In 1950, the Mattoon cabin is sometimes also called the "Sawyer Cabin"attracted the attention of the Yakima Valley Historical Society, which stabilized the structure with a concrete foundation, some new wall logs, and a cedar shake roof. In May of 1960, the Historical Society fenced the property, and in 1977 "the Mattoon Cabin" was placed on the National Register of Historic Places (site #77001371).
In 1992 the cabin gained the dubious distinction of inclusion on Washington Trust's "Most Endangered Historic Properties" list, and the cabin remains endangered to this day. In the words of Ed Stover, writer for the Yakima Herald-Republic, "Today, the Mattoon Cabin is inhabited by wildlife, dust and whatever else Mother Nature wants to send through its sagging windows and door. Indeed, the Mattoon Cabin could be a poster child for most-neglected historical artifacts in Yakima County."
In 1866, William Higinbotham, a relative of Martha's, came to the Yakima Valley from the Willamette Valley and entered into a partnership with cattleman William Connell. Connell had a cabin in Parker Bottom, the center of the Valley's growing cattle industry, where Higinbotham lived while tending cattle.He often rode to Fort Simcoe to attend church and spend evenings with his friends from Viola, the Mattoons.
After five years at Fort Simcoe, the Mattoon children were seven and nine years old and the family was eager to settle down on a homestead of their own. They knew that the little cabin in the heart of Parker Bottom was standing empty because their friend Myron Brown, who had been living there, was now back home in Oregon. The cabin's owner, William Connell, was retiring from the cattle business and was eager to sell. The cabin had its own fresh-water spring and was not far from the Valley's only general store.
It seemed perfect to the Mattoons. So, on February 16, 1869, after paying a $200 "squatter's fee" to Connell and traveling to the Land Office in Walla Walla to pay a $15.89 registration fee to the U.S. Government, John Mattoon officially claimed the cabin and 157 acres of property in Parker Bottom under the Homestead Act of 1862.
The family had been living on the homestead since 1869. Martha Mattoon taught at the small log schoolhouse in Parker Bottom, but when daughter Annie reached thirteen years old and her little brother George was eleven, their parents sent them for "proper schooling" in Portland instead. Annie returned to Portland every year for four years and graduated from high school there in 1877. George, however, came home to Parker Bottom after his first year away at school and never went back.
Parker Bottom continued to grow, but not as quickly as Yakima City, which was becoming the Valley's social center. It was just a short one-hour buggy ride away, and "going to town" was easy. The Mattoons regularly made the trip to attend Congregational Sunday School in Yakima City, but a church could not be established there until a minister arrived in town in 1879. The Congregational Church of Yakima was founded on April 26, 1879 with John, Martha, and Annie among the founding members.
The very next day, nineteen-year-old Annie Mattoon was baptized. Later that day, she was elected church treasurer. In the beginning, the congregation attended church meetings and services in Yakima City's "Centennial Hall," but plans for the construction of a church building were begun at once.
John, Martha, and Annie were active in church business, and they soon moved to a house in Yakima City. George remained at Parker Bottom, tending the farm and riding the range. Then, in December of 1884, at the age of 23, he married Emily Broocke. They spent their first "honeymoon years" in the cabin on the Mattoon family homestead.
That same year, the year that the Northern Pacific Railroad built a train station five miles north of Yakima City, North Yakima was born. In 1885, the Mattoon's Yakima City houseâ€along with the new Congregational Church and many other buildingsâ€was moved north to the new city. One year later John Mattoon sold the Parker Bottom homestead.
http://yakimavalleymuseum.org/home/matoon.cfm
If you visit the cabin, PLEASE respect the current landowner. I had the pleasure to talk with him and found out that he had bought this land back in 86 from an elderly woman. She tried to get people to help restore this old structure but money has always been tight. Im hoping that someone or some society would be willing to take on this act of restoration of a very historical building.
The Mattoon Cabin is considered to be the oldest structure still standing in the Yakima Valley. It is located in Parker Bottom, south of Sawyer and east of Wapato. The cabin can be seen just south of the Yakima Valley Highway, across from the Sawyer Mansion.
