Uncle Tom's Cabin

"I Remember Tom Candy, I Have One of His Old Buildings!"

As we were starting to head to our vehicles to make our way to the homestead property, Phillip, a Kinsella local, stopped by.  We explained why we were in Kinsella and were surprised when Phillip exclaimed: I remember Tom Candy, in fact I have an old building from his property".  Well, even if we were late meeting the Morkens this needed to be followed up on since it is a virtual certainty that Grandpa Candy, being the carpenter of the family, would have had a hand in building it!

Phillip explained that it was just being used as a storage shed now and said, "Follow me!".

UPDATE: According to a paragraph in the Kinsella local history book this building was built with the help of friends and neighbors after Uncle Tom lost his house and contents in a fire.  All of this occurred well after the Henry Candy family had left for Los Angeles, so Grandpa Candy didn't have a hand in building it.  It was then moved into Kinsella by Uncle Tom where he lived for a time  before his death.  It was then apparently moved to it present location.

Read more to see what we found.

Phillip mentioned that he was amazed at how sturdy the building was, it was literally dragged to its current location and shows no sign of leaning or sagging.

Was this siding nailed in place by Grandpa Candy? No, apparently not.

Ken touches the past too.

Later in the day Phillip texted a photo of an earlier photo of Kinsella.  The small red roofed building in the upper right is the Uncle Tom building. UPDATE: Uncle Tom moved this building into town from his farm at some point.  He lived there until becoming ill with cancer and passing away in 1960.

Earlier Kinsella - Uncle Tom's building with red roof in upper right