The Cabin

            The regulation cabin seems to have been from sixteen to twenty feet square, daubed with mud, covered with clapboards, a log cut for a window, with a greased paper in lieu of glass, and a stone fire-place, surmounted by a cat and clay chimney. Often the cabin had nothing better than a dirt floor. The furniture was such as the settler could manufacture with an ax or auger. Hand tools, when possessed, were always part of the load, and nothing were more advantageous to the pioneer in setting up housekeeping in a new country. Bedsteads were often made by boring a hole in the cabin wall, in which rested one end of a pole, the other end of which was supported by a forked stick in the ground. Upon this was placed impromptu slats, supported by one side of the cabin and this foot-rail, and upon this structure prairie hay was placed. This composed the bed of many of the first settlers, and, though scarcely as soft as downy pillows are, sufficed until more elaborate accommodations could be provided. Chairs were blocks of wood, with holes bored in them, in which legs were put; and tables were a packing box fortunately brought with the family, or were constructed of puncheons, split from the tree, provided with legs as were the chairs. These characteristics were true in only the earliest cabins, and were seldom all combined in any one. A few nails and some glass and hardware were occasionally brought in by some rather well-to-do immigrant or thoughtful pioneer, but the other picture had its counterpart in every settlement in the county. But with such inconveniences, the people, many of whom had known something of refinement in older communities, had no time for repining or melancholy, and it is often said by those who survive to the present that they seemed to enjoy themselves more then than to-day. People were more sociable then; all were neighbors for miles and miles about. A man would divide his last crust with another, and loan him anything he had, and to know that a man needed help to raise his cabin or roll his logs was all the invitation he needed. The latch-string is always out, was the type of the early hospitality. This latch and its string were novelties in their way, and could not have been evolved except from the brain of the pioneer, whose necessities were truly the mother of many inventions. The latch was made in the form of an ordinary barn door or gate-latch, only it was of large size and made of wood. The latch, instead of being outside, was placed inside of the door, and to enable one without the door to raise it a hole was bored a few inches above and a leather thong was attached and drawn through the hole, with one end hanging out. At night, this string was withdrawn, and thus the door was locked in such a manner as to render it difficult for a burglar to pick. When the string hung out, it was taken to mean, Come in without knocking.

            The site chosen for the erection of the earlier cabins was in the edge of the timber. Most of the pioneers who came to this county were familiar with the experiences to be met with in a frontier settlement, but most of them had been reared in a timber country and knew but little of the difficulties or advantages of the prairie. The wisdom of the first settlers in clinging to the line of timber, and beginning their farms by laboriously clearing off a space here, when the prairie seemed to offer a place so much easier adapted to their purposes, had been often challenged. But such criticism proceeds too often upon a misconception of the early character of the open country. The luxuriant growth of joint grass, after fall, unless burned over, became a tangled mass that was not easily penetrated. The new grass sprung up and presented the appearance of a beautiful meadow, which, however, was grossly deceptive. The rainfall during the year saturated the ground, and the dense growth of grass, shielding it from the sun, the natural drainage being deficient, the surface for a large part of the year was too wet to till. There was room enough at first in the timber, and, acquainted with its demands, the pioneer wisely began here. This nearness to the streams, however exposed the inhabitants to the miasmas of which they were the fruitful source. The shakes seem to be the inevitable companion of the pioneer wherever he may be, and it may be doubtful whether there is any escape from their baleful presence. The clearing off of timber, or the breaking of prairie sod, which involve the decay of large amounts of vegetable matter, bred disease, and no settler was considered naturalized until he had experienced the distress of chills and fever. Sickness of this kind was generally confined to the latter part of the summer and fall. The cold of winter seemed to destroy the germs of the disease, and there was but little sickness in this season, save a few lingering cases which had become chronic. The spring and early summer were generally healthy, and the old nurses were in the habit of saying that when the resin weed and other yellow flowers appeared it was time to look for ague. Particular localities were more marked than others for the prevalence of this trouble. High water in the spring, which flooded the lagoons and low places along the bottoms, which slowly dried out under the hot suns of July and August, was a fruitful cause of this disorder, and in such localities there was considerable sickness, when in more elevated places it was perfectly healthful.

            Against these evils, the pioneer was forced to contend single-handed. Boneset, Culter’s physic, and a long list of herbs, of which teas were made, were familiar to every housewife, and were found in every cabin. Doctors were not to be had, or were situated at long distances from the isolated cabins, but when they were to be had within practical distance, the former, impelled by the urgent necessity to practice every economy, led the settler to depend upon the skill of his own family. Such attacks were not looked upon a serious, and were generally deemed the natural way of becoming acclimated. But these frequen5t attacks made spirits and a fresh, healthful countenance to his new home, soon took on the pale, sallow hue of semi-invalids, and some never outgrew these evil effects. None were spared, and it was no uncommon thing for a whole neighborhood to be prostrated at once, and to be so confined and incapacitated as to be unable to attend to outside duties. Sometimes the whole family would be sick at the same time and only the more resolute left to care for the younger and weaker. But with the clearing of the country, the wider spread of the cultivated area brought about great changes, and the succeeding generations reaped the result of the toil and suffering of the pioneers.

Source: Counties of Warren, Benton, Jasper and Newton, Indiana by F.A. Battey & Co., 1883.