Detours Through Time

In 1975, Richmond Community Schools purchased several houses near Hibberd school to make expansions to the education center. Upon demolition, a log cabin was found within one of the homes. The cabin is believed to be one of the oldest in the area. The Richmond Bicentennial Commission applied for a state grant to help fund the restoration of the Townsend log cabin. Firemen, labor unions, and other Richmond workers were involved in the community-wide “cabin raising” which consisted of moving the log cabin to the rural school grounds at Garrison Elementary¹.

Richmond Community Schools sponsored the Townsend Cabin Homestead Project. A labor festival took place on the grounds of the log cabin’s new home at Garrison Elementary School on May 22^nd 1976. The event featured restoration work on the cabin, square dancing, food, and a bake sale². Several square dance groups attended the “Festival of Labor” and food was served from a large iron pot over a wood fire³. The two-room, two-story cabin was restored to its near mint condition. A well was dug and a stone walkway was set during the labor festival. An outhouse was also placed to set the scene of what a pioneer plot of land would have looked like⁴.

Reba Townsend, great-great-granddaughter of John and Elvira Townsend, attended the labor festival and brought a book of her family’s history to share at the event⁵. John Townsend was born December 6^th 1763⁶. At the age of seventeen, he enlisted and became a Revolutionary War soldier, originally serving on the British side. He later switched to the colonist side of the war and was held as a prisoner by the British. Townsend contracted smallpox and was sent away from the war so he would not spread the disease to other soldiers. He walked as far as he could until exhaustion from his illness took over. He laid in a North Carolina woods expecting this spot to be his final resting place. A young Elvira Cain found John in the woods while tending to her father’s cows. Her father sent the ill soldier to one of his slave cabins to be nursed back to health. Once fully healed, Townsend went on his way and served until the Revolutionary War came to an end. After the war, John found his way back to North Carolina to repay the farmer and revisit the young lady who found him. This led to John and Elvira getting married and eventually having twelve children. The Quaker family migrated to Waynesville, Ohio and later settled in Richmond, Indiana in 1803⁷. John passed away September 25^th 1853 at the age of 89⁸. Elvira Cain was born March 7^th 1768. In 1868, she was honored as the oldest living widow of a Revolutionary War soldier. She passed away March 11^th 1870 at the age of 102⁹.

Beginning in 1981, Garrison Elementary School students participated in a week-long “Cabin Days” celebration. The events taught the students about what life was like as a pioneer in the early 1800s. Some of the festivities during the week included candle-making, log splitting, story telling, fabric dyeing and weaving, folk dancing, and pioneer craftsmanship¹⁰. Traditionally, fourth grade students spent the night in the cabin one night of the year during cabin days¹¹. Boys slept upstairs and girls slept on the bottom floor with the fire going in the fireplace¹². By the time I was a student, the overnight stays were a thing of the past. We still had cabin days, but the upstairs was in poor condition so it was roped off. Us students remained on the bottom floor while the teachers and guest speakers tended to the fire in the fireplace and shared stories.

The trip to the cabin was long and often muddy. In 2007, Jennifer O’Brien, my fifth grade teacher at the time, received a $5,000 grant through Toolbox for Education which paid to pave a path from Garrison’s playground to the cabin. The finances also helped reframe windows, and reinforce the floor boards¹³. The generous gift lasted through the closing of Garrison Elementary School. Garrison closed down in the spring of 2012 and was demolished in 2016 so the land could be repurposed for agriculture. As of Garrison’s closing, the cost of moving the cabin to another location was estimated at $85,000¹⁴. The cabin remains on the lot and now sits empty; no doors or windows remain from what can be seen from the road. Still, the memories of cabin days live on through those who got to experience it in its 40 years of being open to the community.

Sources:

1. States Win Additional Funds For Bicentennial Programs. (1975 October 2.) Palladium-Item. P 24.
2. Cabin Work Festival Set. (1976 April 18.) Palladium-Item. P 33.
3. Groups To Dance At ‘Labor Festival’. (1976 April 28.) Palladium-Item. P 14.
4. Pioneer Lifestyles Are Revisited At Bicentennial Labor Festival. (1976 May 23.) Palladium-Item. P 42.
5. Old Cabin Is Preserved By School-Labor Project. (1976 July 4.) Palladium-Item. P 65.
6. John Townsend. Find A Grave. Web. Retrieved 2026 July 11.
7. (see footnote 4)
8. (see footnote 5)
9. Elvira Cain Townsend. Find A Grave. Web. Retrieved 2026 July 11.
10. Pupils advance to the old days. (1981 October 19.) Palladium-Item. P 13.
11. Folklore brings past to life at Cabin Days. 1991 April 23. Palladium-Item. P 3.
12. Students learning about pioneers. (1991 October 12.) Palladium-Item. P 3.
13. Garrison teacher gets grant; funds renovate cabin. (2007 October 5.) Palladium-Item. P 3.
14. Palladium-Item. (2016 December 23.) P A2.