Thomas and Martha Allison built and lived in this log cabin along Cane Creek, east of Old Fort, in the late 1860s after Thomas returned home from the Civil War as a Confederate veteran. About 1880, the Allisons moved to Colorado, and William and Jane Suttlemyre briefly occupied the cabin before it was foreclosed on and sold at auction in 1902. John Lytle Stepp, Martha Allison's nephew, placed the winning bid on the small dwelling and eventually added a three-room frame wing to accommodate his family of 12 children and 45 grandchildren, who visited often. He lived in the house until his death in 1938 at age 87, and the cabin took its name from him. The Stepp family owned the cabin until 1973, when they deeded it to Mountain Gateway Museum & Heritage Center. By then the frame wing and stone chimney had fallen down, but the original structure, 18.5 feet wide, 20 feet long, and 10 chestnut and pine logs high, was moved intact to this site aboard a lowboy trailer. Here, builders reconstructed the chimney and porch, replaced the tin roof with cedar shingles, and procured a large chestnut log for a mantel. The logs join at the corners in half-dovetails, and the daubing consists of mud and straw.