Freeman Log Cabin

The Cabin is a dogtrot log dwelling and was located on Highway 335 just east of Nicholson. Hayden Jubal David, a Confederate soldier bought the property from his mother in 1836. She had purchased the property in the 1820’s. David and a slave built the two-room structure in the 1840’s, and contemporary additions were added in 1920 and 1940, but not moved to the Heritage Village site.

David married Sarah Strickland of Madison County. After she died, he married Lucindia Pittman. One of their daughters, Lutitia, married Joel Freeman from Madison County. They had eight children, four of whom were deaf and mute. The youngest of these was Rufus Clyde Freeman, who lived in the cabin until his death in January 1991.

The cabin has never had running water or electricity. Clyde Freeman heated and cooked with a wood stove and drew water from a spring on the property. These three barns across Highway 335 were also part of this homestead.

In April of 1994, Ann Freeman (her husband Ralph was a brother of Rufus Clyde Freeman) worked with the city of Nicholson in their attempt to find a way to purchase the homestead and surrounding acreage for a park. Their attempts were unsuccessful and Mrs. Freeman offered the dogtrot log cabin to the Tumbling Waters Society, if it would be moved to Hurricane Shoals.

In the fall of 1994 and the winter of 1995, the cabin was disassembled by Resurrection Unlimited and moved from Nicholson to the Heritage Village with the help of the County. Smith Wilson of Athens reassembled the log cabin and the stone chimneys and replaced the interior walls.