Located at the southwest portion of the Caesar’s Creek State Park in Waynesville, Ohio, the Pioneer Village is an open air museum with a collection of over 15 historical log cabins and houses that date back as afar as the 18th century. Each house and cabin has a historical story that is best for teaching young and old alike the early life on the Ohio frontier. Kids would also the interactive and educational activities offered at the area.
Check out other posts on Caesar’s Creek State Park.
Here’s the list of houses, buildings, and cabins at the Pioneer Village.
1. The Tool House
This 17 by 21 foot structure was moved to the Village and reconstructed in 1981. It was purchased from the William Fritts family on State Route 73 near Waynesville. This gate house for the Village was historically a toll house for the Waynesville-Wilmington Pike at the Massie-Wayne Township line. Later it was moved across Route 73 and used after about 1900 as a farm granary.
2. Lukens House
In 1807 Levi Lukens and his wife, Elizabeth Cleaver Lukens, immigrated to Warren county, Ohio, as part of the exodus of Quakers into the area. They shortly purchased 1,000 acres in Massie Township along the banks of Caesar’s creek and thereon constructed their first permanent dwelling. They selected beech logs to construct this eighteen feet by twenty feet full two story house facing the east. Originally the first floor area was divided into two rooms, with the south half serving as a kitchen with a substantial cooking fireplace. Also, the north end served other various family needs and was heated by a stone boxed fireplace. The second story was divided into two bedrooms with the stairway rising from the kitchen area.
The family moved into the structure on January 1, 1808 as noted in the history of Warren county by W.H. Beers & Co.1882. Levi Lukens, being the owner and operator of a grist mill with a saw mill, a few years later relocated nearer his mill. As time progressed the Lukens homestead underwent various alterations and modernization. The original puncheon flooring was replaced by sawed floor joist and flooring, and the exterior was covered with board siding. In later years a stone walled basement was added and at a later date yet a lean-to kitchen was added, making the original kitchen fireplace obsolete, thus causing it to be removed.
The Victorian period brought additional alterations to the building, with the enlargement of all the original windows, and with the installation of a Victorian than* around the Original heating fireplace. The Twentieth century also brought its share of changes and additions. At the present time all modernization and additions to the building have removed, exposing the original structure.
This house exemplifies the typical log architecture in Warren County. This building, being above average size, is an excellent example of a prosperous business man’s home.
3. Elam House
In the late 1700’s Josiah Elam was pursuing horse thieves from his home in Kentucky and arrived in the Caesar Creek Area. He was pleased with what he saw, so in 1802 he returned to the area and purchased 600 acres along the banks of Caesar’s creek. On this land, near what is now Elam road and Spring Valley-Paintersville road, he built his first cabin. Then he also planted a good sized orchard.
In the spring of 1803 he returned to Kentucky to bring his wife, Sarah Porter Elam and their four children to their new hone. Sarah’s mother, Susannah Porter, also made the long trip with them to the Ohio country.
Josiah selected a site some 100 yards to the south of his cabin to build a home for his mother-in-law, Susannah Porter. He chose chestnut trees to construct the one and a half story cabin which you see today, measuring 16 by 20 feet. The humble house was heated by a single fireplace, which was also used for cooking. A few feet to the west of Susannah’s back door they also constructed a log smoke house to preserve and store food for the long winter months.
In 1812-14 Susannah’s daughter-in-law, Jane Porter, moved in with her due to the passing of James Porter as a result of war injuries. Jane brought with her their nine children. This building had to be bulging at the joints from, the eleven people living there, even for a short time.
After Susannah’s passing in 1821, the cabin returned to the Elan family to be handed down through the generations. From 1803 until the earl y 1970’s parts of Josiah’s original 600 acres and the cabin remained the property of Josiah’s heirs. In 1974 the cabin and smokehouse were given to Caesar’s Creek Pioneer Village. Once again warm fires light this humble home while we take a glance backwards.
4. Mills-Taylor Saddlebag House
The house was built by a Mr. Taylor, possibly between 1795 to 1800, along Dry Run Road, a few miles up from Perrintown, which is east of Milford, Ohio.
Mr. Taylor may have been an indentured servant who may have moved to Ohio from the south. This is one of the two saddlebag houses in the Village.
A saddlebag is a house with two sections beside a common chimney, with a fireplace for each section. It differs from the Hawkins House in that it has a single level roof line, with one top sill log’s spanning the entire length.
5. Githens House
The Githens House came from State Route 48 just north of Route 73 in Warren county. The original deed to the land on which the building stood was made to David Alexander in 1814. The deed was signed by James Madison, president of the United States. It is estimated that the house was built about 1820.
Thomas Stephenson had lived in the house in 1842. He was a weaver, and his will listed a loom as well as a quantity of cloth. The Richard Githens family later lived in the cabin, which by this time included a frame addition around the log building. The cabin was donated to Caesar’s Creek Pioneer Village in 1979 by the Richard Githens family. The building was dismantled and moved to the Village. It has now been restored and to be used again for spinning, weaving, and similar crafts. Mr. And Mrs. Githens also donated a one hundred year old workshed, materials of which are serving many buildings in the Village.
6. Hawkins House
In 1818 Amos Hawkins and his wife, Ann Milhouise Hawkins, purchased the 143 acres of land along the banks of Caesar’s Creek in Massie Township, Warren County, Ohio. In 1825 or 26 he erected on this land an unusually large saddlebag log house reminiscent of the homes in Cane Creek, South Carolina, from whence he had emigrated in 1804.
Amos Hawkins paid particular attentions to the details of construction and interior finishing, he chose very substantial poplar logs for the basic construction, selecting them for uniformity in size. The top log in each gable end extended beyond the lower logs, thus accommodating a wider top sill log. This provided an unusually wide overhang, front and back, for a log structure. Special attention was paid to the finishing of the extended logs in the horse shoe cleat effect and the beveling of the exterior of the top sill log. Walnut boards, because of their durability, were chosen for the exterior door and window facings. Both half dovetail and full dovetail were used in the log notching.
The builder of this structure, being a master craftsman, finished the interior to a fine detail. The interior walls were made of random width poplar boards with a single groove, or beading, on the surface. The floor beams between the first and second floor being jack planed finished, with a very deep beading on the lower edges, added an air of refinement. The building remained in the original condition unaltered until shortly after the turn of the twentieth century at which time the downstairs rooms were lathed and plastered, and the fireplace in the main part of the house covered over.
7. Roades-Hatfield House
George Washington Roades (1838 – 1890) settled in Salem Township in 1864 and built at 20 by 24 foot log house on what is now Baker Road off State Route 131 near Pricetown in Highland County southwest of Hillsboro, Ohio. The logs, hewn floor joists, and flooring are white oak which were taken from the surrounding groves.
George W. Roades’ father Henry Valentine Roades (1815 – 1891) in the early part of his married life was a teacher of mathematics in the county schools. In later years he turned his attention to farming and acquiring a large acreage of improved land.
George W. Roades opened a country store in 1877 doing a “good business” though still surrounded on nearly every side with native forest. In the store he carried about one thousand dollars worth of stock. In later years George’s children told of their father running a store and a post office and how he could make such good shoes and that he was considered a shoe cobbler.
The George W. Roades house was acquired from Richard and Grace Baker in 1974 by Joseph and Thelma Hatfield who donated it to the Village. Jane Ellen Fite of nearby Harveysburg bequeathed a sum in her will which provided a frame addition which is named for her. Village members built the addition to contain modern plumbing for kichen and bathroom use. Plans for the layout were presented to the Village by two fourth year architecture students at the University of Cincinnati, Mindy Wargowski and Connie Garrison through member Mrs. Paul Crane.
The house is now used as a home for the Village caretaker and is not open to visitors. Information furnished in 1982 by descendant Betty Roades Shemaker, Mt. Orab, Ohio. Mrs. Shewmaker refers to Book of Memoirs of my Ancestry by Velma Roades Trant Ref. Alya W. Martin’s History of Clay Township, Highland County and Bedford, Ohio. History of Ross and Highland Counties, Ohio, William Bros., Cleveland, Ohio 1880.
8. The Blacksmith Shop
The individual skills of the village blacksmith included those of the blacksmith, the wheelright, the carpenter, the saddler, the farrier, the harness maker, all of which were based on the horse as the :main means of power and transportation.
The blacksmith’s part in the daily needs of village life was vital. He was highly skilled in farriary and he made and repaired tools and equipment for local farms and households. He later became the first motor and agricultural and ornamental craftsman. Today the farrier or shoeing smith travels around to stables whereas in former times the local people could take their horses :to the nearby smithy. The village craftsman of former times worked long and hard hours. The chestnut tree, poetically symbolic of the village smithy, would be grown for the shade on hot sunny days.
9. Harkrader Barn
Generously donated to the Village by Miriam Rosell, this 1803 “Ohio statehood” barn was brought in from the old Harkrader farm on Green Tree Road just east of Middletown, Ohio, immediately north of the old Lebanon correctional building.
The barn is twenty feet by sixty feet, with additional area at the back and two sides. There was also a log house close to the barn. The walnut and cherry stairway is now part of the Bullskin Inn at the Village.
10. Furnas House
In 1804 Robert Furnas, Sr. arrived in Warren County with wife, Hannah Wilson Furnas, migrating from Bush river, South Carolina. Making the long trek Robert and Hannah brought their four young children: youngest Seth, born March 26, 1803. Shortly thereafter, their letter was transferred to Miami Monthly Meeting of friends in Waynesville.
Warren County was good for the Furnas family, and they prospered as did many other early Quaker families. By 1826 Seth had grown to manhood, and the time came for him to take a wife. On November 1, 1826 he married Dinah Kinley, daughter of Edward and Margareth Kinley.
Like most Quaker families in the area, Seth and Dinah were farmers and thus on the 15th of March, 1828 they purchased 150 acres from John Rhodes and thereon erected a two story log cabin. Seth and Dinah remained on this property until 1838, at which time it passed to another Furnas family and stayed until 1868.
In January of 1975 this building passed to Caesar’s Creek Pioneer Village for their dismantling and moving. The Seth and Dinah Kinley house has been re-erected in the Village in nearly its original condition, and serves as the pioneer homestead.
11. Collett House
The Daniel Collett House was built in 1814. Its original location was at the south east corner of Ohio State Route 73 and Collett Road.
A soldier in the Revolutionary War, Daniel Collett, at age 62, moved from Jefferson county Virginia to his 4000 acre purchase of Virginia military lands in Clinton County. With the help of his wife, Mary Haines Collett, and son Jonathon, he cleared land, built this house, and began farming. As the farm developed they built another frame house nearby, which was used by son Jonathon.
In 1823 Jonathon married Nary McKay, daughter of Moses McKay. They built a third frame house and added a blacksmith shop which served the farm community during the years of horse power.
Both the second and third houses still stand on property owned by the descendants of Daniel Collett. For many years the cabin was covered by mill cut siding, accounting for its preservation. In 1983 the weather beaten siding was removed, the building dismantled, and the logs moved to the site it now sits on. It has been reconstructed with the assistance of the Collett family.
12. Harrias House Gift Shoe
The Store occupies the early Harrias-Poe house from New Jasper-Paintersville Road, east of the Caesar’s Creek valley. This early 1800’s log building was given to the Village by the Hollingsworth family near Paintersville, and was moved here in 1977.
Village members, the Harold Fugett family, took this house under their wing. The Fugetts finished it, set it up, and tended it as a Country Store for a number of years. It currently operates as the CCPV’s Volunteer Office and Gift Shop, with all sales profits going back to the Villages’ Restoration fund.
13. School House
The school house has been restored from a building that came from near Harveysburg on Jonahs Run.
Schools were established very early in the 1800s, as soon as a small community developed. These were subscription schools financed by local people. Some early teachers were paid sixty cents a day. Early pioneer schools were small in size, with little furniture, light on comfort.
14. Meeting House Shed
This unique building has been constructed with materials from various sources as a likeness to the old shed which stood south of the meeting house in its original location.
The stones are from the meeting house site. The flooring is from several barns the villagers have taken down over the years. The windows and sidings are from the Vesta Ewing property on Oregonia road. The door is from the Carr residence. The big stone on the top step is from the meeting house itself before the 1908 remodeling.
15. Friends Meeting Mouse
The Friends meeting house was built in 1849. It was preceded by two log buildings the first of which was built in 1805. The building and a cemetery were located close to Caesar’s creek on the New Burlington road. The cemetery was surrounded by a very fine dry wall stone fence.
The remaining members of the meeting house wished to have the building preserved; so they gave permission for the CCPV to move it to the Village site. Professional movers were hired, and the building was moved intact to the Village. It has now been restored and is being used for a variety of meetings.
Where is it located?
3999 Pioneer Village Rd
Waynesville, OH 45068
Click here for Google Map directions
How could you help the Village?
You can donate through their page. All donations to the Pioneer Village go towards the day to day maintenance of the Village.
Check out this video clip I made.
Credit: Pioneer Village at Caesar’s Creek State Park
