By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
Log by log, a group of volunteers is reassembling a cabin from the 1800s by the woods on the Colonel Crawford campus. The idea was born years ago, maybe 10 more, with now retired educator and former district superintendent Ted Bruner.
“I went to the Board of Education about what was going on,” Bruner said, recalling that a family in the district had a cabin on its property it wanted to take down.
“I was the middle school principal at the time. I came back to the next board meeting, I was superintendent and I had to get that building up,” Bruner said, nodding back over his shoulder at the William and Hannah Crawford School.
With Bruner getting advice from others who had taken apart and reconstructed cabins, volunteers disassembled the cabin from at its original site in Vernon Township. They carefully salvaged what logs they could and marked each one to put back in its original place. Some of the logs could not be saved, but Bruner found another cabin in eastern Crawford County and was able to get logs from it to use as replacements.
The logs were kept out of the weather in the North Robinson building vacated by the district. But the time was approaching that all of the district’s empty schools were going to be torn down.
“We got it out last year and started getting it up,” Bruner said, expressing his appreciation for Pioneer students who used their Community Service Day to move the logs from the old school building to the building site in front of the newest building in the district.
Now just about every Tuesday and Thursday a group of volunteers joins Bruner to get the cabin put back together. From a random pile of hewn logs, it has regained its original two-story structure with a covered front porch.
“These guys all volunteer their time,” Bruner said, making sure to include the contributions of contractor Jim Mayes who has lent them a fork lift and Ron Pry who used his sawmill to cut decking boards for the roof and porch floor. Travis Koshnick poured concrete and Shane Stuckman cut logs needed to fill in the gaps from those that couldn’t be salvaged and for which replacements couldn’t be found.
“They’re a lot of help,” Bruner said. “Everybody’s got a little expertise, but nobody has expertise in log cabins.”
The group of amateur log cabin builders consists of Glenn Diebler, Ed Speece, Dave Ujvari, Gary Holt, Jerry Laipply and Jim Brown. Bruner said their better halves often pitch in by bringing sweet rolls to the site.
“Jerry Laipply said they could use a little help,” Ujvari said. “Oh, I’m having a blast. I enjoy working with these guys.”
Bruner said the cabin reconstruction, which is kind of like an Amish barn raising in slow motion using life-size Lincoln Logs, already has the attention of the pre-K through grade 8 students who go by it coming and going from school.
“It’s a great project for the community,” Bruner said. “The kids go by it every morning, laugh and ask their teachers questions.”
But while Bruner makes it clear he appreciates all those who have helped in one way or another, discussing the educational role and asset the cabin can be is what makes his eyes sparkle. Bruner’s real vision is students sitting in the cabin or on its porch reading and learning history in a unique classroom their ancestors could have easily called home.
“I think there are a million different things,” Bruner said. He let his imagination go and quickly came up with several from using it as a setting to discuss pioneer and colonial times, to studying wildlife in the woods immediately behind the cabin.
Not content to stop there, the former teacher, coach and administrator quickly picked up the pace of his thoughts. He noted the role a homestead had in the county’s rich agricultural history and the difficulty of settling a wilderness and the hardships of life in general in that time in history. Unwilling to stop dreaming, he added how he hoped the cabin would spur students to want to learn more about their own families that settled Crawford County.
“I think it’s unique, I think it’s great. It gets kids to read and think about it, and where they came from.”
Bruner said others have stepped up with offers of period items to put in the cabin that will add to its authenticity and complete the picture of living in the era.