The Old Young Cabin in Hudson

 

Although things may move a bit slower and easier in the Hudson Community, there are a few changes there from time to time.  The Buddy and Martha Young Payne branch of the family has more descendants who live in or visit the immediate area than other branches of the extended Dr. I.B. Payne family.  One special place for them is the old Young cabin that was built by Robert and John T. Young in the 1870s.  Their grandaughter and daughter, Martha married Buddy Payne in 1905, and when she died in 1954, she left it to her son Jack.  Some say that she did so, because he helped his parents during World War II by sending part of his monthly check to his parents.  Other say she left it to her seventh child and second son, because she thought that he was more likely to take care of it due to his interest and practical mechanical skills.

 

The old Young cabin was a four-room, breezeway or dog-trot style design with heart of pine logs.  By the 1950s, the place was in pretty bad shape and had not had anyone living there for some years.  Jack Payne over the next few decades worked spare time from his job as an electrician at the West Monroe papermill to restore and rebuild the old cabin.  He removed and replaced only a few of the external logs, but he expanded the south end of he cabin by creating both a room for a kichen and a bathroom.  The orginal four cells of the cabin became two larger rooms, a bedroom and a den/living room.  By frugal choices of building materials/supplies, appliances, etc., Jack was able to slowly get the place in shape so that his relatives and children could enjoy the place.  Jack Payne died in 1995.

 

None of his four children has the skills and craftsmanship interests of their father, but they have tried to preserve the cabin and keep it in reasonable shape.  The latest among several changes to the cabin and vicinity is a new roof placed on it in March 2014.  Before it had corrugated tin sheets that would rust and very infrequently leak.  Replacing those tin sheets was a chore that his son and grandson did not relish doing again.  So, Allied Roofing in Monroe undertook the task of putting an insulated, colored roof on the cabin.  The result can be viewed below.