The first thing is the center of the pioneer life, the log cabin home.
These cabins were in all cases made of logs, and usually untouched except for
the notches where they fitted into one another. In the few exceptions the logo
were roughly squared by the broadaxe. The logs were then laid in the form of a
hollow square or oblong, openings being left for doors and windows. When the
walls had reached the desired height the roof was put on, consisting of split
clapboards laid loosely on the crudel rafters and consisting then of logs laid
across them to hold the clapboards in place. In some cases wooden pegs were
used. The cracks between the timbers were filled with a mixture of moss and
clay. The windows were not fitted with glass panes because glass was too costly,
so a substitute of thin oiled paper or skin was used to admit light. In many
cases even these were lacking and the window casings were fitted with shutters,
which when closed to keep out the weather, shut out the light also. The
furniture of these cabins was crude, also, the main articles being a crude
table, made by various methods, chairs or benches made by use of half of a log
with sticks put into holes made in the rounded side. A bed was made by extending
poles from the walls of the cabin to forked poles driven into the dirt floor.
Clapboards laid across these and covered with skins completed the bed. In some
cases a family brought furniture from the old home, but often the unnecessary
articles were soon discarded.
In most cases the cabin was surrounded by
dense forests, open prairies or some other phase of nature, not by numerous
signs of the habitation of man until the true pioneering period had passed. The
surrounding country was often desolate of any other sign of human beings. A
clearing surrounding the cabin, afforded a space for raising the crops and a
means of protection. The food of the pioneers came from three sources — the
crops, that which they hunted for as fish, game, fruit and nuts, and sometimes a
little food was bought at a trading post.
Corn, beans and pumpkins were
common crops, and in most cases the only ones as these were the necessary crops
or foods of the times. The corn was the main crop of all and formed the basis of
the pioneer diet in corn breads of various makings and bakings. A fancy dish
consisted of cornmeal fried in bear's fat. Tomatoes were then unknown as a food,
being considered poisonous by all the people. A few vegetables other than those
mentioned were raised in a few cases.
The woods, in the true pioneering
season, were teeming with game, deer, raccoons, bear, possum and other animals.
Besides these there were many kinds of berries, fruit and nuts. Many of the
former two were eaten fresh while others were dried to put away for the winter.
These other things helped vary the diet. The food was unfavored by any
condiment. Salt was used to some extent, though not regularly. Some even grew to
prefer food without salt, because of the unuse of it. During the winter the food
was the plainest because there was the least variety of food during these months
to choose from.
Passenger pigeons, now extinct, were also a staple in
the pioneer diet because they were so easily caught to be used as food. It was
this characteristic which caused their extinction. They were caught at night by
confusing them with the light, of torches and knocking them to the ground. They
were then dressed and packed away in various ways to keep for the winter. Also,
other migratory birds as ducks, geese, marsh hens, quail and others supplied a
little something different in meat for the pioneer table.
Much of the
meat was dried and put away for the winter. In some cases it was packed in
Indian method of pemmicain. This was done by pouring melted tallow over the
dried meat packed in a skin bag. Enough was used to saturate the meat
thoroughly. Then the mass was allowed to cool and harden, after which the
container was sealed. Meat packed this way kept for months.
Extracted 08 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from Stories of Pioneer Days in La Salle County, Illinois, by Grammar Grade Pupils, published in 1932, page 19.
| Lee | DeKalb | Kane |
| Bureau |
 |
Kendall |
| Putnam | Grundy | |
| Marshall | Woodford | Livingston |
