Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
“The John Patton Log Cabin is a log home located in Lexington Park District Park in Lexington, Illinois. The home was built in 1829 by John Patton, an early settler of McLean County.”
Wikipedia article John Patton Log Cabin, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 35 National Register listings published here for McLean County · listed in 1986 · category: Building.
Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
The chapter on Lexington Township in The Good Old Times in Mclean County, Illinois, published 1874 names Lexington. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
During the winter of the deep snow Mr. Spawr pounded corn of course. For nearly sixty days the sun did not shine warm enough to make a wet spot in front of his south door. During that winter a man named Rook came down from Rook's Creek (Little Vermilion) with a handsled, walking with snow-shoes, and obtained corn for his family of Conrad Flesher, who lived where Lexington now stands.
Passage source: The Good Old Times in Mclean County, Illinois, published 1874.
The town of Lexington was laid off in 1835; and in 1836 Mr. Spawr moved there from Money Creek timber. It was during December of that year that the great sudden change of the weather occurred. Mr. Spawr then saw the water blown into waves and frozen in that way. He speaks of another sudden change almost as severe. In November, 1842, he started for Chicago with a party to drive stock. The weather had been mild, but it snowed and melted and by the seventh of November it froze up. On the return of the party from Chicago they crossed the Kankakee on the ice at the rapids, where the water runs as swiftly as a mill race. A thaw came in January, but the cold weather again returned and winter continued until March.
Passage source: The Good Old Times in Mclean County, Illinois, published 1874.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Lexington Township - 13,434 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 14 fires within 5 miles of John Patton Log Cabin between 2009 and 2014, burning about 101 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 |
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | KELLER |
| 4 May 2010 | Debris and open burning | 20 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | FREED |
| 22 May 2012 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | KEMP |
| 30 April 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | STUART |
| 22 April 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | LEX BROWN2 |
| 19 April 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | BROWN |
| 19 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 15 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | LEX BROWN1 |
| 18 April 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | MONEY |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of John Patton Log Cabin: 2 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lexington, the town this property stands in, in 26 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 13 thunderstorm wind, 11 hail, 1 tornado, 1 lightning. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | $60,000 | An 80-foot tall 30-inch diameter tree was blown onto a house. In addition, numerous power lines were blown down in Lexington. |
| January 2020 | Lightning | Lexington | $30,000 | Lightning struck a tree and gas line in Lexington in McLean County at 2:40 AM CST. The tree caught fire, with the fire then spreading to a nearby home. The house suffered considerable damage to its roof and upper floor. |
| October 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | $20,000 | Numerous powerlines were blown down. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | $8,000 | A large tree was blown down onto a house in Lexington. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | A tree was blown down onto a house. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | Several power lines were blown down. |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | Numerous large trees limbs were blown down, some onto houses. Power lines were also damaged. |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | Several small tree limbs were blown down. |
| June 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | Numerous tree limbs were blown down across Lexington. |
| June 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | Several power poles were blown down. |
| March 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | Several large tree branchs were blown down. |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | An empty work trailer was blown over. It sustained moderate damage. |
| May 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | A large section of a tree was blown over onto a house, causing minor guttering damage. |
| June 1999 | Tornado (F0) | Lexington | - | A tornado briefly touched down in a field one mile west of Lexington. No injuries or damage were reported. |
| March 2007 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| March 2006 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| March 2005 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| April 2001 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Lexington | - | no account filed |
No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.
Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | David Hyatt Van Dolah House | 0.8 miles | 2015 |
 | Matthew T. Scott House | 6.8 miles | 1983 |
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 86002008 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| McLean County | All 35 listed properties in this county. |
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