Some Cabins at Cades Cove

Peaks of the Appalachian Mountains guard Cades Cove like sentinels, seeming to offer some protection for the valley. Families began trickling into the cove around 1818. One of those first families was the Olivers. John and Lucretia Oliver arrived in 1818 and spent their first winter in an abandoned Cherokee hunting hut. In 1822 they constructed a cabin in front of it. In 1826, the Olivers bought land, and John built a wedding cabin for his son.

Dan Lawson built a cabin in 1856, after he purchased the land from his father-in-law, Peter Cable. The most unusual feature is the brick chimney, because most were built from stone. The clay was gathered and the bricks made on the site. Originally it was constructed of logs, but additions were added with milled lumber. It also has a granary and smokehouse.

Colonel "Hamp" Tipton built a house in Cades Cove in 1870, but he never lived there. He'd fought in the Mexican War and returned to live in Tuckaleechee Cove. However, two of his daughters, Lucy and Lizzie, lived in the cabin when they taught school in the Cades Cove. James McCaulley also rented it for a time before he bought his own property in the cove and built his own house. 

Carter Shields had fought in the Civil War, was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, and remained crippled for life. When he returned from the war, he married and moved to Kansas. He came back to Cades Cove in 1906 and bought property in 1910, but he only lived there for eleven years before he left again. Even with the houses built in these later dates, they still showed a primitive lifestyle of years earlier.

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