Log Cabin Barn

In the old days, the barn was as important as todays’ garage. It housed some of the livestock, equipment (like saddles, mowers, plows) and food (hay, corn and oats) for the farm animals and seeds for next years' crops.
This pioneer barn, typical of structures built around 1845, is located at the Thomas Lincoln Farm in Lerna, Illinois. Thomas Lincoln was the father of President Abraham Lincoln.

As you can see, the barn (a reconstruction) is a large structure made of long logs notched at the corners. The walls are not chinked, as the animals living inside do not require any additonal protection from the changing Illinois weather. The barn is high and dry, with two large doors in the middle.

Pioneer Hotel

This old inn reminds me of log cabins I've seen in Virginia, Missouri and other parts of the country. Originally, this log cabin had two large, public rooms on the main floor and two rooms upstairs. As it stands in southern Illinois, an inn very much like it, might have had a guest named Abraham Lincoln as he traveled from town to town serving as a circuit court judgeIn the past, frontier inns had one second-floor sleeping chamber which was exclusively for women. The room was reached by a staircase inside the inn. A second upstairs bedroom, was only for men . It was reached by another separate staircase. There was no access from one bedroom to the other.Travelers slept together, sometimes several to a bed. There was no inside plumbing. Instead, there was an outhouse or two. Inside (usually stored under the bed) was a chamber pot or two. Water for drinking and washing was drawn from a well. A pitcher of water was placed, along with a basin, on a table in each bedroom. A guest could pour a little water in the bowl to wash their hands, face and more using a chunk of home-made lye soap and a wash cloth. Cologne or perfume was lavishly used by some travelers, as little extra clothing was carried in their saddlebags, or trunk.As rough and rugged as this inn appears to us today, it offered a welcome respite to people who might have been sleeping on the ground for days, cooking over a campfire, freezing in winter or being eaten alive by bugs in summer.Here, one could buy a hot meal for a penny or two, enjoy a drink, catch up on the news and sleep in a soft bed.

Jamestown residence

In 1607, three English ships embarked from London and rocked and rolled across the Atlantic Ocean. . . finally landing on a small island 60 miles up the James River in what was to become the Virginia Colony. The voyage took 114 days. On this small island, the English built James Fort, a triangle of palisade walls, several houses, a warehouse and a church.

This photo is one of the buildings, based on archaeological evidence. It is a timber frame structure. The plastered areas are constructed of waddle (small sticks woven into a mesh-like pattern) and daub (mud plastered over the waddle). A coating of lime (made by burning oyster shells) covered the outside to waterproof the house from rain and snow.

The windows had bars (offering protection from bigger critters like bears and raccoons) and probably oiled paper or animal skins to keep out the winter winds and the rain of summer.

The floor was dirt. A door or two, a large fireplace and wood chimney lined with clay finished the structure. The Englishman's' home. . far away from home!

James Fort Barracks

The earliest buildings at James Fort appear to have been “mud and stud” structures. Post holes were dug along the length of each wall and the end of the main structural posts were buried. This construction technique is similar to the method used to build the fort palisade walls. The walls are tied together with horizontal studs and the open spaces between the main structural posts are filled with smaller saplings.

Likely, the vertical members were further strengthened by weaving small, flexible saplings or vines into the walls,

The roof structure was built of rafters and covered with light-weight thatch or reeds. The walls were covered with a thick coating of mud. Likely the outside surface was covered with a plaster or clay to waterproof the structure. The floor was dirt. A large fireplace and chimney was constructed in the middle of this structure as it served as a barracks.

Like the log cabin, this ancient post-in-ground building technique is still in use today!

Jamestown Fort

In May, 1607, the first permanent English Settlement was started on a small, wooded island in the James river. Until recently, It was believed that this portion of the island had eroded and the tiny walled community destroyed. In 1994, the site was discovered. Since then, much exploration of the site has been conducted.

I find this photograph interesting. It shows how a wall (in this case the wall of a fort) was constructed without nails. A shallow trench was dug and one end of the logs, making up the palisade walls, were buried. The soil was firmly tapped down to anchor the logs in place. The top of the walls were secured by attaching planks to the logs using wooden pegs. . . dozens of them. . that were driven into holes drilled through the plank and into the log.

This same wooden pin technique was used, centuries later, in the construction of log cabin homes.

Log Fort

We've all seen John Wayne portray a handsome calvary officer in a western movie. He is stationed at a frontier fort made of rough, log walls. Inside the wall, a raised platform (called a gallery) was used by troopers to shoot and sometimes fire cannon at their attackers. But, if you look closely at an old fort, you'll often observe one or more heavily-built structures situated at strategic points, like the four corners of the walls. These are called blockhouses. They are often two stories with the top floor wider than the bottom. Both levels might have window openings that were protected with heavy shutters. Cut in the shutters, as well as the upper walls were narrow slits. These slits, dating back to Medieval castles, were originally used by archers to fire arrows. In the American West, the slits were wide enough so that a rifleman, stationed inside the wall, could pivot his weapon and aim at anything in a rather wide arc. From the outside, the slit offered a very small target to the attacker. The second floor of the blockhouse was the last bastion for the fort's defenders. It had a ladder that could be pulled up and a heavy trap door that could be slammed shut. Slits in the floor might be used to pour boiling water or shoot attackers who dared approach the walls. Thus, the fort and blockhouse were important buildings in North America. Once inside, a small group of people might survive the attack of a far superior force.

Long ago, a log cabin home was a pioneer family's first shelter. In time, as the family grew and prospered, a new home might be built. In this case, the new home, built in 1840, was a frame structure. Our ancestors, being very frugal, often recycled their old cabin. In this case, it was used as a cookhouse. You'd think the log chimney would be a fire hazzard. However, the split wood veneer you can see actually housed a fire-hardened, mud-lined inner flue. This type of chimney construction was very common in Jamestown, Plymouth, Quebec, Montreal and other settlements of the 17th century. Cooking was a big job in the 17th and 18th centuries as families were usually large and additional hired hands might be needed at certain times of the year to care for livestock, clear land, tend fields and harvest crops. Nearly everything in the kitchen was made from scratch daily.Ummm, I can almost smell the fresh baked bread!