Rural Missouri - May 2022 - 42

Right: Hudson uses an antique sheller to remove kernels from a corn cob.
Right Bottom: Bev helps Ada Gollnick shred a head of cabbage on an oldfashioned
kraut cutter.
using a mix of water and homemade plaster. With no way
to raise the last three logs high enough, Bev stopped at the
sixth level and built a loft and roof.
" I learned a lot of skills. When you do your rafters you
have to cut what's called a 'bird's mouth' - just a 90-degree
chunk - out of it, then it will lay flat on the plate. " She
points out a conspicuously newer looking piece of the roof.
" The ridge crown was the hardest thing because I had to
splice it and had to lift it with help. "
A few trips to the library and a couple of 2-by-6s later,
and the pioneer cabin was finished in 1994. Bev says she
originally intended to rent the cabin to hunters, but the
process of rebuilding the structure had introduced her to a
host of skills and history the retired educator felt compelled
to pass on to others.
The cabin, dressed in star-spangled bunting and adorned
with quilts, a wood-burning stove and relics from the Fry
family, became the centerpiece of Bev's own school of pioneer
skills. Visitors of all ages receive hands-on instruction
in butter churning, basket weaving, candle dipping, corn
and coffee grinding, leatherworking, cabin chinking and
more. Tools of the day - an old buck saw and sawbuck, a
cabbage cutter and even the adz Fry himself may have used
to hew the cabin's log walls - lend authenticity to the model
homestead. Visitors also help mind the cabin's general store
where candy and trinkets can be bought for a wooden nickel.
Over the past 28 years, more than 3,000 visitors and even a
few country weddings have graced Deer Creek Cabin.
" I was afraid all that history was being lost, " Bev says. " I
felt like it was worth saving. "
Bev had more than simply a passing affinity for an old
cabin. During a 2012 visit to Williamsburg, West Virginia,
she saw the restored remains of McCoy's Fort. Built by her
sixth great-grandfather, William McCoy, in 1769, the fortified
frontier dwelling saw some action during the Revolutionary
War. Like Fry's cabin, it was sheltered inside of a barn
until being dismantled for reconstruction and preservation
in 2013. Bev pays tribute to that lineage at Deer Creek with
a model of a covered wagon using bows that were built by
second great-grandfather, John P. McCoy. She also caught
a unique form of cabin fever and built her own cabin on
another hill, this time using the " Foxfire " books to guide her.
A day at the cabin ends with a celebration. Calling the
kids together as she no doubt did with students thousands
of times in the Plattsburg, Smithville and St. Joseph school
districts, Bev lines up her students for a final lesson. She
straps on her accordion and walks the kids through a
square dance to the traditional folk tune, " Old Brass Wagon. "
Music and laughter rise with the campfire smoke on
the air, and for just a moment, history has
come to back to life.
Plattsburg
Deer Creek Cabin is located at 5623
SW 228th St. in Plattsburg. For more
information or to schedule a school
group, visit www.1829logcabin.
com or call 816-370-2532 or 816244-2217.
42
RURAL MISSOURI | MAY 2022
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Rural Missouri - May 2022

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