John Walker often boasted that in his life he had spent a total of 50 cents for a medical doctor’s services. It didn’t hurt that his wife Margaret was an exceptional herb doctor, not to mention a very tough woman. Once, when a weasel bit her thumb hard and wouldn’t let go, she calmly walked over to the wash tub and drowned it in the water.
The Walkers reared four sons and seven daughters. Every child went to school but only the two older boys were educated above sixth grade. While all the boys eventually left home, six of the Walker sisters continued to live in the Little Greenbrier house until their deaths, staying on even after they sold their 122 acres to the government for the creation of the park in 1934. Louisa Susan was the last to die in the house on July 3, 1964.
Past visitors have described the house as organized confusion: the walls were covered in newspapers and anything that could be hung on a nail was. The rafters of all three rooms were studded with wooden pegs and held such items as clothing, dried food, kitchen utensils and baskets. The storage loft above the kitchen was also crowded. When asked what was there, one visitor apparently said, “Lord, everything.” The grounds around the house were also busy as the sisters delighted in a yard carpeted with flowers and flowering shrubs.
—Log Cabins of the Smokies
Today’s Thankful November giveaway is a used copy of the small book Log Cabins of the Smokies. Leave a comment on this post to be entered. *Giveaway ends November 7, 2022.
Although the little book is less than 20 pages, it is full of information and stories about cabins in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Last night’s video: Gardening in November in Appalachia & 2 YEAR Old Kohlrabi!!
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I’ve always wanted to see the Walker Sister’s cabin. I’m getting a new knee next week, so maybe the next time we go to the Smokies I’ll walk to their place. They are fascinating!
You know it’s funny but I used to not like the chinking on the log cabins. The older I get the more I have come to appreciate it though and would love to have one. I have learned about the construction of them watching Barnwood Builders and now they are my favorite. Sure wish I could have one! I would love to read the book you are talking about too.
That was very interesting! I found it so interesting in fact that I looked up the book “Log Cabins of the Smokies”, but only got advertisements for cabin renting … When it comes to history, I was always most interested in how people used to live. We stayed in a small log cabin once and it was so cozy. But I can not imagine to live in such a small place with a big family.
My great great grandpa Daniel England is credited to have built one of the longest standing log cabins in Georgia. It has been dismantled and reassembled in Blairsville, Ga. near the Union County Farmers Market. Needless to say I am very thankful for that bit of history and for the fact that I come from a long line of strong, energetic, intelligent Appalachian relatives. Thank you for this wonderful article.
I had never heard of the Walker sisters but I’ll bet we would have really got along good. They sound like my kind of people!
This book sounds like a very informative and historical book. /i love reading about the old ways and how things used to be done.
The book sounds good.
“Lord everything!”
Describes my house lol
Ive always been fascinated with the Walker Sisters.
I wish I could have visited these Sisters!!
Love reading all of these memory stories. Life was a lot of hard work but so satisfying.
Thank you Tipper,
Diane
I’ve always been drawn to log structures since my childhood because I spent many hours playing and daydreaming in my grandfather’s log barn. I now volunteer at historic sites with log cabins demonstrating old crafts.
I so enjoy reading your posts. If only we could all live such a simple but grand life~
I would love to read the book about the cabins! Such great stories!
A very interesting story about the Walkers. My wife and I plan to visit this place next time we visit the mountains. This sounds like a nice book of history. I do like history. I like to read anything about the mountains.
51 yrs ago when my Dad took our family for the first time to the NC mountains, I vowed at
9 yrs old that I was going to live there when “I got big.” I wanted a rustic log cabin by a steam, a garden, a hound dog & 2 rockers on the front porch & one of those rockers better have cobwebs on it. I was & am an introvert who finds much pleasure in little things. I love nature & simplicity & my Mom always said I was born 100 yrs too late. Just this morning I was thanking our good Lord that I could see the squirrels burying acorns & pecans for their winter stash, & marveling at their God-Given instinct to know when to do that. Yesterday, a lady bug flew on the top of my patio chair & I watched it & touched it’s back & thanked it & the Lord for it visiting me. I get carried away sometimes & discipline squirrels & birds such as this morning when I saw 2 squirrels fighting in the pine tree over a green pine cone & when I saw a Mocking Bird attacking other birds to keep them from drinking from my fountain. I gently scolded them. Unfortunately, I never got to live my dream since I married a Mississippi guy who swore never to leave Mississippi. I sure do hope I go to heaven and there are mountains & streams there & maybe a little rustic log cabin & a hound dog with wings !
I had to go back and reread the title after reading your post. I read weasels as wheels and didn’t find anything about wheels that bite.
I wonder how much of the skills our ancestors used came with them when they arrived and how many were learned from the Natives, I remember visiting Whites and Cherokees as a child that lived in log houses and some built with rough sawn lumber with cracks in the walls.
Such sweet memories. I remember in my grandparents house that they had a big nail driven in the wall of each bedroom for their clothes. Of course, that was sufficient because people didn’t have a lot of clothes like we do today.
I have hiked to the Walkers Sister’s cabin many times. It’s so peaceful there and I can just see them there on the porch , in the kitchen and working in the yard. Such history.
Mom lived in a cabin during her youth. As did every generation of her ancestry since 1700. Her great grandparent’s cabin, built 1835, was still occupied during my childhood years. Two one room units were separated by a covered dog trot. The mind endlessly wanders when visiting remote family homesites.
How tough folks were back in those days and so smart!! There is so much history in those old log cabins. They witnessed life and death and hardship and happiness. I would love to live in a log cabin and have a porch with rocking chairs and maybe a stream close by so I could hear the sounds of the water.
Sounds very interesting, would like to read it.
Oh, I love this story. You can almost visualize the cabin and everything hanging in there. It was a simple life, it was a hard life that they all loved, no doubt. Thank you for sharing this with us.
Very interesting. Would be neat to step back in time to see how lives were lived. My parents tell off beans being dried in the storage space above the ceiling or behind the warmth of the wood stove. When I was a kid, we thought it was neat that my aunt’s kitchen (and she lived in her childhood home) had the walls papered with newspaper. Mom said everyone used to do that. My Dad told of using Sears book to stuff cracks in the walls though; their homes were made of untreated lumber.
We have been to the Walker cabin once. It has a homey atmosphere, sort of as if they had just stepped out for a bit. While they lived, they were living history. Wish I had gotten there then. I remember they had mint planted alongside the little stream flowing from their spring. And of course there were black walnut trees.
I would love to have the book. My sister lived in a log cabin home until the July 28th flood
The Walker’s cabin, like many others of its time, would be a great place to visit. I’d like to do as Wanda Robertson said she did. She had visited the cabin and sat on the porch and just imagined. If and when I go to visit the Walker cabin, that’s what I’ll do after walking all through the cabin and around the ground, I’ll sit on the porch and imagine.
I’m amazed at the physical energy it took to live back in those days. Building log cabins, hauling water, just living day-to-day was such an effort. It took tough people to do it.
We are so blessed to have what we have today. Those folks worked so hard just to get by. My Grandmother’s house was organized confusion. She knew where everything was and could grab it in 30 seconds. As organized as I am I would have to look for somethings.
it would be do neat to see these log cabins. there used to be 2 sisters that lived at the foot of our holler. they didnt live in an old cabin. but they said going in their house was like walking back in time.
As a highly educated yet silly person, educations and grand titles are totally overrated not to mention mostly confabulated and puffed up. I’m firmly convinced my grandparents who probably didn’t get past 6 grade were the smartest people I ever met! I’ve met doctors I’d like to smack down a rat hole and others I’d like to kick with a steel toed boot. I wish with all my heart I was an herbalist and medicine woman. After nursing school I vowed never ever to read any lengthy books again… the Bible doesn’t count though cause it’s alive and active…. I’d like to have seen the cabin and all in it. I bet it had right handy items!!! Today most stuff is cheap and junky. I long for pride which is missing it seems.
My father’s father’s mother was named Sadie Belle. She died when my grandfather was a boy but she would go to the homes of sick neighbors to tend to them and my grandfather would go with her and he was called Doc all his life as a result. Docs father came from Chillicothe, Ohio but generations before they probably lived south of Ohio.My mother’s family came from southern W Va and further South I have Appalachia in my history so I am enjoying this blog.
Our modern day conveniences and comforts are such blessing, but yester-years simplicity is also a blessing, that many of us could benefit from! Of course that simplicity came with hard work, but hard work is good for our physical and mental health….Paul Harvey said it best when he said “for every $2000 tread mill you find in a house, you’ll find a $15000 lawnmower in the garage”…..probably true☺️
Ahh, I think I understand the Walker sisters! Sometimes I fear my house is beginning to take on the characteristic of “organized confusion”. Everything is neat and tidy but there are a lot of sentimental tangible items neatly packed away or displayed that are the catalysts for wonderful memories. I know full well that when I’m gone what is important to me probably will be designated for the junk pile when my son and grandkids get the privilege of cleaning out, even though they know the stories behind the treasured items.
I have five amazing sisters. We are close as peas in a pod. We have never had a fight, each is there for support whenever it’s needed, even stretching from North Carolina to Washington state. We have often talked about how fun it would be to all live together in the same house, taking care of each other as we age. Our ages range from 61-77. Sisters are truly one of God’s best gifts!! Thank you for a great start to my day, Tipper!
I would love to read this interesting book. I read an article in Our State magazine about these ladies! Take care and God bless ❣️
Thank you for sharing the story. Where is the Walker cabin located. I always thought I would have liked to live in a log cabin.
I would love to see that cabin, inside and out!
What a thrill it would have been to spend a day looking through their organized confusion. Hoarding is the new word for collecting and accumulating things we just can’t part with.
We are all products of past generations that worked hard. I’m thankful to learn a little more about where the US came from and who I can credit with helping it grow. Early settlers/homesteaders are my favorite people to study!
I love the beauty and history of the log cabins. Each one has it’s own story to tell.
What a great giveaway! Love your stories!
When one does not have closets , I guess pegs would be place to store things. I like the idea
My brother, family firstborn, was born in what he describes as a decrepit cabin, tho i’m not sure its construction. He faintly remembers one room had fallen in already. My folks were just scraping by in those days. I faintly remember the shell of the old shack; the horses could walk in and out, and i was concerned the old flu was going to fall on one of them and break her back. The folks eventually prospered, by the way, by working hard and scrimping. They college educated 3 kids by frugality.
Modern log homes are lovely, but does not spark the imagination like a old-time log cabin.
Log cabins stretch my imagination & I love that.
This book would most likely take me to parts unknown.
Thank you
We love visiting log cabins and have volunteered many years at Hart Square Village near Hickory. Dr. Hart filled all those cabins with wonderful artifacts of the period.
A very interesting description. I wish my family’s old cabin in Kentucky still stood. Thank you for sharing.
lovin your posts and videos tipper!
Organized confusion! I love that and it well describes the condition of most old country houses. My grandmother’s house was like that. She had everything she needed, and it was somewhere in the house!
Log cabins and barns are 2 things that I am intrigued with. Their beauty and strength that they have endured throughout the years. I always think if these walls could talk, the stories they would tell.
I love log cabins. They go together like biscuits and butter. My father and I along with my sons built several cabins here on the place through the years. My oldest son lives in the first one we built.
Wow! I would have loved to know, all they found after the last sister passed away. It sure would have been most interesting!
The Walker cabin is one of my favorite places in the Park. I sit on the front porch and imagine!
I love the story about the Walker sisters. I have never been able to visit their homestead but would love to some day. Thanks for your information.
It is so good that people are interested in “where they come from.” I have been able to visit old family homes but, unfortunately, none of the cabins survive. I love reading about them and their construction. Our forefathers were such smart individuals!
I meant to say that Appalachia and log cabins go together like biscuits and butter.
As you know Miss Tipper, I love history & learning more about the past. Thanks for sharing this post. I’ve read a few things about the walker family a few years ago, very interesting, hard working & tough folks that I would have loved to have met. I’ve always been amazed of how the old timers built their log cabin homes back I in the day.
log cabins are a special part of Appalachian history. I love seeing them both old and new in my travels around this area
Certainly those six sisters carried on the old ways they grew up with. Their yard of flowers and shrubs had to be beautiful!!! Just think of what we could have learned from them about “doctoring” and which plant to use for what
I like the fact that you cover the entire area , and especially your coverage of the Smokies park area. It is hard to find information of that partof the smokies. The book probably would have other gems. I miss my mountains, grew up hall way between Bryson City and Cherokee, was one year behind Jim Cassada at Swain High. Until I became slightly limited on movement could get back up from the piedmont once a year.
Love the story about the Walker sisters. Its horrible how they were forced to sell there land, i guess its like the saying for the greater good of man kind.
I enjoy the hike to their cabin. We were there at the little greenbrier school about 3 weeks ago. Neat place. One time I was there and a local school had class there. They had their lunches in tin pales. The teacher was an elderly lady dressed like they did back in the old days. It was really neat to see and hear.
I’m hoping to build a small cabin sometime for camping and “roughing it” for a few days. Sounds like an interesting little book, please enter my name in the drawing
I love log cabins! My cousin and her husband built a gorgeous one and all the logs came from their property. All my younger life I wanted to live in one but it wasn’t meant to be.
This story reminds me of my home growing up . There were five girls and Moma and Daddy but there was not one closet in our four room house. Daddy was good at putting nails in the wall for us to hang our clothes on and we did have a large set of drawers that sat on the floor to put our unmentionable in. Sweet Memories ♡
I loved this little tidbit about the Walker family! I may have mentioned this before, but I had the privilege of visiting the Walker house when I was a very little girl. I remember it well. There were two sisters living there at the time. Our family was camping out and we visited the Greenbriar school and then walked up to the cabin. We visited with them and I remember that one of the sisters would sell poems that were handwritten in pencil. Daddy didn’t buy one, but Mother took their bucket and went and got water from the spring for them. It was sprinkling rain. We didn’t stay very long. They were talkative and seemed to enjoy having company. Other visitors came along as we were leaving. I doubt they were ever lacking for company…in the daytime, anyway. Now, I think how fortunate I was to have actually met them and been in the house when it was occupied. I also knew two local (to me) elderly sisters, Mag and Ann, who lived alone in a cabin near where I was raised.There was also an older woman that we called Granny Arwood who lived in a cabin on the river near us. I was born at the tail-end of an era and got a glimpse of it as it was going out. So glad that I did!
I’ve enjoyed reading your story. Thank you for sharing!
I have always thought I would like to live in a log cabin with a few modern conveniences such an inside bathroom. I know where one is located near me that appears from the outside to be exactly what I would like to have.
Maxine Skelton look back to yesterday for information on contacting me about the walnuts.
The book about the log cabin sounds very interesting. Thank you for sharing good stories.
Thanks again,,,love your books and have all but the first 3 FoxFire books…thanks for all you give us to learn and think and enjoy memories God Bless
These peaks into the past are so interesting!
Ty.