The Walling Cabin

Thomas Jefferson Walling came to Rusk County with his family in 1841. He settled on a tract of land in the eastern part of the county where he built a log cabin for their home.

The original twenty-by-nineteen-foot structure was constructed using hand-hewn logs with square notched corners. The roof was built with log supports and wood shake shingles.

Over the years, the cabin was expanded with additions, covered with other wood, and changed in several ways. In 1982, after with­standing the tests of time, the original cabin was discovered inside those additions. While constructing a railway right-of-way for Texas Utilities Generating Company (TUGCO), now Luminant, the remains of the outer structure were found in the Oak Hill area of Rusk County, where surface mining for lignite was to occur.

In July 1982, the cabin was declared a National Historic Structure and was placed on the National Register. The following month, TUGCO gave the cabin to the Rusk County Historical Commission (Chair Virginia Knapp). The cabin was dismantled log by log, with each numbered so the cabin could be reconstructed on the grounds of the Depot Museum.

Inside the cabin are items typically found in a period home. Standard kitchen items include cooking pots at the fireplace, a stick broom, a corn shuck mop, toys, and a candle mold. The bed, chamber pot, crib, and other furniture are placed as they may have been when it was used. A spin­ning wheel and large loom are also on display. The furnishings are antique and match a list of items in the home in 1858.

This building has a Texas Historical Commission, Official Historical Medallion.