This farmstead has been in use as a residence and is the oldest log house in Austin that has been continually occupied at its original location. It’s located in the Rosedale neighborhood at 4811 Sinclair Avenue between Burnett and Shoal Creek at the corner of 49th and Sinclair Ave.
It was bought and restored by Michael and Karen Collins. The renovations began in 1989 when it was restored to its original 1849 condition.
Three years after Texas became a Republic, Irish immigrant and mercantile owner Martin Moore came to the new town of Austin and fought in the Republic of Texas Army. He married Elizabeth White, whose father, Gideon White, was scalloped and killed by Indians in 1842 along Shoal Creek.
Gideon White was one of the earliest victims of indigenous Americans war with the people encroaching on their land.
He was killed approximately where Central Market North and the Apartment buildings next door are located on land that used to be the Austin State Hospital. Gideon White lived in a small house that had a little picket fence around it. He was out in the fields in front of that house when his wife heard yelling and saw him running towards the house. He was killed along with that was his young son. Elizabeth was just a baby and in her mother’s arms when all of this happened. To learn more, read about it in The Indian Depredations in Texas.
Martin built a dog run log house for his wife Elizabeth and their children. Catherine, Kate, Bessie and James. Kate would grow up to marry famous Texas gunfighter Ben Thompson.
They lived there for almost 20 years before selling the property just after the Civil War to John Hancock, who was a staunch Unionist but still owned slaves during the Civil War era. After the Civil War. A family of former slaves lived in the log cabin house that we are referring to.
In 1902, John PP Wallace and his Swedish wife Hulda Rosenquist bought the property and used it as a dairy farm for the next 25 years. The house changed ownership several times from 1930 to 1950 as the city of Austin reached out to nearby farms, creating suburbs.
Another historic location in Austin to learn more about.
