PRESTON, Md. - In what is believed to be the only surviving log cabin on the Eastern Shore of Maryland that was built by a free black man prior to the civil war. On Friday Caroline County Historical Society, and several other groups unveiled the restoring of the James H. Webb Cabin in the town of Preston.
Kathy Mackel, the county's Director of Tourism, explains the importance of this historical site. "This Webb cabin site is part of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad byway. We have this rare surviving log cabin because James Webb had the foresight to build it with ship ballastones.
James Webb, was a free African-American farmer, and he built the one-room log cabin back in 1852 , after buying 31 acres of land near the Choptank river and Hog Creek in Preston. Webb lived here with his enslaved wife and their 3 children, says J.O.K. Walsh of the Caroline County Historical Society, "It's got a lot of different stories. One story is just that it is a surviving log cabin when hundreds of others are gone. Another one is its a good representative of it's builder, who was free black man", Walsh added.
Webb built the home with materials he found nearby. Now in restoring the Webb cabin, local craftsmen used a sensitive approach to re-creating the specially milled weatherboard siding to protect the original logs and flooring. The cabin is open daily to visitors in Preston.
