All of the log dogtrots studied in the Piney Woods were built in stages, following the same pattern. The settler built a one-room log house or “pen.” Later, as his family and fortune increased he built an identical log pen and connected the two with a common roof, leaving a passageway or “dogtrot” between the pens and providing an overhang for porches front and back. One pen usually served as a kitchen and living room and the other as a bedroom. The covered passage formed an area for household activities, children’s play, and a cool sitting spot for summer evenings. Today the passageway is more likely to house the “deep freeze.” As the family grew and more rooms were needed, the sides of the front or back porch were walled off and called “shed rooms” or “drop sheds” ([Fig. 1]).
All log houses were not dogtrots, and dogtrot construction was not limited to log houses. Many later frame houses were built in the popular style. When Hulan Purvis of Rankin County decided to build a frame house for his family in 1910, he emulated the construction of his father’s dogtrot, using the same type of “long-strawed” pine, but pine that had been planed at the sawmill rather than hewn by hand ([Fig. 23]).
Many of the early dogtrots have been remodelled, enclosing the passageway for a central room ([Fig. 25]). Others have been abandoned or destroyed. Not all houses with open passageways are dogtrots. The Bob Goodloe house in Smith County is an example of a non-dogtrot because the two sides of the house are not of equal size or symmetrical relationship ([Fig. 26]).
Tools
The only tool a man actually needed to build a log house was an axe. With an auger, an adze, a drawing knife, a froe and maul, a broadaxe, or saw, he could build it more efficiently. Tools and building techniques were passed down from generation to generation. One such technique enabled a man to raise the walls higher than he could lift a log by placing two logs at an angle against the wall to serve as a skid and using forked sticks or ropes to guide the logs into place.
Another technique was splitting logs by standing them vertically between scaffolding and sawing downward, lowering the scaffolding as the log was cut.
1. Sullivan House, near Mize, Smith County. Built 1810-20 by Tom Sullivan in “Sullivan’s Hollow.”
Present owner: Shep Sullivan
2. First sheriff’s office, Pike County. Built in 1815 by Laban Bacot.
Present owner: Mrs. Lloyd Hamilton