Pioneer Inn

This log cabin reminds me of old inns I've seen in Virginia and other parts of the country. Originally, this cabin had two rooms on the main floor and two rooms upstairs. In the old days, inns had one second-floor sleeping chamber for women which was reached by one staircase and a second upstairs bedroom for men reached by a separate staircase. There was no access from one bedroom to the other. Travelers slept together, sometimes several to a bed. There was no bathroom. Instead, there was an out house or two and chamber pots. Water for drinking and washing was drawn from a well. A pitcher was filled and placed, along with a basin, on a table in each room. The guest would pour a little water in a bowl to wash their hands, face and more using a chunk of home-made soap and a wash cloth. Cologne or perfume was used lavishly as travelers usually carried little extra clothing 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.

Apple River Fort

Like most folks, I like visiting historical sites and learning how American pioneers like Abe Lincoln, Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone lived. Last year, 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 men, women and children defended themselves against 200 American Indians. The men faltered when one of their friends was killed in the first volley. Three women, immediately 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 on the walls. They also brought empty muskets back to the production line to be refilled. The attackers were surprised with the steady firepower from the fort and reasoned that there were more men than their scouts had reported seeing. Soon the attackers quit the attack, looted the log cabin homes in the vicinity of the fort and left. 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.