T. J. Walling Log Cabin
Henderson, Rusk County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1841 Thomas Jefferson Walling (1811-1902) and his wife Nancy (Price) erected this one-room log cabin. Typical of many pioneer farm homes in this area, it was built of hand-hewn timbers joined at the corners by square notches. Walling was a veteran of the Cordova Rebellion and Indian wars, 1838-1839, and lived here with his family until 1859. The Walling log cabin was moved from its original site (10 mi. NE) to this location in 1982. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1983
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1841, during the days of the Republic of Texas, Thomas Jefferson Walling and his wife Nancy raised this one-room cabin of hand-hewn timbers joined by square corner notches—a form typical of the pioneer farmsteads then dotting East Texas. Walling had already seen hard service as a veteran of the 1838–39 Cordova Rebellion and the Indian conflicts of the era. The family lived here until 1859, and in 1982 the cabin was moved to its present site for preservation.
Why it matters
The cabin is a tangible relic of Republic-era frontier settlement, when families built homes with their own hands amid the upheavals of a young Texas.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Thomas Jefferson Walling
- · Nancy Price Walling
Related events
- · Cordova Rebellion
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
William C. Hays
Minden, TX
Born in 1806, William C. Hays cast his lot with the Texas independence movement, enlisting in Kentucky in December 1835 and fighting in the decisive victory at San Jacinto in April 1836. Rewarded with land grants, he brought his family to settle the East Texas frontier, where he helped General Sam Houston negotiate with the Cherokee leader Chief Bowles and became a founding church elder and Masonic lodge master. Five of his sons later took up arms for the Confederacy.
McCune Cemetery
Laneville, TX
McCune Cemetery grew out of the Chinquapin community in the pine country of Rusk County, its roots reaching back to pioneer James L. McCune, who came to Texas in David G. Burnet's colony and took a land grant in 1835. His son married a local Cherokee woman, Delila Storm, in 1836, and their third child's 1852 burial opened the family graveyard. More than 200 graves now rest beneath hickories, oaks, and chinquapins on land still held by McCune heirs.
Arnold Outhouse
Henderson, TX
When Henderson businessman and civic leader John R. Arnold settled his family on this property in 1908, he added a second story to the existing home and put up a number of outbuildings—among them this unusually large outhouse. Its milled door and window trim was made to match the fine detailing of the main Arnold house, since demolished. Preserved on its own, it offers a candid glimpse of everyday domestic life for well-to-do Texans a century ago.
East Texas Musical Convention
Henderson, TX
Sacred Harp, or "fasola," singing is a distinctly American folk tradition—unaccompanied, shape-note hymnody sung in dispersed harmony from special songbooks, its minor-keyed sound carrying deep emotional weight. Southern settlers migrating west carried the practice into East Texas, where it took firm root among transplanted Southern families. Tradition dates the East Texas Sacred Harp Singing Society, forerunner of the East Texas Musical Convention, to 1855; briefly suspended during the Civil War, its annual gatherings across six counties have endured ever since.