Hi.  2 more cents on moving buildings.  In 1830s Rehoboth, MA, an
English type barn was hauled across a road and put onto a basement and
then doubled in length, and on the original location a house was built
(with date inscribed on a rafter)--I documented this as part of an M.A.
thesis.  In the early 1840s, Fredreich Gerstacker and a friend took
apart a log residence and moved it several miles and re-erected it, all
in a couple of days, in eastern Arkansas, according to his book _Wild
Sports in the Far West_.  In southeastern Arkansas, an 1840s 2 story log
house was moved back a few yards from its original spot, bottom logs
replaced, chimneys rebuilt, first floor remodeled with new windows, all
in the 1880s.  It was ostensibly to get the house back from the caving
bank of Bayou Bartholomew, but I also wonder since the place is noted
thereafter in oral history as having a fine front yard, and a ca 1911
photo shows a push mower shoved under the new front porch.  For whatever
reason it was moved, I'm glad because prior to the move the original
brickwalled cellar was filled in nicely, which we found in a 2x2m unit
exploring under that new front porch.  We also found good plow scars in
situ underneath what had been the new back porch, likely from a garden
in the original backyard.  There had been a strange legend of the house
being moved way back in the past sometime, which turns out to be absolut
ely true.  I've always had this impression that if one strolled down
your average road in the 18th or 19th century, one might have to stroll
out of the way of an ox team or mule team pulling some house to some new
destination.  When I moved a 10'x14' structure across town myself, I jus
t used a borrowed tractor and cotton trailer, and got the entire structu
re moved without disassembly.  So maybe seeing house trailers rolling do
wn the highway past my house is perfectly traditional.  Bye.
 
 
Leslie C. Stewart-Abernathy
Arkansas Archeological Survey
Arkansas Tech University
Russellville, AR