Smithville Community Historical Society

The Smithville Community Historical Society (SCHS) gratefully announces a $25,000 grant award from the Beaverson Foundation at the Wayne County Community Foundation. The funds will support the remediation and restoration of the Sheller Log House, which is pictured at left.

The Sheller Log House is one of Smithville’s original log homes. It is a classic example of a two-story log house. The steeple (or saddle) notching indicates it dates to the first quarter of the nineteenth century, ie, 1830’s. It is one of Smithville’s last remaining log houses. Log deterioration is a common problem found in historic buildings, such as the Sheller Log House.
Grant funding will enable the remediation and restoration of damaged logs as well as the removal and replacement of failing chinking and daubing. See below for examples of Sheller Log Home damage.

Throughout 2024, the SCHS will provide monthly updates on the Sheller Log Home restoration progress. Volunteers are expected to begin preparation work this summer while the actual log restoration is scheduled to start Fall 2024.

The grant will cover a portion of the restoration of the Sheller Log Home. However, additional funds will be needed for completion of the restoration.
Contributions towards the restoration of the Sheller Log House may be mailed to the Smithville Community Historical Society, P.O. Box 12, Smithville, OH 44677. For additional funding opportunities, please visit the Wayne County Community Foundation website at
https://www.waynecountycommunityfoundation.org/

Associated with the pioneer lifestyle, log buildings are often thought of as strictly American. In reality, European architectural elements survived the overseas colonization largely unaltered. Log structures resulted from an abundant wood supply, relative ease of construction, and the need for permanent shelter. Arising from the forested East, Pennsylvania was the apex of the Midland style of American log home construction.

The Sheller Log Home was constructed in the Midland style. The key feature of this construction style is the joining of timbers at the structure’s corners. Bearing almost the entire weight of the building, a structure cannot survive if a corner is faulty. Of the eight notching styles of Midland architecture, the Sheller Home was constructed using the V-notch method. The cut mimics an upside down “V.” V-notching is most common in a belt extending from eastern Pennsylvania, westward across the Ohio Valley including the lower Midwest.

Of the three-different Midland methods of preparing logs, the Sheller Log Home was constructed of logs hewn, or chiseled, on two-sides in a method commonly referred to as “planking.” Typically, the thickness of a log is reduced to half or less of the top-to-bottom dimensions. However, if V-notching is used, carpenters often leave the timbers relatively thick. This method can be seen in the Sheller Home where a typical, top-to-bottom log dimension is 13 inches. With a 13-inch top-to-bottom measurement, one could expect a hewn thickness of 6.5 inches or less. Sheller logs were hewn to a typical thickness of 7.5 inches.

The Smithville Historical Community Society gratefully acknowledges the Beaverson Foundation Community Fund at the Wayne County Community Foundation, https://www.waynecountycommunityfoundation.org/, whose funding makes this restoration possible. Contributions towards the restoration of the Sheller Log House may be mailed to the Smithville Community Historical Society, P.O. Box 12, Smithville, OH 44677 or through PayPal at https://sohchs.org.

American Log Buildings, An Old World Heritage, by Terry G. Jordan, pp. 3-7, 15-20, was the source for the above material.

SMithville Community Historical Society

Midland American Log Homes Planking & Notching

Sheller Hewn Logs

Sheller V-notching

Sheller V-notching

Sheller V-notching

Sheller V-notching

Sheller V-notching