Logs for the Peter Whitmer Home

When the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints decided to rebuild the Whitmer cabin Home in Fayette, New York, they needed to find some very long, old logs to build it with. They had not found any really long logs. Meanwhile a farmer, who lived six miles away, was trying to make improvements to a farm he had purchased. There was an old three story building that had been used to store grain, that he wanted to demolish. He asked a neighbor to use a bulldozer to clear trees along a lane leading into the farm yard. The man worked many hours on the task. He was then asked to bulldoze the old building. As the man drove up to the building his dozer began to push, it stalled and died. He could not get it started again. He had misjudged the sturdiness of the building. When the engine cooled, he restarted the dozer and put its blade up against the building and put the machine into gear. It tryed to push the wall in, but the tracks just spun. The hour was late and it was getting quite dark. The operator stopped, threw up his hands and said, "We will have to do this another day." For some reason he never came back to finish the job. Meanwhile the farmer had time to investigate what made his building so strong. He discovered that underneath the wood plank siding were logs from the original wall, which had also been covered inside with lath and plaster. Sometime later some Cornell University students found out about the old logs and wanted to examine it as part of a study of old log structures. They came with permission and tore off much of the siding and inside walls. The logs remained sturdy and strong. They brought a man who represented the LDS church and he told the farmer that the church had an interest in some of the logs. A deal was negotiated and the farmer agreed to donate the logs if the Church would take them all. For the next eight Saturdays the Fayette Ward Elders and Priest Quorums disassembled the structure and hauled the logs to the Whitmer home site. The Church had acquired other shorter logs for most of the restored cabin home, and used the long logs from the farmer for the top three rows of the cabin walls. They also used an old stairway from the old structure as the stairway to the upper rooms in the cabin. On April 6th, 1980, the 150th anniversary of the organization of the church, President Spencer W. Kimball conducted the opening session of General Conference for the church, via satellite broadcast, from the main room of the restored cabin. The farmer had been invited by Pres. Kimball to attend, but did not think that it was important. On that day the new Fayette Ward church and Visitors Center were dedicated, along with the Whitmer Cabin Home, which occupy the same several acres. Sixteen years later the farmer was visiting a friend in the area and thought it would be interesting to visit the building that had been rebuilt with some of his logs. It happened to be a Sunday, during church services. He was greeted in the parking lot by a Senior Elder. He was asked what he wanted to see. The farmer said he had come to see the logs. The Elder said, "What logs?" The farmer said that he had donated some logs years ago and had come to see what had become of them. As the Elder took the farmer to the Log Home, he asked what he knew about the Church, and would he like to hear more? The farmer said that he had heard about the Church from non-member friends and he really wasn't interested in hearing more. They were soon standing outside the cabin looking at the logs. The farmer pointed to the upper logs, that he had been told years before were the ones he had donated. Two sister missionaries walked up and were introduced to him. They made a fuss over him when they heard about the logs, and asked for a picture of him. They then went on to other duties. The Senior Elder was able to get the farmer inside the building and proceeded to tell him of all the events that had taken place on the farm and in the original cabin that had been there in 1830. The restored cabin was built on the exact spot where the old one had been, so it occupied the same air space. When they got upstairs, the farmer began to cry. He sobbed like a baby. He was embarrassed and apologized by saying, "I don't know what has come over me. I have never felt this way before!" The Elder assured him that he was feeling the Spirit. The man said again, "I have never felt this way before!" The Elder replied, "Maybe you have never felt the Spirit before." Needless to say, before he left, he had agreed to listen to the discussions. The man came to the Visitors Center at Fayette a couple of times a week to be taught. It took an extra number of lessons before he committed to baptism. When he visited the Sacred Grove, he received another witness as he sat alone on a tree stump. He counted the rings and calculated that the tree had probably been living when God the Father and Jesus had appeared to Joseph. He received a witness from the Spirit that the Church was true, and finally agreed to be baptized. He was baptized in Seneca Lake on September 8th, 1996. He was content to be a member and did not pursue becoming an Elder. When the Palmyra Temple was announced, he realized that he would not be able to enter it after the open house. He thought to himself, "When the Temple closes to the public, I do not want the doors closed to me." He talked with his Bishop and began preparing himself. On the day that the Temple was dedicated, April 6, 2000, a former missionary from Wyoming, that was instrumental in his conversion, ordained him an Elder in the Peter Whitmer Log Home. He said that his Bishop, who was attending the ordination, then handed him his temple recommend. Two days later the man became the first person to receive a living endowment in that temple. He was also sealed to his family and was the first proxy sealing of a child to deceased parents. Later he married a woman who had been taught in another city by the same sister missionary who had taught him. She also joined the church. This man, the farmer, is Norman White and he is calls himself, "Norman the Mormon". He is currently serving as a councilor in the Bishopric of the Auburn, NY Ward. He truly had a great story that he gave us permission to share. We were thrilled to have met him and to have learned of his story this past Monday at Family Home Evening with the senior couples.