Historic log cabin finds a new home in Garnavillo
Lanny and Wendy Kuhse of Garnavillo hired Oberbreckling Construction Company to move and re-assemble a historic log cabin to their property. (Photo submitted)
By Caroline Rosacker
Lanny and Wendy Kuhse of Garnavillo have recently added a historic log cabin to their spacious property, located at 203 South Benton Street in Garnavillo.
The Kuhse’s purchased the cabin from Connie and the late Jim Leete of Farmersburg, who moved the home piece-by-piece to their property in the late 1990’s.
“The Leetes completely dismantled and numbered each piece of the log cabin, and rebuilt it on their property,” explained Wendy. “After careful consideration, we chose to move the structure in larger sections. Moving the cabin in sections eliminated moving overhead wires, which would have been quite costly.”
Original builder/owner
Jochim Itin built the two-story log cabin for his family of ten in the 1840’s, from hand-hewn, chinked in place, oak, cottonwood, and poplar logs and placed it on a full basement. The interior had tongue and groove flooring, and an outside ladder that was eventually replaced by an indoor staircase that led to the second-floor sleeping quarters.
A last minute decision to cancel a walk put the Kuhse’s first in line to purchase the historic structure. “I called Connie when we found out the cabin was for sale,” Wendy recalled. “Connie told us there was another interested buyer, but assured us first come first serve, so we dropped everything and quickly took advantage of the opportunity.”
Moving day
Wendy and Lanny hired Oberbreckling Construction Company from Onslow, and reported they were very satisfied with how they moved the cabin, and were relieved it all went smoothly.
“The movers started the ‘disassemble’ project at the Farmersburg site on Aug. 15th,” noted Wendy. “They dismantled it into five sections – porch roof, porch, summer kitchen, main roof, and main cabin. This took about three days.”
The construction crew began reassembling the cabin on the Kuhse’s property on Aug. 21. “They took three trips to transport the cabin, roof, and summer kitchen to our location. They set the cabin on Tuesday and then finished setting the cabin on Thursday. They took the supports off, set the roof and summer kitchen in place, and returned the following week to complete the project,” she told The Press.
The Kuhse’s plan to use the log cabin as a getaway during the summer months. “We always wanted an area in our yard to chill,” she shared. “We had a couple of campers that we were going to restore, but it was too much work and the cost to restore them was more than we cared to invest.”
Wendy concluded, “Connie is happy the log cabin will remain in Clayton County. I checked into placing it on the Historic Register, but it does not qualify because the footprint has been altered, and it was moved too many times.”
