POP’S CABIN CREAMERY

Low Country Shrimper owner Don Deas has opened a new ice cream parlor in the historic Gosnell Cabin next to the Mauldin Cultural Center. Pop’s Cabin Creamery opened June 14th, 2021. Follow them on Facebook to stay up to date on business hours, available flavors, and more!

The cabin that Deas’ ice cream shop occupies is in a quiet, gardenlike spot on the Mauldin Cultural Center’s campus. Since being moved to the city from Camp Old Indian in 2009, the Gosnell Cabin has sat relatively unused year-round. Now, it serves as the home of Pop’s Cabin Creamery.

Deas named the shop after the popular ice cream shop that his grandfather-in-law, Pop Dorsey, owned in Marion, South Carolina.

“My wife’s grandfather owned a small ice cream shop in Marion,” he said. “There was nothing to it. [It] was just a little shack, but you wouldn’t believe the amount of people who came to it just to get ice cream and hand-sliced cheese and all sorts of meats. I was always impressed every time I went, because he was just a part of the fabric of that community. People loved walking to that store, getting ice cream.”

The creamery utilizes the front windows on the cabin as ordering stations, with an order pick-up area where the front door was. An open seating area with tables, chairs, and umbrellas is located in front of the cabin. Pop’s Cabin Creamery features ice cream, snow cones, milkshakes, and more.


HISTORIC GOSNELL CABIN

This historic cabin once stood at Camp Old Indian in Travelers Rest. In need of a new home, a group of Mauldin citizens acquired it, had it restored, and erected it on the grounds of the Mauldin Cultural Center.

The inscription on the cabin reads:

The history of the Gosnell cabin originates 200 years ago. The cabin, with original dimensions of twenty-five by eighteen feet, was built out of twelve-inch thick by eight-inch wide beams of heart pine, and it was built to last.

Gresham Callahan is the first attributed inhabitants of the Gosnell log cabin. According to a log cabin historian, the cabin initially started in the Cherokee Indian style of construction and was finished using the English method. In other words, the cabin was begun by an Indian and finished by a white man. Also, the cabin originally had a dirt floor that was later jacked up and a wooden floor added.

Gresham Callahan first appeared in the record books on the 1810 census. This indicates that he was a resident of Greenville County after 1800, but before 1810. Apparently, Mr. Callahan had a number of different monikers, one of which was “Old Indian.”

The cabin was originally located in northern Greenville County, within a short distance of historic Poinsett Bridge. Poinsett Bridge was completed in 1819, and the cabin was used as the construction headquarters while the bridge was under construction. Poinsett Bridge is the oldest bridge still standing in South Carolina.

At some point the ownership of the cabin passed to John H. Goodwin. In 1875 John Goodwin sold the cabin and 300 acres to Rev. John Jack Gosnell for $351.00. Three generations of Gosnells lived in the cabin until 1941.

The Boy Scouts bought the property for a camp in 1927. The last member of the Gosnell family to live in the cabin, Luther Gosnell, served as the caretaker of the property until his death in 1941. The name the Boy Scouts used for their new camp was derived from Gresham Callahan. The name chosen was “Camp Old Indian.”

The dry accounting of dates and numbers do little to reflect the colorful history of the Gosnell log cabin. At a meeting on Aug. 10, 2008 with several granddaughters of Luther Gosnell (Carol Gosnell Long, Tammy Poore Mason and Kathy Gosnell Janson) the ancient walls of pine echoed again the joys and sadness of life as it will never be known again in Greenville County.

Perhaps as many as ten babies were born in the cabin. Luther’s wife, Lizzie Dill Gosnell, died of measles in 1928 while sitting in a chair in front of the fire. An uncle had his leg amputated on the kitchen table (the table was carried out first).

In 1941 Luther has an epileptic fit in front of the fireplace. The attacked prevented control of his body and his spasms drove his legs into the hot fire. It was three days before anyone found him and he died of gangrene in the old Greenville General Hospital.

Life was tough in the foothills of Greenville County. Bears in search of food frightened little girls who peeped out at them through the chinks in the logs while remaining deathly still. Panthers, rattlesnakes and copperheads added to the danger.

Luther made his living as a farmer and a rock mason. There are rumors that he was a moonshiner and a bootlegger. The main meal for his family was corn meal and water, which also happen to be the main ingredients for corn liquor.

After 1941 the cabin remained on the Camp Old Indian property. It fell into disrepair and the camp did not have the resources to keep it up. Sam Phillips, Dave Chesson and Tim Brett were instrumental to having the cabin removed and restored at the Mauldin Cultural Center grounds. The cabin is undoubtedly one of the oldest remaining structures in Greenville County.

Erected 2009.