CHURCH IN THE WILDWOOD

My parents were Alex and Emeline Huffman. They first moved from North Carolina to Elk Garden, Virginia, in about 1880. Later they moved to the neighborhood we know as Konnarock, Virginia. I was born here in 1896. At that time there were only a few families in this part of the country, and they were squatters. They paid about seventy-five cents a year for the use of the land. Most of the land was uncleared and very heavily timbered. They hewed logs and built log houses, cleared some land, and lived by farming, fishing, and hunting. The woods were full of wild animals, and the streams were full of fish. There were quite a few bears, some panthers, and lots of wild hogs in the woods.

My father was very good with the broad ax, and he hewed logs and rived boards to cover a lot of houses. He also made wagons. When I was a small boy, I would make little wagons too. While I was still just a boy, the Hassinger Lumber Company came to Konnarock and set up a band mill. Things soon changed; most of the men left their farms and worked for the company. Some cut timber in the woods, and some worked at the band mill. More and more people settled here until there was quite a village. Up to this time, the mail was carried from Chilhowie on horseback to a small post office named Azen. The post office was moved to the town that had grown around the band mill, and the name Konnarock was given to it. Railroads were built, and the mail was received six days a week by train.

Log houses were replaced by other homes. Fireplaces for heating and cooking were replaced by stoves. Cooking over a fireplace and living in a log house were just about things of the past.

As soon as I was old enough, I worked for the company too. Part of the time I worked at the band mill, and part of the time I worked in the woods cutting timber. Some of the trees were from four to six or seven feet in diameter. I have been told that part of the timber cut on my father's place was used to build the Titanic. I did some carpenter work too; and until there was an undertaker at Damascus, I made several caskets.

After twenty-some years, most of the timber had been cut, and the band mill was moved away.

In the meantime, the Lutheran people established the Southern Mountain Mission here, and I helped build the girls' training school. One day Mr. Hewett, the man in charge of the mission, came to me said, "Huff, I want you to build us a log church."

"A log church," I said. "Log buildings have gone out of fashion long ago."

"Yes," he said, "I want you to build a log church; I want something different."

He wanted the building thirty by fifty feet. Logs that long that would do for the work were hard to find, but after careful planning and making a few offsets, I came up with a rough plan for the outside. This plan was sent to an architect, and the plan for the inside was finished. Two or three other men helped with the work. The logs were cut and notched, and the building was soon completed. The seats and most of the furniture were made from logs too.

Before this I had made two other log buildings--burg, Virginia, to house his furs. Now I am on my twelfth log house, working with my son and two grandsons.

William R. Huffman