Photo supplied by Gordon Howard (husband of Jackie Curran Howard)

The Haller Alexander Curran Log Cabin

written by Gordon Howard

The log cabin pictured above was located on the property of Haller Alexander Curran and his second wife Annie Elizabeth Holland Curran. This is part of a 31 acre tract located on the mountain above the community of Thornhill which is located between Montcalm and McComas in Mercer County, West Virginia. Mr. Curran rented the property from Sampson Taylor and his wife Nancy Taylor in 1908. In 1911, Haller’s wife Annie Curran purchased the property for $800.00 cash from Sampson Taylor and his wife Nancy Taylor of the County of Lee in the State of Kentucky. The Curran family have owned and resided on this property from 1908 until the 1980’s. Twenty seven acres was passed by Annie Curran to her son Lynch Alexander Curran and Johnsie Mabel McMillan Curran. Johnsie sold the land to her son Haller “Wesley” Curran. Wesley also acquired the adjoining land of Henry Hall, his father-in-law after Mr. Hall passed away.

The unique thing about the log cabin is that the logs are all hand hewn. Sampson Taylor bought the land for $270.00 on 20 March 1900 from W. A. Harmon and Martha E. Harmon, G. F. Burchett and Amanda Burchett, Nathan Bailey and Alice Bailey. The property consisted of 34 acres at this time.

The same tract of land was deeded to Martha E. Harmon (wife of W. A. Harmon) on 7 December 1898 from Alice Bailey and Nathan Bailey for the sum of $227.00 being part of a 70 acre and 16 acre tract of land sold and conveyed by the Flat Top Coal Land Association to W. A. Harman in the year 1895. The deeds have not been tracked further back.
It is apparent the log cabin was built well before 1900 and some family members believe it may have been built around 1870 to 1880 or before. Before the Curran property was sold by the Curran family, the log cabin was disassembled and each log marked for proper location. It was then transported to the Curran property located on Route 20 between Bluewell and Princeton. The log cabin has been restored and except for replacement of about three of four logs, one at the top north side, and the remainder at the ground level, it is the same as the original cabin. The inside of the cabin has been completely rebuilt and modernized.