By David Mamaril Horowitz, Bowling Green Daily News

Voices emanate from a 165-year-old, hand-hewn log cabin sitting atop a 12-acre property, a small segment of rural Woodburn land stretching far as the eye can see.

Seventy-seven-year-old property owner Mike Wheeley, in a Stetson hat, insulated duck-leather pants and leather-cloth vest, noted nearby that if he climbed a tree, he could see almost every place he’s lived. Here, he said, crows send scouts and marauders to hunt pecans off his trees. Coyotes howl through the evenings.

But on this warm Saturday morning, Wheeley noted, “Seldom do you hear this.”

A grinding screech echoes from the cabin, where descendants and in-laws of two families, the Wheeleys and the Swindles, are sawing wood. It’s mid-October, and for the second consecutive day, the relatives have driven up from Lafayette, Tennessee, to restore the floors of the cabin – once home to the two families’ ancestors.

The Wheeleys and Swindles are cousins through siblingship between Mike Wheeley’s grandfather Leslie Wheeley and grand-aunt Donnie Wheeley, the latter of whom married and became Donnie Swindle. Donnie Swindle’s great-great granddaughter Courtney Brown connected with the Wheeleys to arrange a visit to the cabin, which happened last year.

“I’m still speechless,” said Henry Swindle, Donnie Swindle’s grandson and Courtney Swindle’s grandfather, recalling that visit. “You’ve heard the saying, ‘If these walls could talk.’

What that house has been through … .”

Huel Wheeley, Mike Wheeley’s great-great grandfather, built the cabin in 1859 on property near Lafayette, Tennessee, acquired through a land grant. Thirteen grandchildren of Huel Wheeley, including Leslie Wheeley and Donnie Swindle, were born and raised in the cabin.

“Eight generations came from this log house,” said Suzanne Wheeley, the wife of Mike Wheeley, who together had celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary at the cabin in 2009.

Some 20 years ago, the two acquired the home from Larry Law, a distant cousin of Mike Wheeley who helped them dismantle it, Suzanne Wheeley said. Moving the logs to Woodburn entailed numerous trips to Lafayette, Tennessee, and back over two years, mostly through the summers, as a full-time teaching career limited Mike Wheeley’s availability. Rebuilding the story-and-a-half-tall home – a weathered double-pen house with a breezeway in between – spanned four years of additional construction by the married Wheeleys as well as their son, friends and several carpenters.

Mike Wheeley and Suzanne Wheeley said their preservation of the cabin stems from their love and respect for family history, the pioneer lifestyle and the struggles of their ancestors. For them, it’s an opportunity to preserve the Wheeley legacy for their children and descendants.

Though the cabin’s mostly restored, a back injury has hindered Mike Wheeley’s ability to work on it, the elements over the years have rotted the floors and the back porch has needed work. So, when the Swindles and their in-laws visited last year, they offered to pitch in.

“We said, ‘If y’all fix it up, just let us know – we’ll be glad to come help,’ ” said Henry Swindle’s son Troy Swindle, recalling his visit to the log house last year – the first time he met the Wheeleys. “So, here we are.”

On Oct. 18, the Swindles and their in-laws drove up from Lafayette, Tennessee, and added one of the floors.

On the 19th, more than a dozen family members made the trip again to restore the piece of pioneer history. Troy Swindle, who has seven to eight years of remodeling experience, helped lead the stabilization of the cabin’s back porch floor. Leading alongside him were his sister Valarie Wilson and her husband Bill Wilson, who work for Fleetwood Homes in Lafayette, Tennessee.

Among others, Valarie Wilson, Troy Swindle’s wife Crystal Swindle and Mike Wheeley’s first cousin Sue Greene would take on tasks such as handling pry bars to remove rotted flooring. Troy Swindle and his son-in-law Trevor Isenberg would crawl under the porch to add joist and piers, as Bill Wilson sawed above.

“It’s heritage and something I think we need to carry on,” Crystal Swindle said. “I think a lot of this generation is losing out on how we came here and how we were started and how it was meager at one time.”

Respite came in outdoor lunch from the Wheeleys, kept cool in a white Civil War-style tent. Shortly after, they finished the back porch floor.

Before the families left, Mike Wheeley drove his 1965 Ford 4000 tractor around the field of the cabin, pulling them along in black surrey with red fringe on top. Mike Wheeley’s grand-dog, his daughter’s half-coyote mutt Molly, followed. The visiting children, pleading with their parents to stay for additional laps, got them.

That evening, the two Wheeleys, their daughter Allison Wheeley Street, her husband Jason Street and the latters’ children Madisyn Street and Grayson Street gathered beside the cabin, a few leaning back on the newly restored floor. Mike Wheeley started a bonfire from construction scrap.

“I’m just thankful to death,” Mike Wheeley said about his visiting family’s help.