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www.shelbyinfo.com Our 43RD Year • Issue No. 7 • February 19, 2026
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Historic Kings Mtn. John Wells log cabin moving to town By Alan Hodge What has been called Cleveland County’s oldest standing home structure will, figuratively speaking, be growing legs and moving to a new location on Battleground Avenue, Kings Mountain. The 246-year-old John Wells log cabin is located just off Dixon School Rd. near Kings Mountain. The cabin is a stone’s throw from former Kings Mountain Herald editor Gary Stewart’s house on property his family has owned for over a century. Stewart has gifted the cabin to Gilbert Patrick who plans to move it to his mother’s house in town. Patrick intends to restore the structure and use it for family events as well as historic programs. Stewart talked about the cabin and its place in his family over the decades. “My grandfather John Stewart bought several hundred acres from the Wells famThe chimney side of the Wells cabin. Original ily in the early 1900s,” he said. “The cabin chimney stones can be seen on the ground. was on the property, and he lived in it until he died in 1950.” It should be noted that when John Stew- Former Kings Mountain Herald editor Gary Stewart at the Wells cabin on his property. The art and subsequent Stewarts, including cabin dates to circa 1780. (Photos by Alan Hodge ) Gary’s parents and his sister, fellow Herald journalist the late Lib Stewart, lived in the wife were married in 1971, then he moved County connection and for him the cabin house where the original log cabin formed into their current brick house next door. is an architectural icon, hence his desire a “core” with updated siding and additions The last occupants of the “cabin” were his to see it live on. mother Letha and Lib who moved about altering its exterior appearance. “I am a proponent of the history of our “If you went in the attic, you could still twenty years ago across Stewart Rd. into community,” he said. “The cabin is an imsee some log construction,” Gary said. “The another frame house. portant part of it.” The cabin was vacant for many years, logs looked like new.” Patrick says his plan is to have a proGary lived in the house until he and his and Gary decided to give it to Gilbert Pat- fessional log cabin restorer take it apart rick who, in log by log and move it to his mother’s exchange, will home- the Patrick-Hambright House- on clean up the Battleground Avenue. property after “I want to have it completely restored,” its removal and he said. seed grass. Work has already started on the proj“I know Gil- ect. The added rooms and clapboard bert will do siding have been removed. Now, the what’s right,” hand-hewn logs are visible for the first Gary said. “I’m time in many, many decades. a little sad, but it “I plan to have an artist do a charcoal was time for it to drawing of the cabin,” Patrick said. “I also go.” want to have it featured in a documentary A close look at the notching used to hold the logs together. The logs were hand hewn with Gilbert Pat- video.” rick and his Patrick says there’s no urgent rush to an axe. family have get the move made. the cabin’s original builder is Robert Wells. a long-time “There’s no timeline,” he said. “It’s a ‘we He is pastor at New Harvest Church of Kings Mountain want to do it right’ line.” God in Gaffney and a keeper of Wells family How the Wells cabin looked after “modern” additions and siding were and Cleveland The great-great-great-great grandson of See CABIN, Page 2 added over the years. (Photo provided)
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