Grundy County is named for Felix Grundy, a distinguished attorney, congressman, senator and member of President Martin Van Buren’s cabinet. After Grundy County was formed in 1844, this log cabin was located at the site where local leaders wished to establish their new seat of government.

According to a 1913 account by Grundy County historian W.C. Abernathy, the new county’s “Court Committee” requested an election where citizens could express their preferences for the location of the new county seat, provided it was “within two miles of the geographical center of said county, and where a sufficiency of water can be obtained and a good title to the land can be made.”

The Court Committee goes on to report that “we have agreed upon the site for the seat of justice [the courthouse] and have found the same upon the lands of Jessie Wooten, upon the ridge on which the cabin that Michael Hoover resided in stands, and...does name the town Sharon...” Hoover, it should be noted, served as a member of that Court Committee.

The town name of Sharon, however, did not last long. The county seat was officially established in 1848 with the name of Altamont, a combination of the Latin words for “altitude” and “mountain”.

The place where you see the cabin today is not its original location, though its original site is thought to be nearby, judging from the Court Committee’s description of the Hoover cabin’s location. The structure was moved to its present site behind the H.B. Northcutt House in the 1980s by Dr. Joe Gray. It is now a private building, listed on the State and National Historic Registries.