William Rohrbough built the front half of what is now known as the Mary Conrad Cabin in 1845 on land in southern Lewis County that had originally been patented by George Jackson, brother of Colonel Edward Jackson of Jackson's Mill. In 1855 George Conrad purchased the cabin and added the back half. Strategically located along the Weston and Gauley Bridge Turnpike at Bushes Mill, now Roanoke, the cabin served as a courier stop for both sides during the Civil War. Legend holds that soldiers William McKinley and Rutherford B. Hayes, later presidents of the United States, drank from the sweep-well in the cabin dooryard while serving in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Others said to have stopped there included Union General J.A.J. Lightburn, future ambassador to England Whitelaw Reid, and Confederate General John D. Imboden. In 1961 George Conrad's granddaughter Mary Conrad deeded the cabin to the state of West Virginia for use as a roadside park. In 1988 it was moved to a new roadside park to make way for Stonewall Jackson Lake, and after West Virginia closed its roadside parks system, the cabin found a new home through the efforts of many people in the Jackson's Mill Historic Area in the summer of 1994.