New life, look for old Bohemian cabin

ELY - A log cabin that was built in the 1800s is getting a face-lift on Paul Morf's property near Palisades-Kepler State Park.

The cabin was moved to Morf's land late last year. It originally sat on Ed Fordyce's property off Pleasant Hill Road in Mount Vernon.

When Fordyce bought the property in the late 1970s, he said, several of the buildings were dilapidated.

'I tore down little buildings one by one,” he said. 'I was thinking about burning this house down, and was poking around in there and discovered the back half of the house was a log cabin.”

Fordyce had the cabin recaulked to make it weather-tight and resistant to critters, but didn't do much else.

'It wasn't in a condition where it was extremely usable. It was pretty primitive,” he said. 'In the wintertime we would use it for a warm-up place. There was a wood-burning stove. We'd go sledding and skating and cross-country skiing. Snowmobiling. We used (the cabin as a place) for the kids to get out of the cold.”

Leah Rogers, an archaeologist in Mount Vernon, did an extensive study of the cabin, though.

She discovered that it likely had been built in 1864 by Henek and Mary Horecky, Bohemian immigrants who farmed the area. It was the family's second home. They first settled in what was then known as Franklin Township in 1855. The property stayed in the family until the couple's son, George, sold it in 1932 to Thomas Wolfe. It stayed in the Wolfe family for a little more than 40 years before being sold to Fordyce.

As a result of Rogers' efforts, the cabin was listed in 2000 on the National Register of Historic Places.

TRANSFERRING OWNERSHIP

After serving as a warm-up cabin for years, the condition began to deteriorate.

'I could see that it was going to take a major restoration project,” Fordyce said.

With his children living out of state and knowing that he eventually will sell his property, he knew he wasn't up for the task.

Knowing its Bohemian roots, Fordyce approached the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library and offered to donate the cabin, but the museum declined because it did not have the space.

Then, one day, the cabin came up in conversation with Paul Morf.

'I mentioned this cabin and the fact I wanted to do something to get it preserved,” he said. 'He was quite interested. We knew Paul and his wife, Jennifer, would do it right. He's young enough that they'd have it under their control for a long time.”

Morf and his wife have plenty of room. Their house in Ely sits on 80 acres, which he has planted with trees and prairie grasses. The log cabin now overlooks a pond he put in last year.

Morf and his wife 'like old buildings,” he said. 'We bought (our) house in 2000 and it had no plumbing. We fixed up the barn and the house.”

A NEW LOOK

For the cabin, Morf has enlisted Roger Gwinnup, who has several renovation projects under his carpenter belt.

Gwinnup individually marked each piece of wood before the cabin was dismantled and moved via trailer, bit by bit, to Morf's property nearly 5 miles up the road.

The cabin was reassembled on Morf's property, then wrapped in a tarp to help keep it protected through the winter. Most of the logs that make up the walls still were in good condition and were able to be salvaged. One of the doors also is being reused.

However, the rafters were old and sagged and bowed, Gwinnup said. The wood stove also was old and cracked, and had to be thrown away.

'The logs were black from the wooden stove,” Gwinnup said.

They were salvageable, though. After being cleaned they are back to the original brown.

Morf also decided to add a deck.

The home retains interesting details in the chinking, including old wagon tongues and chair legs, which the original settlers used for insulation.

Morf said he's still not sure what he will do with the cabin, other than letting his family use it.

'His kids are going to be out here all the time having parties,” Gwinnup said. 'This will be a great party place when they're in high school.”

Now that the cabin has been moved, it likely will lose its place on the National Register of Historic Places of Places.

However, Morf said he likely will try to get it back on the register.