Winter Survival of the Early Pioneers of the North Midwest

 

Sarah McNeal is a multi-published author of several genres including time travel, paranormal, western, contemporary and historical fiction. Sarah is a retired critical care/ER nurse who lives in North Carolina with her four-legged children, Lily and Liberty. Besides her devotion to writing, she also has a great love of music and plays several instruments including violin, bagpipes, guitar and harmonica. Her books and short stories may be found at Publishing by Rebecca Vickery, Victory Tales Press, Western Trail Blazer and Prairie Rose Publications.

When I lived in Nebraska back in the Dark Ages we now call the 1960’s, I spent the winter battling below zero temperatures, ice several inches thick on the back roads, endless snow, blizzards and my car doors often frozen shut in the morning. Clothes would freeze on the line before I finished hanging them up and my fingers would go numb with the cold. Winter seemed endless and the sun would disappear in a grey sky for days on end. I often wondered how pioneers made it through the brutal winters without kerosene, gasoline, matches or grocery stores. How could they put on enough clothes to ward off the relentless wind and bitter cold? Where did they get enough food to make it through the winter? I went on a search to find out how those pioneers lived through the ferocious winters of the northwest. 

 

Since winter could last from September until June, preparation was key to survival. Harvesting crops that would last over winter meant they had to choose root vegetables like carrots, potatoes and beets that can endure. Dried apples and corn worked well and salted meats also lasted over time.

Light was essential since it was common not to have windows in the cabins. Most often, without kerosene handy, women made candles by pouring tallow (animal fat) over thick string. Sometimes they just stuck a string in a cup of grease. Sounds icky, doesn’t it? They also used pine knots soaked in grease and, during winter, the light of the fire served as light. Without matches, flints were often used to spark a fire in a little dry brush or moss. On occasion, people would walk for miles to ask a neighbor to give them fire in the form of embers to take home. Without fire, there would be no survival. The thick walls of log cabins helped to insulate against the cold as long as the cracks between the logs were filled with mud, rags or paper.

It must have been rough stuck in a cabin days on end in the winter months. They did have entertainments. Some played musical instruments creating music to break the monotony. They also read, sometimes aloud, shared stories, played games or just had conversations before the fire as they mended clothing or farm equipment. It sure would be nice to have conversations these days, but there are so many distractions with TV, computers and cell phones that do everything but wash the laundry.

Knowing what the pioneers endured to survive winter makes me respect their skills, tenacity, resourcefulness, fierce self-reliance and love of independence. These pioneers demonstrated the true spirit of what it is to be an American. If you can survive winter in the northwest with only rudimentary resources, you can do just about anything.

I have lived in log houses twice. The first log house was once a carriage house on an old plantation that was converted to a very comfortable house with an open stairway to the upstairs that allowed heat to warm the bedrooms and bath. That house was toasty in the winter and somewhat cool in summer.

                                                   The House Where I Was Raised

The second log house was the one where I was raised. When it was built, somewhere in the early 1800’s, it had two rooms downstairs and two upstairs. The kitchen was a detached building in the backyard that was converted to a potting house in later years. My dad spent a lot of time in there. In the 1940’s the new owner renovated the house adding a dining room, large kitchen, bathroom, screened in porch and a room with huge windows upstairs. Upstairs wallboard was put up and pretty wallpaper applied and downstairs, every room had cedar paneling and bead board ceilings. They must have loved French doors because they were everywhere. The floors had wide oak boards instead of the more modern narrow boards. The huge fireplace in the living room heated the downstairs well enough until the end of October. When winter began in earnest, my dad would bring in and reconnect the oil heater that sat in the living room and used the fireplace chimney as its smokestack. My sister and I hated that heater, but we were grateful for its warmth when we got up to the cold in our rooms. We would make a bee-line downstairs to dress. We had electric blankets so we didn’t really suffer on cold nights. Later when my oldest sister inherited the house, she introduced central heat which allowed for the enjoyment of the fireplace in winter. Because the walls were so thick, you could sit in the windowsills. One of the previous owners added clapboard to the exterior and a regular tile roof.  Except for the exceptionally wide windowsills, you could never tell the main part of the house was made of log. Although we were pretty cozy in that house, we lived in the south with relatively mild winters compared to the north Midwest.

Speaking of winter in the Midwest, here is an anthology just released from a brand new publisher that Cheryl Pierson and Livia Washburn put together to celebrate Christmas in the west. It includes stories by 8 western authors and 8 recipes that are mentioned by each author in her story. Wishing For A Cowboy Christmas stories will warm your heart.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE BY PHYLISS MIRANDA

OUTLAW’S KISS BY CHERYL PIERSON

A HUSBAND FOR CHRISTMAS BY SARAH J. MCNEAL

PEACHES BY KATHLEEN RICE ADAMS

A GIFT FOR RHODA BY JACQUIE ROGERS

HER CHRISTMAS WISH BY TRACY GARRETT

COVENANT BY TANYA HANSON

CHARLIE'S PIE BY LIVIA J. WASHBURN

RECIPES 

GRANNIE’S CHRISTMAS DATE LOAF 

PARKER HOUSE ROLLS 

JANE’S GINGERBREAD BOYS

RUTH’S PEACH PIE

RHODA’S WEDDING PIE

OLD-FASHIONED POUND CAKE

SPRINGERLE RECIPE, USED WITH PERMISSION:

CHARLIE'S PECAN PIE

 

Nook link

Smashwords Link

 

My contribution is A Husband for Christmas.   

A night of horror… a wish for a new life...and a secret love

BLURB:

Jane Pierpont and her son, Robin, survived the Titanic, but her husband went down with the ship and the emotional scars of that night have kept her and her son locked into that frightening event years later. Robin is terrified of deep water and Jane has nightmares and survivor’s guilt. She yearns for a family, a loving husband and maybe another child, but she feels disloyal to Michael’s memory whenever Teekonka RedSky comes near her.

Teekonka RedSky loves Jane and her son, but all his efforts to help them past their painful memories of the night Michael Pierpont died have been unsuccessful. Unwilling to give up, can his Lakota beliefs help him bring peace to Robin and free Jane to love again? 

Excerpt:

Teekonka let go of the latch and stepped back into the room. He took Jane’s hand in his, its warmth radiating into her chest. “I wondered if you and Rob would attend the festival with me.”

Jane felt confused. “The hotel is just down the street from here. We can manage to get there quite well on our own.”

He shook his head and squeezed her hand. “You don’t understand, Jane. I’m asking you and your son to go with me because I want to court you.”

Jane pulled her hand free. Self-reproach engulfed her. Before her stood a handsome, strong man who wanted to court her and include her son, but she couldn’t. It wasn’t right. Surely, Michael’s spirit was close by, and he would never approve. He couldn’t help dying. “I…I’m flattered that you should ask, but I can’t. My husband—”

Teekonka’s jaw clenched. “Your husband is dead. He’s been dead for seven years.” He stepped back from her. A frown turned his firm lips down. After he walked to the door and lifted the latch, he turned to her again. “I’m sorry. I apologize for reacting so angrily.  You still love your husband. I understand.” The door closed, and he was gone.

Jane stood alone in a room that had suddenly grown cold and dim.

 

Where you can find Sarah J. McNeal

 

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?&new_box_added_id=7100654162#

My Amazon Author’s Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/sarahmcneal

http://sweetheartsofthewest.blogspot.com/

http://sarahmcneal.blogspot.com/

http://onceuponaword1.blogspot.com/

Smashwords Author Page: https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=Sarah+McNeal

 

I wish each of y'all a wonderful, warm and safe Christmas.