PARKER CABIN

This double-pen log house is the oldest structure in Tarrant County. It was built in 1848 on the land originally owned by Hamilton Bennett, who sold it to Isaac Parker in 1853. Aside from its age, the Parker Cabin holds a fascinating history and is an excellent example of a dog trot cabin. The dog-trot is the covered breezeway that separates the two log rooms. This ingenious design allowed the breeze to flow through the dog trot in the summer. Since the kitchen was separate from the bedroom, the kitchen fires did not reach the bedroom; thus keeping at least one room at a comfortable temperature. In addition, each log room has its own stone fireplace which provided warmth in the winter. In 1872 Isaac Parker and his second wife, Virginia Simms, left this home in the care of his son, Isaac Duke Parker, and moved to Parker County which had been named in his honor. But the Parker family's role in Texas history had started much earlier. In 1833, thirty-two of the Parker family migrated to Texas where they settled on the Navasota River near the little town of Elkhart. Soon after their arrival in Texas (then a part of Mexico), The Declaration of Texas Independence was signed and Parker participated in the formation of the Republic of Texas. Parker served as a State Senator and Representative and as a delegate to the Texas Constitutional Convention in 1845. Evidently believing in territorial expansion, at the age of fifty-three, Isaac Parker enrolled in the battle against Mexico, where the United States claimed the rest of the territory that now belongs to the continental United States. As was the fate of many log houses, the original structure was eventually surrounded by more rooms constructed of milled lumber as saw mills became available in Texas. In 1920, Amon G. Carter acquired the Birdville home and restored the log portion at Shady Oaks Farm where it was used to display a small part of Mr. Carter's vast collection of Americana. After Mr. Carter's death, the Amon G. Carter Foundation donated the historic structure to the Pioneer Texas Heritage Committee for restoration at the Log Cabin Village, where it is interpreted as the two-room log house, with a kitchen and a bedroom, of the affluent Parker Family.