Turner Cabin

Turner Cabin
Open Saturday Only
Built by John Johnston circa 1848, the home is a hewn log cabin with a limestone chimney and tin roof. It is the oldest occupied log dwelling in Grant County. The date 1848 is etched into a wood brace in the attic.
Johnston, an Irish immigrant, was a Presbyterian minister and farmer who lived in the home with his wife Sallie and at least four children. Johnson Run, is located alongside the property and is named after Johnston. However, it lost its correct spelling over the years.
Joseph and Mahala Harman lived in the home from 1908-1912. Their son purchased the property for his aging parents. In 1912 the house was given to their son, Fred. He and his wife Claudia established it as the Pendelton Hotel, which was open until 1919. The new hotel was well located at the end of the newly completed Moorefield and Virginia Railroad link to Petersburg.
On February 5, 1912, eleven people were injured and one killed when Eastbound Passenger Train 16 on the Norfolk and Western Railroad derailed near Fords Station, approximately 20 miles west of Petersburg. A tender and eleven cars were left on the tracks. The injured and dying were brought to the Pendleton Hotel by train since the rail line ended in its front yard.
Claudia died in 1968 and Fred continued to live in the home until his death in 1974. Nelle Schaffer, Fred’s daughter, inherited the house and sold it to the Tuner family in 1980. The 1985 flood swept away a portion of the addition that made up the hotel and filled the home with mud. The thick hewn logs withstood the current, and after some back breaking labor the house was a home again.
Open Courtesy of The Turner Family
Photo by Albert Mach