Don't get me wrong about log houses (not cabins--a cabin has a dirt floor). New ones are still being built in this area and I understand they're still popular in Germany, Switzerland, Scandinavia and Russia. Some are fancy, some are plain. They're actually fairly common here in Northern Virginia. Curiously, they look nothing like the ones in the area where I'm from. Detail-wise, the ones here could have all been built by the same man and probably some were. Most have additions in brick or stone. I have no idea where the tradition of log houses and cabins came from in the Mid-Atlantic region since most of the settlers came from Britain. But many also came from Germany (my name is Anglicized German--it's really Blaue Zug), so maybe that's where it came from. I don't remember seeing any log houses in Britain or for that matter, in Germany, either. But I've never seen a thatched roof here, either, except in the Jamestown settlement.
The distant past is only one generation ago.