In a quiet garden in the center of Clarkesville, there’s a piece of local history that’s been around longer than the town. The 200-year-old Big Holly Cabin used to sit in an open pasture on the outskirts of town. The hand-hewn single-pen log cabin built by Haywood English once housed early settlers. Today, it welcomes visitors to the area at The Mauldin House Gardens.
Clarkesville has committed itself to maintaining this treasured landmark and, on Friday, took another step to affirm that.
Partnering with the Georgia Historical Society, the city installed a historical marker that tells the cabin’s history. According to the marker, Big Holly Cabin is one of the few remaining examples of a single-room cabin built when this area was the Georgia mountain frontier.
A trip back in time
A crowd of about 30 people attended the June 9 unveiling, including three English family descendants. The turnout impressed Clarkesville Mayor Barrie Aycock.
“We are excited to see everybody here. We knew we would have some newspaper folks here, but you all, this is great!” the Mayor said as she introduced Clarkesville Main Street Director Colby Moore.
Moore, too, expressed pleasure with the turnout as he invited those gathered to step back in time with him as he shared with them the cabin’s history.
Moore spoke of a young nation and an even younger Habersham County that beckoned settlers to its wide open spaces. He told of a young Haywood English who married Miss Sallie McCraken and built Big Holly Cabin on 250 acres near Sutton Mill Creek.
He described how English would have cut down the trees by hand using a five-pound felling ax – a typical tool of frontiersmen in his day. He spoke of how English would have carefully sharpened the ax and used it to limb, hew, and notch the beams. He then stacked and interlocked the beams on the cabin’s rock foundation. English chinked the logs with a mixture of mud, clay, and sawdust to seal the cabin from the elements.
He turned “available resources into a home, with nothing but grit, determination, and pioneer skills,” said Moore.
Many generations of the English family would pass through this home over the next several decades. The home remained in the English family for 160 years until they sold it in 1981.
Preservation
When families sell historical buildings or properties, the new owners often tear them down to make way for modern improvements. The new owner, Dr. Ed McConnell, knew the storied history of the cabin and began restoring it in 1986. He turned it into an educational resource for the community.
Several years later, the cabin was moved to its current location beside The Mauldin House Welcome Center and Gardens. Through generations and preservation, the cabin has evolved into the landmark and historical and cultural asset it has become.
“The Big Holly Cabin is a tangible reminder of our past, not just of simpler times, but of people who lived and worked hard to create the building blocks which we stand upon now, 200 years later,” said Moore.
A shared history
Haywood English’s descendants unveiled the marker, including his great-great-grandson and great-granddaughter several times removed, Rodney Coleman and Carole Poleski. Another family member, Kenneth Goss, also helped.
“I’m delighted it’s being honored this way,” Poleski told Now Habersham after the ceremony. “When this happened, I was delighted.”
Being in Clarkesville and seeing the cabin reminded her of the happy memories she made visiting her great-grandmother in the cabin. Poleski brought her grandsons to Big Holly and told them stories about it. When she asked them to imagine living in the cabin with their parents, her little grandson Sammy responded, “‘It would be fun.'”
For the 90-year-old Coleman, like Poleski, Big Holly holds many memories. Still, he’s happy to share the cabin his ancestors built with the community they helped to create.
“I think it’s good. I have no problem with it. I like it here,” he said.
