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.