Mary, who lived in a mobile home nearby, told James that when she moved out, the cabin tilted because its sill log was rotten. In 1979 James fortuitously met Mary Houk, an elderly widow who owned and had recently occupied the cabin that would become his home. He even knew the exact spot-on a ridge, overlooking a wide valley and several hill ranges, where the sunsets were exquisite. James, who spent part of his childhood in nearby Spencer, had planned to build a home on the 25 acres off of Stogsdill Road, near the Monroe/Owen County line, ever since he inherited the land from his mother. For the past 35 years, the nationally acclaimed author of historical fiction, including the novels “Long Knife,” “Follow the River” and “Panther in the Sky,” has lived in a pre-Civil War log house that he reconstructed using 19th-century tools. James Alexander Thom not only writes about 19th-century Indiana history-he lives in it.
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