney. J. E. Turnbull donated a hearth rock from an old cabin. In fact, folks came from all over the area to tell us how to chink the cabin and restore it."

People, who may have been critical of some of the government’s activities, said, "Finally they are putting something back like it used to be." They approved.

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"Men were tickled pink to bring in their broad axes to help," said Ron Wihebrink. They said it was the best time they ever had. The girls wanted to work Saturdays on their own time, they were so enthused. In the beginning I was apprehensive. I doubted they would even want to work on the job. But they worked hard--physically hard. They learned to nail shingles, split shakes, chink the logs, and do all of the hundred other things the restoration required."

In the wee hours on Sunday Morning, May 23, 1982, the historic old cabin burned to the ground. Employees of the Willow Springs Ranger District received a phone call early Sunday morning from a nearby neighbor who had heard people at the cabin Saturday night and heard a truck speeding away. When he arose early Sunday morning he saw the glow of fire and reported it to the Forest Service.

Shortly after receiving the phone call, Willow Springs District Ranger Paul Kihlmire and Forester Tom Peterson drove out to the cabin, but it was already completely destroyed; nothing left but a few smoke blackened rocks.

James Murrell, a local man employed on the district who worked on the cabin restoration, had this to say about the fire: "I was pretty well upset because we’d put a lot of work into it. It was kind of a local landmark. Everyone I’ve talked to didn’t like it at all. People around here knew and were friends with the Wakes and the Clintons who were raised in the cabin."

Bill Moriarity said, "Wake Cabin was a real source of pride to all those associated with it--and nearly everyone on the District was. The local community was proud of it and took a real interest in it.

"I was particularly disappointed in the cabin’s burning because of my association with its restoration, the interest it developed, and the friends the district made as a result of it.

"The cabin had a rugged beauty to it. One could sit on the front steps in the early evening and could imagine a family being raised there, and see the farming and all the activity taking place around it."

The cabin is gone forever now. Gone is the visible monument to a past life way. Only the photographs remain. And there is sadness in the hearts of all who worked so hard to restore the cabin.

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