The fourth Sunday of every summer month this year, the Apollo Historic Society featured an afternoon open house at Drakes’ Log Cabin, located behind Joyce’s Hair Salon at Kiski Avenue and Williams Alley in Apollo. The cabin’s history goes back to sometime between the 1816 and 1841. This particular day in late October, the cabin is being brought to life by period characters.

Rick Miller is Abe Lincoln, “the Living Lincoln”, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the former President (not that I knew him.) Miller has studied Lincoln and incorporates his sayings, speeches, wisdom and wit in presentations and informal conversation throughout the day. Other period characters present include soldiers from the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, the John T. Crawford Camp and Sara A. Crawford Auxiliary from Kittanning, and a collection of civilian nurses called the Daughters and Sons of the Civil War Society of Armstrong County. Jennifer Zukowski of Natrona Heights, Rose Haberchak of Allegheny Twp and Barb Emanuelson of Apollo, shown standing here with the President, vividly depict the essential role women played during the Civil War.

This autumn Sunday at the Drakes’ was put together by the Apollo Historic Society and caps a successful summer of open houses at the cabin, called The Heritage Series, according to Society President Ron George. The cabin, recently the recipient of a new roof, is on the National Historic Register and has been restored over the years since 1965. Up until that point, Sarah Drake lived in it. Her family ensured the property went to the Society, which was formed originally to restore the cabin. It still contains some of her personal items, as shown in these photos.

For more information about the Apollo Historic Society, log on to www.armstronghistory.org