Patrick Henson
More Cahawba
Tradition maintains that the Fambro/Arthur Home was built in the early 1840s by W.W. Fambro but parts of this home could date back to the Capital Era (1819-1826).
According to Dallas county deeds, Fambro bought the two-acre block in 1841 for $500. In 1851, he mortgaged it for $5,000, indicating that he had made major improvements to the lot. Advertisements found in old Cahawba newspapers tell us that by the 1850s Fambro was an attorney who also ran a saw mill. He supplied pine, white oak, hickory, beech, popular & cedar and filled orders for cabinet work. One can reasonably speculate that his mill supplied the lumber for this house. Curiously, however, only half of the house frame is built of sawed lumber, the other half appears to have been hand hewn, prompting some to speculate that a portion of this house may be earlier than the traditionally held 1840 date.
More Cahawba
Tradition maintains that the Fambro/Arthur Home was built in the early 1840s by W.W. Fambro but parts of this home could date back to the Capital Era (1819-1826).
According to Dallas county deeds, Fambro bought the two-acre block in 1841 for $500. In 1851, he mortgaged it for $5,000, indicating that he had made major improvements to the lot. Advertisements found in old Cahawba newspapers tell us that by the 1850s Fambro was an attorney who also ran a saw mill. He supplied pine, white oak, hickory, beech, popular & cedar and filled orders for cabinet work. One can reasonably speculate that his mill supplied the lumber for this house. Curiously, however, only half of the house frame is built of sawed lumber, the other half appears to have been hand hewn, prompting some to speculate that a portion of this house may be earlier than the traditionally held 1840 date.