Lehr House
| Lehr House | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General information | |
| Type | Log cabin |
| Town or city | Overton, Ohio |
| Country | USA |
| Construction started | c.1795 |
| Relocated | 1981 |
Comprehensive History
Built around 1795, this log cabin about two miles north of Mechanicsburg, overlooking the Killbuck valley and the village of Overton, may well have been the oldest existing structure in Wayne County when it was dismantled in 1981.
Though it was occupied by different families over the early years, by the 1840s this log cabin had become the home of the Lehr family, who had migrated from eastern Pennsylvania. John George and Salome Lessig Lehr had a few children before moving to Overton, but the family is most notable for their son Henry Solomon Lehr, a young man who worked hard to gain a good education and who in later years founded the school now known as Ohio Northern University.
After the Lehr family moved on, other families lived in the cabin until it came into the ownership of the Mowrer family. In 1928, the structure had fallen into disrepair and was put into use as a shelter for cattle.[1]
In the early 1970s, Mrs. Mary Kennedy, granddaughter of Henry Solomon Lehr, made a pilgrimage to her grandfather's childhood home, happy to find the log cabin still intact. She approached Ohio Northern University about restoring the house, but the project was tabled until the late 1970s. In 1981, George Scheid, director of Ohio Northern's physical plant, oversaw the dismantling of the cabin and its removal to storage to await its reconstruction as a log cabin museum on campus.
That museum never came into existence as repeated conversations at Ohio Northern University stalled over the poor condition of the remaining timbers.[2]
Historical documents
Newspaper articles
"200-Year-Old Log House Leaves Overton," by Paul Locher, Daily Record, 29 October 1981, p.27
