Mortonson–Van Leer Log Cabin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Mortonson–Van Leer Log Cabin |
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| General information | |
| Architectural style | Swedish Log Cabin |
| Location | Swedesboro, New Jersey, United States |
| Coordinates | 39°44′58″N 75°18′25″W / 39.74944°N 75.30694°W |
| Completed | c. 1654 |
| Governing body | Cumberland County Historical Society |
Mortonson–Van Leer Log Cabin (a.k.a. Schorn Log Cabin), is an historic cabin and one of the last historical dwellings in Swedesboro, Gloucester County, New Jersey, United States. It stands on the grounds of the cemetery of the Trinity Church. It is one of the oldest original log cabins of early Swedish-Finnish architecture in the United States.
History
The Mortonson–Van Leer Log Cabin was originally built along the north bank of the Raccoon River by Morton Mortenson, a Swedish-Finnish man who arrived in the Delaware Valley, at that time part of the colony of New Sweden, in May 1654. Mortenson's great-grandson, John Morton, would go on to sign the Declaration of Independence as a Pennsylvania delegate. The cabin consists of one small room with no windows and a single door and its walls are made of cedar logs and lime mortar caulk. The Cabin was also owned by a local notable Dr. Bernardhus Van Leer and later by the Van Leer family who were noted in the anti-slavery cause. Prior to and during the American Civil War, the Mortonson–Van Leer Log Cabin was used as a station for the Underground Railroad to help slaves escape to free towns. Van Leers also built nearby villages for freed slaves. Being originally located along Raccoon Creek on a terrain belonging to the Morton Mortenson Plantation, the cabin was donated by the Schorn Family to the Gloucester County Historical Society, who relocated the cabin to the cemetery located behind Trinity Episcopal Church in Swedesboro in 1989.
Architecture
The cabin is an example of the typical Swedish-Finnish cabin architecture, utilizing notched logs which overlapped corners, brought to the area upon the settlement of the New Sweden Colony.
