Photo courtesy of Westerville City Schools
Cabin Fever
The history of the Knox-Metzger Log House is just as interesting to explore as the cabin itself
Some schools have playground equipment on their grounds.
But not many can brag that they have a historical log cabin on school property.
The Knox-Metzger Log House at McVay Elementary School is recognizable among Westerville residents. Every year, it serves as the location for the Ned Mosher Apple Butter Festival – this year slated for Oct. 4 – which features apple butter-making demonstrations; homemade cider, apple butter and pulled pork for sale; tours of the cabin; and old-fashioned games and crafts for children. The money from the festival goes toward upkeep of the cabin.
The cabin is also used by McVay and other schools for educational activities. The school has frequently worked with Debbie Bennati – president of the Westerville Uptown Merchants Association, owner of A Gal Named Cinda Lou, Westerville Lions Club member and former McVay teacher – to incorporate the cabin into the curriculum.
Photo courtesy of Westerville City Schools
Cabin Fever
Along with the maple syrup sugar shack in the McVay Woods, the cabin has been used to supplement the science program. In addition to assigning projects related to the cabin, the school holds Cabin Days in the spring, allowing students to learn about the cabin’s history and life in Westerville in the 19th and 20th centuries.
“They’re just in awe to see how the people lived,” says Jerry Cavinee of the Lions Club.
The club was responsible for moving the cabin to school grounds several decades ago.
While many Westerville residents are familiar with the cabin at McVay, not as many know the detailed history of how it got there.
The cabin was originally built by an early Westerville settler named John Knox sometime between 1840 and 1850, says Beth Weinhardt, local history coordinator for the Westerville Public Library. It was situated at 7625 Cleveland Ave.
The story-and-a-half structure has front and back doors, six windows and a frame for a fireplace. The logs were cut from white oak, and the door and window frames were made from black walnut. Poplar and beech were used for the floor.
Today, the cabin is furnished much like it would have been in the 1800s.
After the Knox family moved out of the cabin, it was occupied by the Fouse family, who were former slaves. The son, William H. Fouse, grew up there and became the first African-American student to graduate from Westerville public schools and Otterbein University (then Otterbein College).
Photo courtesy of Westerville City Schools
Cabin Fever
Eventually, the property was sold to the Metzger family, which had a farmhouse nearby and used the cabin to store grain and farming tools until that section of land was sold to the Calvary Baptist Church.
The church donated the cabin to Westerville City Schools around 1980. The Lions Club helped move the cabin to the McVay property piece by piece, a process that took about four years.
“We put a lot of weekends in,” says Cavinee. “It’s been our Lions’ love, really.”
After McVay opened in 1989, the cabin naturally became part of the school’s lessons, allowing for a real-life demonstration of things that could otherwise only be read about in textbooks.
Ned Mosher, a Westerville teacher with a passion for the outdoors who volunteered at the school for years after his retirement, was also instrumental in helping to relocate the cabin. The annual apple butter festival was started in his honor in 2009, following his 2008 death.
Since its moving, the cabin’s “condition has ebbed and flowed through the years,” Weinhardt says. The cabin was restored in 1995, and the Lions Club replaced the roof in 2011.
Over the years, the Lions Club and school district have been instrumental in keeping the log cabin intact, giving Westerville residents and the kids at McVay their own piece of local history to be proud of.
Christina Szuch is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
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