Abraham Lincoln quarterly. [Vol. 5, no. 3]

IS THE CABIN AUTHENTIC?

137

shows approximately eleven owners since 1811, one of whom
was a Negro, and that the property was finally sold to a syndicate which laid out the town of Fairview and subdivided
the farm. In view of this long string of ownership, during
which the Davis homestead was once a pottery, the authenticity of this old cabin was highly doubtful. Further, it was
not common local practice for white people to take up residence in a house which had been used by Negroes. But this
did not deter Bigham. He purchased this "Jefferson Davis
birthplace cabin" with a purpose to exhibit it, with the Lincoln cabin, at Nashville. When Brewer bought this cabin, it
contained a cast-iron mantelpiece, and when the cabin was
dismantled, Brewer had had the mantelpiece built into his
own dining room. Now, however, he ripped it out and conveyed it to Bigham with the logs. This investigation extended
from Maine to California and from Wisconsin to Florida in
an effort to unravel the tangled threads of the story of these
cabins, and it was often this old relic which provided the indispensable clue.
Two fairly good accounts of the display of the Lincoln and
Davis cabins at Nashville are available. One occurs in the
Nashville Banner, May 1, 1897, a three-quarter page writeup with illustrations. This tells of the cabins being displayed
on the midway and maintains that they contained the furniture and personal effects of the Lincoln and Davis families.
The Official Report of the Exposition contains an account of
the display and prints a quaint photograph of the entrance
to the cabin show.
Although the cabin venture was not a financial success in
Nashville, during the exposition Dennett made another
agreement with Bigham. This was in writing and provided
for future exhibitions of the two cabins and the sale of souvenirs. This new contract stated that Dennett owed Bigham
$1,500 and the last paragraph read: "In the event of the sale,