"Melrose Log Cabin"
Built about 1800 and stood until February 1979.

 
"John and Mehitable SCOTT Melrose probably built this cabin when they arrived in Wood County about the year 1799 from Decker’s Creek, Monongalia County, Virginia.
 
"Recently local Wood County historians set the period for the building of the cabin as 1802, by the style and type of caulking used.  The year 1802 coincides closely with the time the John Melrose family arrived in Wood County and settled in Slate District.  In January 1800 a land patent was granted John Melrose for 1000 acres of land in Slate District.  The land where the cabin stood was probably part of these 1000 acres.  The cabin is located about two miles south of Chesterville and 1/4 mile north of Mudlick Run, on a parcel of 48 acres owned by Eleanor DAWKINS Melrose in the late 1860s.
 
"The immigrant Melrose ancestors were James and Mary THOMPSON Melrose.  James was born June 21, 1718 at Tweedsdale (now Peepleshire) Scotland and came to America in 1730.  Mary THOMPSON was born July 18, 1724 at Carlisle, Cumberland County, South Britain.  James died May 18, 1783 near Rocky Hill, Somerset County, N.J.  The family bible of this couple, published in the year 1760, is still in existence.  It has been passed down from the eldest son from generation to generation, and is now in the possession of Ward Melrose in Modesto, California.
 
"John, the son of James and Mary THOMPSON Melrose was born in Bergen County, N.J. August 30, 1752; married Mehitable SCOTT, in Somerset County, N.J. August 7, 1779, the daughter of John and Ruth STOCKTON Scott of Princeton, N.J.
 
"John and Mehitable had eight children:  Archibald, born in N.J. June 25, 1780, married Benedicta RIGG in Wood County 1807; James also born in N.J. (as were most of their children) April 7, 1782, married Eleanor DAWKINS February 16, 1812 in Wood County; John Jr. born September 28, 1784, married Elizabeth DAWKINS; Sarah, born June 7, 1786; William born July 25, 1788, married first in Wood County and had a son Leander, married second Elizabeth TOOLEY April 1, 1819 in Edwards County, Ill.; Mary born September 2, 1790, died at age one; Polly (Mary) born August 26, 1792, married John Byrne November 3, 1812 in Wood County; the last son, Samuel, born October 9, 1794 probably married Matilda (maiden name unknown).
 
"Eleanor and Elizabeth DAWKINS were sisters; the daughters of John and Lucille ATHEY Dawkins, another old time Wood county pioneer family.
 
"Archibald and William Melrose and their families moved to Edwards County, Illinois in 1818 and have many descendants there.
 
"John Melrose and his wife Mehitable both died in Wood County.  He died about 1823 and she died December 19, 1843.
 
"To the best of knowledge, the cabin was always occupied by the Melrose family until last known occupant, James Samuel Melrose died on July 15, 1923.  He and his wife Ella (Ellen) DEEM Melrose had lived in the cabin, she had died in 1920.  James Samuel was the son of Mark Anthony and Nancy SHEETS Melrose and a grandson of James and Eleanor DAWKINS Melrose.
 
"The present owner of the 48 acres, where the cabin stood, is Ralph Hayden, and his wife of Vienna, W. Virginia.  The Haydens purchased the land several years’ back and furnished the above picture of the cabin.  The picture was taken a short time before the heavy snows in February 1979 flattened the 179-year-old cabin.
 
"Although the Melrose family is one of the oldest in Wood County, with many descendants still living in Wood and surrounding counties, there are very few left bearing the Melrose name."

Source: “History of Wood County, West Virginia”

Page 163, “Melrose Log Cabin”