This log cabin model is based on a pre-Civil War log cabin home I toured several years ago. If you are a real estate agent you might list this dwelling as "double cabins connected by a breezeway". The folks who built the original called this log cabin home a two-pen-dog trot. Let me explain. The pioneers called a room a pen. This cabin has two rooms . . or two pens. The open, roofed area between the cabins was called a dog trot. Likely, this area was taken over by the family dogs as they were protected from inclement weather and close to family members who fed, played and hunted with them. If you have a few dogs, you know how restless they can get! Thus, the antsy dogs trotting around became the name for this sheltered space.

A Plymouth Rock Home

The first European settlers in New England (1620) built timber-frame homes clad with hand-sawn siding. The dimensional wood was cut in a saw pit. A log was dragged onto a couple of supports over the saw pit and cut with a long two-man saw. One man stood on top of the log while the other stood underneath the log on the floor of the saw pit. Pulling a long, two-man saw up and down cut a straight slice of log. The slice of wood was attached directly to the house frame. As there was no glass for the window openings, the houses were cold and drafty. Often, the family barn was enclosed in one side of the house as cattle and sheep helped heat the interior. Cooking and heating was accomplished by using a large fireplace which was enclosed in a wall. The roof was made of dry reeds. The risk of fire was very high and the chances of saving a burning house very small.

Pioneer Food Storage

This is a root cellar at the Lincoln Log Cabin in Illinois. Built into a hillside, this cellar has some carrots, cabbages and other plant material. It doesn't look very appetizing, does it?In pioneer times, preserving foods was an important job. There were no refrigerators or freezers, tin cans, freeze dried foods or neighborhood supermarkets back then. People ate what they could grow, hunt or gather. Some plants, like peas were strung on threads and hung inside until they dried rock-hard. These dried peas were used in stews and soups. Corn was also dried and ground into flour. Cabbage, carrots, cucumbers and other vegetables migh be pickled in vinegar or stored in a root cellar. Some cuts of pork, beef and fish were salted, sun dried, cured with herbs and brine (like corned beef) or smoked like ham. Some fruits (like apples) could be stored in cold cellars or made into preserves or beverages. Other farm products, like milk, could be churned into butter or processed into cheese.Preserving foods was a big job, but necessary, or you didn't eat!

Elizabeth, IL

Like many folks, I like visiting historical sites to learn how American pioneers like Abe Lincoln, Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone lived. A couple of years ago, I visited a fort near Galena, IL called Apple River Fort. It was built at the time of the Black Hawk War as protection from a possible attack. The attack did happen and a small group of pioneer men, women and children defended themselves against 200 Native American warriors. The pioneer men were shocked when one of their friends was killed in the first volley. Three women, instantly assessed the situation and, as mothers often do, took charge. They organized the women and children into a production line to load muskets (a task of several steps) and distribute them to the men defending the walls. They also brought empty muskets back to the production line to be reloaded. The attackers were surprised with the steady firepower from the fort and reasoned that there were many more men than their scouts had reported seeing. Soon the warriors quit their attack, looted the log cabin homes near the fort and rode off. To honor the three brave women, whose given names were Elizabeth, the town voted (a decade later) to change the name of the town to Elizabeth.

The Voyageurs

Voyageur is a French word meaning “traveler”. During the fur trade era, crews of men who paddled canoes of supplies from Montreal, to “rendezvous” in the back country were called voyageurs. At these rendezvous the supplies were traded for furs which were brought from deeper in the wilderness. The furs were carried by canoe back to Montreal and on to Quebec where they were shipped to France. The majority of voyageurs were French, French/Canadians and Native Americans.
The strength and endurance of these men is legendary. They worked a 14 hour day, paddled 55 strokes per minute and carried their supplies and canoes when they crossed (portaged) the dry land that separated the lakes and rivers they traveled. Few voyagers could swim. Many drowned in rapids or in storms while crossing lakes.
A bundle of furs weighed about 90 lbs. A bundle of trade goods weighed the same. A routine portage meant each voyageur must carry 2 bundles (180 pounds) at a time, across rugged, sometimes muddy trails. Every ½ mile or so the voyageurs set down their bundles and ran back for 2 more.
There were two types of voyageurs: the pork eaters (mangeurs de lard)) and the winterers (hivernants). The men who paddled from Montreal to the rendezvous at Grand Portage lived on a diet of salt pork. . . so were called pork eaters.
The men who transported trade goods deep into the wilderness stayed at winter outpost and lived “off the land”. These men were called winterers. Winterers traded for furs in native villages and in the spring transported the furs from their outposts to a rendezvous post.

Split Pea Soup

Canoe Manned by Voyageurs Passing a Waterfall (Ontario), 1869, by Frances Anne Hopkins.

Frenchmen in the Old Northwest (lands around the Great Lakes) had little opportunity to prepare a hot meal. Yet, men paddling and portaging canoes, bales of furs and supplies from dawn to dusk needed nutritious food. Here is one early recipe for a hot, satisfying stew that was enjoyed by the voyageurs.
The tin kettle in which we cooked our food, a trader wrote, would hold eight to ten gallons. At the end of a long day paddling our canoes, the cook hung our kettle over the fire, nearly full of water. Nine quarts of dried peas- one quart per man, the daily allowance - were added to the heating water. When the peas had all burst, two or three pounds of salt pork, cut into strips, where added for seasoning, and the kettle was allowed to simmer all night. At daybreak, the cook added four biscuits, broken up, to the mess, and invited all hands to breakfast.
The swelling of the peas and biscuits filled the kettle to the brim and was so thick that a stick would stand upright in the stew. The hungry Voyageurs squatted in a circle around the kettle. Each man used his wooden spoon to ladle the hot meal from the kettle to his mouth, with lightning speed, and soon filled their belly.
Pea Souper, a nickname for French-Canadians, originated because of this daily breakfast repast.

Rustic Shelters

On the frontier, it was common to build a rustic log cabin. A crew of lumbermen needed a bunkhouse close to where they were cutting old growth timber. A miner or trapper, merchant or farmer needed shelter when they moved into a new area. With a few tools and a little time, a rustic log cabin could be built. No nails were used in this structure as the log walls are interlocked and the shingled roof is held in place by an framework of saplings. Often the floor was dirt. As there is no fireplace in this rough structure, perhaps it was used as a storehouse. Over time, additional structures might be built such as a stable, barn, chicken house, spring house, smoke house. As the community grew, the settlers would raise a rustic log cabin church.