James Ruffell built this log cabin during the Civil War on a 104 acre farm on Ore Bed Road, now Kenyon Road. It was the second cabin built by the Ruffell family, replacing an earlier one located farther back in the woods. In 1950, the cabin caught fire in the ore bed section of Ontario Township. The cabin reflects nineteenth-century family life, when people rose at sunrise and went to bed at sunset, with a single tallow candle providing light. Its front door had a latch string that could be pulled in for security or left out as a sign of hospitality, allowing a passerby in need of shelter to enter and share warmth and available food even when the owner was absent, giving rise to the expression "the latch string is out." The final owner was Michael Robusto, who donated the cabin to the Ontario Historical Society in 1970 and requested its removal from the site. A project to move it to Heritage Corners began on July 8, 1970.