Made of squared split-logs approximately 14 inches in diameter, the house was built in stages, following the typical pattern of progression. The 24-foot square north pen was constructed first with square notching. An identical pen was added a few years later, leaving a passageway between, with the whole house roofed over to provide a front and back porch. Soon afterwards, a kitchen and dining room, each about twelve feet square, were built off the rear of the house. In 1937, these structures were torn down and the north pen again became the kitchen and the south portion of the back porch was walled up as a bedroom. Later, with the arrival of electricity, the north back porch was walled up for a kitchen. None of the outbuildings are the original ones. The present corn crib was built in 1911; the “car house” in 1925; the barn in 1935. Miss Ainsworth remembers fruit houses, which were built of small logs and daubed with mud. The house does not have plumbing and Miss Ainsworth still draws her water from the well conveniently placed on the front porch.
The Purvis house stands in the Walters Community in southeast Rankin County ([Fig. 22]). William Jackson Purvis began building the house prior to 1880. The fourth generation of his family now lives there.
Although both rooms have been ceiled and paneled in recent years and the south fireplace removed, the basic exterior remains unchanged.
The original pen was built on the east side of present-day Highway 43 and moved to the west side around 1882. The code for reassembling the pen can still be seen carved in the logs.
The north pen was added some twenty years later. The split-logs of pine are put together with V-notching. An unusual feature is a storm-pit built under the north pen with an entrance through an opening in the floor.
In 1905 when the first son married, the north portion of the front porch was walled off for the newly-weds. In the 1970s the north rear porch was walled off as a kitchen and the south rear porch as a bathroom. The house now has both electricity and plumbing.
A functioning farm until recently, the out-buildings include a smoke house, cow barn, mule barn, blacksmith shop, seed house, chicken house, and tool shed. The blacksmith shop still contains the old bellows and a handmade grinding tool. The tool shed holds hand-carved mule hames, a hand-pegged rake, and other garden tools.
Tom Sullivan built his one-room cabin of square-hewn logs in Choctaw Indian country. The area later became known as Sullivan’s Hollow, Smith County. The original log cabin was built 1810-1820 when Sullivan migrated from Georgia, and his descendants have lived in it ever since.
A double-pen was added later using split logs instead of the original square-hewn. Three shed rooms have been added over the years, the last one for a bathroom in 1965 ([Fig. 24]).
Interior walls are battened with pine boards and the ceiling is made of “sawed” boards. The mud-and-stick chimneys on each end were replaced by brick chimneys in 1915. The dogtrot passageway is usually closed up in the winter months with plastic panels. The house is occupied today by Shep Sullivan, a sixth generation descendant of the builder.