The log house as it appeared in 1942 on what later became Cameron Road. The barn and pumphouse still exist, but five decades after the house was moved to a nearby location, the roof caved in after a heavy snow.
One of the articles in our recent 12-page newsletter features longtime SWHS Board member Betty Cameron Discher who spent her early years in a log house on Cameron Road.Betty Cameron Discher is one of very few south enders who can claim to have spent part of her childhood in a log house without running water or electricity.
In 1942 when she was only a few month old, her family home at what is now the Nichols Brothers Boatyard’s parking lot, burned down due to a chimney fire.
Parents Don and Bonnie (Spencer) Cameron bought a nearby 12-acre farm from Frank and Evelyn Betts. The Betts family had come to South Whidbey from Michigan in 1913. It is unknown whether the Betts built the cabin and outbuildings or if they existed before they arrived.
Betty is the great-granddaughter of Hudson and Sarah Spencer who set up the Harbor Cash Store in Freeland in 1904. Her grandfather, Art Spencer, owned a mill and a machine shop there.
The Camerons moved into the cabin with their two young children and lived there while Betty’s father built a new home a few yards away.
A few years after the house was completed, the cabin was rolled on logs a quarter mile to a location north on State Route 525 to the corner of Honeymoon Bay Rd. It was located behind the yellow house that was later barged over and placed there.
Betty’s paternal grandparents lived in the cabin in their declining years, still without water and electricity. The cabin caved in under a heavy snow in the winter of 1996/1997.
The log house as it appeared in 1942 on what later became Cameron Road. The barn and pumphouse still exist, but five decades after the house was moved to a nearby location, the roof caved in after a heavy snow.
This picture shows the new house on the right, with the log house being rolled on logs by tractor to its new location.
The log house being moved to its new location a quarter mile away.