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The following photos show the old log house [1] that sat on the Troutman farm on Grandview Drive in Southampton Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania. I remember the house fondly from my childhood, and regret that it has been lost to the ravages of time. During my lifetime, the farm was owned by Allen E. Troutman, who was born in 1894 and died in 1984, and then by Harold Edward "Bink" Troutman, who was born in 1927 and died in 2023. I don't know who built the log house originally.
The following seven photos of the log house were provided by Richard Sturtz in 2025. In 2023 Richard Sturtz told me about having seen the cast fireback from the fireplace of the house. He said it had an arched top, German writing near the top, pine tree imagery, and a 1740s date. He thought that the English word "June" may have preceded the year date. Richard also reports that he donated the following items to the Somerset Historical Center: a door and hinges, the fireplace crane, a window with the molding trim, and a small section of the pine paneling that divided the two rooms.
The first photo below shows the west end of the log house. The photo reveals that the house was a banked structure with hewn logs, a cut stone foundationa and a cut stone chimney.
The next photo below shows the east end of the house, and also shows that the house had been upgraded with a "tin" (i.e., metal) roof. The photo also shows several vertical furring strips fastened over the logs, suggesting that the house was weatherboarded at one time. What looks like a surviving weather board is located to the right of the window, on top of one of the furring strips.
It appears that the floor of the cabin is supported by a central beam that is supported by the stone foundation. A short log that had been located to the right of the central beam is fallen due to local collapse of the stone foundation. A cellar door is located to the left of the central support beam.
The next photo shows the thumb latch arrangement on one side of a door. When you press on the latch with your thumb, it lifts a latch bar out of a door-frame-mounted slotted receptacle on the opposite side of the door, allowing the door to swing open. A description of the operation of this type of latch is provided on page 71 of the book “In the Land of Used to Be: Memories of a Rural Pennsylvania Childhood”.
The next photo shows the latch bar on the opposite of the door. The door frame-mounted slotted receptacle that receives the latch bar appears to be missing. To open the latch from the inside of the door, you lift the latch bar out of the door-frame mounted slotted receptacle. The photo also shows a chair rail on the wall. I suspect that wall is the interior wall described by Richard Sturtz that partitions the house into two rooms.
The next photo shows a long hand-forged hinge on a primitive door, and two joists. The ceiling was formed by the floor boards for the loft. The photo also shows that the house was electrified, because sheathed wiring is stapled to the wall, and apparently runs along the underside of a joist.
The next photo shows the fireplace of the log house. The mantel of the fireplace is a wooden beam. The fireplace crane, which was for cooking, is visible on the right-hand side of the fireplace. The wall to the right of the fireplace appears to be paneled with vertical boards. There also appears to be a vertical board to the left of the fireplace.
The next photo shows two of the hand-hewn rafters of the log house. The photo seems to show the rafters are joined with a pinned tenon.
The next image is a still frame from a home movie my father Roy Dietle took from Felty Hill Road in the late 1950s or early 1960s. The log house is identified with a red arrow. I like this image because it shows the handsome color of the chimney. The perspective of the image makes it appear that the log house adjoins another structure, but that wasn't really the case.
Next is the 2.8-second recording the above still frame was taken from.
The next image is a 1939 aerial photo. The log house is identified with a red arrow. The chimney of the log house casts a noticeable shadow. Scaling as best I can from the sizes and locations of the house and barn in this image, I think the approximate location of the log house was 39.759008613117324, -78.84347151757756.
The following two photos are reproduced from volume one of the 2005 book "A Look At Southampton Township Pennsylvania The Way It Used To Be!", with permission of author Mona Huffman.
The following photograph, which is from page 134 of the 1949 book "The Genealogy of Michael Korns, Sr. of Somerset County Pennsylvania", shows the Troutman farm where the log house is located. The log house was located to the right of the farmhouse, and is not shown in the photograph. As you can see, the farm has a beautiful view.
In a 2025 e-mail, Richard Sturtz reported "...that Allen Troutman told me when he was a boy, if he or any of his siblings came down with a contagious sickness they were cared for in the log cabin, so they wouldn’t infect the whole family in the big white farmhouse." Rev. Ken Korns, who grew up about 1.2 road miles from the log house, told me that he helped with butchering hogs and cutting them up in the log house back in the 1970s. I interpret that as indicating the log house was then being used like a summer kitchen.
Previous owners of the Bink Troutman farm:
One tantalizing phrase in the above property search is, "patented to Jacob Beals & Christian Sturtz for Mifflin Great Survey". The mysterious "Great Survey" is mentioned in the 1814-1818 real estate record in Somerset County Deed Book 8 pg. 191 reportedly includes the statement, "The undersigned citizens of Southampton have at sundry times made purchases of several tracts of land situated in Southampton from two tracts called the great survey and smith land which was surveyed into 14 sections and by sundry means conveyances have vested in Samuel Riddle and the Juniata coal comany Pennsylvania and the original lines as Run on the ground have not been regarded in laying off the several farms sold by Sam Riddle and Juniata coal comp ..." To see the "General Deed for great survey & the tract called Smiths land" that was recorded on February 23, 1827, click here.
Before Christian Sturtz could acquire a patent for the James Rose property from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1817, he had to purchase the rights from Samuel Riddle in 1815. Click here to see a PDF of the two-page ledger-sized 1815 grant from Samuel Riddle to Christian Sturtz. This document traces the ownership of the land back to James Rose in 1767. The part of the 1815 grant that traces the previous land owners states "(It being the same tract of land which was surveyed for James Rose upon a Location N. 2488, dated the twentieth day of January one thousand seven hundred and sixty seven, and which the said James Rose by his Deed Roll duly executed, bearing date the eighth day of June one thousand seven hundred and sixty seven, for the consideration therein mentioned, granted and conveyed to John Boynton, Samuel Wharton and George Morgan, and which the said George Morgan, who survived the said John Boynton and Samuel Wharton, by his Deed duly executed bearing date The twenty eighth day of April one thousand eight hundred and two, for the consideration therein mentioned, granted and conveyed to a Michael J. Simpson; and which the said Michael J. Simpson by his Deed duly executed, bearing date the twenty fourth day of July one thousand eight hundred and two, for the consideration therein mentioned, granted and conveyed to the said Samuel Riddle in fee)". The referenced George Morgan is the "father" of the Turkey Foot Road that I spent years researching.
Survey Book C-221 Page 296 shows how the 1817 Sturtz property was divided between William Troutman and some Sturtz heirs in 1870. The referenced Sturtz heirs were the heirs of John Sturtz (son of Christian Sturtz, Jr.) who died in 1868, because John Sturtz acquired at least some of his deceased father's real estate; click here for details. The portion of the property owned by the Sturtz heirs became part of the Korns farm and explains the zigzag shape of part of the boundary of that farm that is shown on a 2022 county plat map. Christian Sturtz, Jr. is buried on that Korns farm.
The following composite image incorporates images from the 1870 Sturtz Heirs survey (Survey Book C-221 Page 296) and the 2022 county plat map. The dashed lines on the 1870 Sturtz Heirs survey represent the 1817 Christian Sturtz survey (Survey Book C-204 Page 152). The border of the Korns farm is highlighted in yellow on the 2022 plat map. To scale the 1870 and 2022 images to one another, I made the measurement between the westernmost and northernmost corners of the boundary of the Korns farm approximately the same as the measurement between the corresponding corners of the Sturtz Heirs survey. The westernmost corner of the Korns farm is aligned with the corresponding corner of the Sturtz Heirs survey. Red and blue lines project from the 1870 survey images to establish the approximate location of the southern boundary line of the 1817 Christian Sturtz survey on the 2022 plat map (thick green line). This drawing exercise appears to establish that the log house featured on this page was not located on the 1817 Christian Sturtz survey. Rather, it appears to establish that the log house was located on the adjoining 1817 John Beal property (Survey Book A-20 Page 65). For West Side Application abstracts of the Christian Sturtz and John Beal properties, click here.
In harmony with the aforementioned property search, the Southampton Township portion of the 1860 Walker map of Somerset County indicates the farm with the log house was then occupied by D. Lepley, and the 1876 "County Atlas of Somerset Pennsylvania" indicates the farm was then occupied by W. Troutman.
Confusing property ownership information
Although not documentary evidence, the summary of Chapter X in the table of contents of the Korns book states "Christina Korns, born 1796, the eighth child of Michael Korns, Sr., married William Troutman, Jr.; they remained on the Troutman farm in Southampton Township, Somerset Co., all their lives. They were the parents of eleven children."
In regard to the Al Troutman farm, Chapter X of the Korns book includes the following text, which is a direct quote from a statement in an 1884 history book that is included farther below. Statements in genealogy books are not documentary evidence, and it is at least conceivable that the author of the Korns book applied the statement in the 1884 book to the wrong farm.
Although not documentary evidence, the following excerpt from page 578 of the 1884 book "History of Bedford, Somerset and Fulton Counties, Pennsylvania" references an Indian village on the William Troutman, Jr. farm. The excerpt also indicates that William Troutman, Jr. died only three years before the 1884 history book was published.
An Indian village on the Al Troutman farm was excavated, studied, and documented during the great depression. I know the excavation was on what I first knew as the Al Troutman farm because I recognize the dirt road and the field that are shown in the photographs on the PHMC web page that documents the excavation. Additionally, I recently learned that my mother Estalene (Korns) Dietle, who was born in 1933, remembered a 1930s archaeological excavation near the aforementioned Korns farm where she was raised, and mentioned the excavation to my sister.
The location of the excavation is further confirmed by a 1938 archaeology article "Recent Discoveries in Somerset County" (4,521 KB pdf) that mentions Al Troutman in the following statement: "The co-operation of the farmers of Somerset County in permitting excavation on their land, in many cases involving the destruction of a cash crop, is greatly appreciated and sincere thanks are extended the Peck Brothers, Mr. B. F. Hanna, the Clouse Brothers, Mr. William Emerick and his two sons, William Reckner, Frank Montague, Sylvester Powell and Allan Troutman on whose land sites have been excavated or have been definitely located.”
Reportedly, the Troutman archaeological excavation is also referenced in the 1938 article "Indian Fortifications in Somerset County" that was published in the "Pennsylvania Archaeologist".
What does all this mean? Well, I'm not exactly sure! Here are my thoughts:
The two bullet items included above are merely speculation, rather than fact! More study is needed.
L. Dietle
References:
[1] I use the following statement in Thaddeus Mason Harris's 1805 book "Journal of a Tour..." to distinguish between log houses and log cabins: "The temporary buildings of the first settlers in the wilds are called Cabins. They are built with unhewn logs, the interstices between which are stopped with rails, calked with moss or straw, and daubed with mud. The roof is covered with a sort of thin staves split out of oak or ash, about four feet long and five inches wide, fastened on by heavy poles being laid upon them. ‘If the logs be hewed; if the interstices be stopped with stone, and neatly plastered; and the roof composed of shingles nicely laid on, it is called a log-house.’ A loghouse has glass windows and a chimney; a cabin has commonly no window at all, and only a hole at the top for the smoke to escape. After saw mills are erected, and boards can be procured, the settlers provide themselves with more decent houses, with neat floors and ceiling."
Return to the Korns family genealogy home page
The following property search was provided by Richard Sturtz. It traces the Harold E. "Bink" Troutman property back to more than one original survey, including a survey for the property Christian Sturtz acquired from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1817. By analyzing the streams and property shapes that are shown on the WPA warrant survey map of Southampton Township, it is clear that Christian Sturtz's referenced 1817 property is documented by the James Rose survey, Survey Book C-204 Page 152. As shown by the title page of that survey, the purchase money for the tract wasn't paid until August 11, 1870, long after the 1826 death of Christian Sturtz, Sr. and the 1830 death of Christian Sturtz, Jr.
In Chapter X (Christina Korns Branch) of the aforementioned 1949 Korns book, the Al Troutman farm where the log house was located is attributed to the William Troutman, Jr. who married Christina Korns, the eighth child of Michael Korns, Sr., and died in 1881. The book states, "Deed to William Troutman, Jr., dated 12/22/1818. Recorded 3/14/1820, Volume 8 page 478. Consideration $900.00. 163 A.—88 P. adjoining Simon Hay—Wm. Troutman, Sr.; John Blubaugh's heirs." Without examining the referenced 1818 deed, I am unable to reconcile it with the aforementioned property search.
February 26, 2025
Updated April 8, 2025
