…from "At the Mill – Spring 2007"
Log House Construction at O’Hara’s
Last summer, Stan McEathron and Dave Little dismantled a pioneer log house near Boulter, which is northeast of Bancroft. The hand-hewn logs were moved to O’Hara’s by logging truck and stored under cover.
Using these log walls, the goal this early summer is to begin the process of building a replica of a pioneer log house, complete with an authentic cooking fireplace, on the site where the original O’Hara log house stood.
With the help of George Wannamaker’s front-end loader tractor and Bill McBeath’s backhoe, the site, long since grown up with trees, has been cleared and levelled.
More vintage materials are required to complete the log house, including stone for the foundation and fireplace, hand-hewn ceiling joists, floor joists,rafters, etc. This problem was solved when Wilgard Schiffers, on Ash Road north of O’Hara’s ( formerly the Dan Robinson farm ), donated her barn.
Of special interest is the fact that some of the granary boards and mow floor boards were sawn at the O’Hara Sawmill. As well, this barn has fine hand-hewn white pine timbers and limestone stable walls typical of the many impressive limestone walls found in the Madoc area.
The interior of this large barn has been dismantled over the winter, with plans this spring to take down the timber frame and move the materials to O’Hara’s. This barn will provide a great inventory of high quality authentic 1800s building materials for future projects.
Anyone interested in helping with the construction of this pioneer log house should contact Stan McEathron at 613-771-9891 or Dave Little at 613-967-2466.
…from "At the Mill – Spring 2008"
Finishing the Log House
There is still a lot of work to do on the log house that was built last year on the site of the original O’Hara log home. The main challenge will be a fireplace and chimney on the back wall of the house. This will be a large, old – fashioned cooking fireplace, complete with a swinging iron arm for cooking pots. The fireplace will be constructed from fieldstone gathered from local pioneer building foundations.
Hopefully, this project will attract some volunteers….. people who have some experience in this sort of stone masonry work, people who would like to get some hands-on experience building a reproduction of a pioneer fireplace. Offers of fieldstone from old foundations for this project and future stonework projects at O’Hara Mill Homestead will be gratefully accepted.
We also plan to build a roofed veranda across the front of the log house this summer.
…from "At the Mill – Fall 2008"
Our Newest Building: The Pioneer Log House
The pioneer log house has been completed providing O’Hara Homestead visitors with a glimpse of living conditions from the time when the property was first settled in 1832 until the main O’Hara house was built in 1848.
Cooking Fireplace
Although cast iron cook stoves were being advertised down at the front (the then modern region of Upper Canada, which was a narrow tract along Lake Ontario) as early as the 1820s, it is highly unlikely that the early settlers on this property (Tayler, then Dingman, then O’Hara) would have had one. Instead, they would have cooked their meals on the open hearth.
So, a fieldstone cooking fireplace was built in the log house this summer complete with two antique, blacksmith forged, swinging cranes on which to hang cooking utensils. Our thanks to Merle Chant of Queensboro for donating one of these cranes.
We invite interested folk to search their attics and drive sheds for antique cookware to display at, or use with, this fireplace, including cast iron tea kettles, pots and frying pans. We would also like to hear from individuals who would like to demonstrate open hearth pioneer cooking on special O’Hara days.
Foundation stones, taken from local barns built in the 1800s, were used in the construction of this massive cooking fireplace. We are indebted to Brian Gawley of Gawley Road, Carol Takasaki and Ken May of Ash Road and David Ascott of O’Hara Road for donating stones from their old barns.
Thanks also to Robert Schamehorn of Ivanhoe for the use of his scaffolding and help building the fireplace flue.
Front Doorway
Bob Clarke of Gillmore donated an antique arched door with a deep framework that must have come from either a log or stone house of 1800s vintage. It is now an outstanding feature of the log house.
Front Veranda
Probably very few pioneer homes had a front veranda. Those early settlers did not have time to sit and relax. But, we have added a veranda across the front of the O’Hara log house; a place for visitors and volunteers to sit and contemplate the beauty and uniqueness of the O’Hara Homestead.
George Williams of Eldorado donated the material for the veranda floor. The rest of the material came from old barns in the area.
The log house now provides one more point of interest on the list of many things to see and do at the O’Hara Mill Pioneer Homestead and Conservation Area.
