The History...

John Patton and his wife, Margeret (Wiley) Patton, came to Illinois from Switzerland Country, Indiana and Gerrard Country, Kentucky in the fall of 1828 with their twelve children in the winter. In March, 1829, they settled in a Kickapoo Indian village near the junction of Patton Creek and the Mackinaw River, three and a half miles southeast of Lexington. Patton went to work gathering logs for his cabin and on June 10, 1829, it was ready for a cabin raising. Those present the day of the raising were John J. Henline, and his son George; John B. Thompson; John Patton and his son-in-law Aaron Foster; Conrad Flesher; John Haner and his three sons, Jacob, John and William; Isaac and Joseph Brumhead. A host of Kickapoo and Delaware Indians assisted raising the logs in place.

The Patton Cabin is a good example of the kind of house built by the early white settlers. The hewed-to-square logs and the half dove tail corner notching was the way cabins were built in the area of Kentucky where Patton was raised. In 1832 he built a second cabin of the same size several feet away and joined them with a roof, which created a "breeze way." This made what is called a dog-trot house. Patton delayed cutting windows in the second cabin because of the Indian scare of the Black Hawk War. In 1840 the double cabin had been sided with clapboard.

The cabin was named, by the County Commissioner in 1831, as the polling place for the Mackinaw Precinct. The Mackinaw Precinct encompassed 19 Congressional townships or 684 square miles. Here were held elections for some of the first county officers. Andrew Jackson polled well in the 1832 election. The cabin was also the scene of the first Methodist class organized in the county.

The Patton Cabin was presented to the Mclean County Historical Society in September, 1963, by Mrs. Ruth Reynolds and was dismantled September 18, 1965. In 1969 the cabin was rebuilt in the Lexington Park District. The cabin was restored in 1984-85 using some square notched logs which distinquishes them from the original Patton logs. The Patton Cabin was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

Patton Cabin before it was restored. 

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