Feasting on the Plains by Cora Leland

Building a sod house began here!

How long from constructing a house to cooking a meal varied.  It wasn't unheard of for  pioneers to bring a cast iron stove, kitchen shelves or even their dining room tables and chairs on their prairie schooners, but most folks were limited to basics.  

Mention is made throughout diaries about the  sweetener, molasses. (Maybe because I love molasses cookies, I seldom write a novel without a molasses cookie scene.)  The Post civil war South's kitchen code was largely to make-do and pretend, while staples like preserves were made with sorghum, and not with sugar.

Recipes for Pie Plant Pie always demand white sugar, even this one from a cowboy chuck wagon's cook: 3 cups of pie plant, washed but not peeled, 1 cup of sugar, 1 table spoon full  flour, 1 teaspoon full butter, top and bottom pastry. The recipe concludes, "cut the pie plant <rhubarb>into small pieces. Mix sugar and flour well with pie plant. Place in crust, dot with butter and cover with upper crust."

In her little house on the prairie series, Laura Ingalls Wilder tells about her the first large meal she cooked. She frantically prepared two different kinds of pie, and forgot the sugar in the pie plant pie.  (Knowing how sour rhubarb is, it's hard to imagine how her guests were as kind as she writes they were. But she was a young bride, and a lot was forgiven.)

It's interesting that corn was a basic in the South and also for ancient Indians .  A Southern staple, grits,  was Indian favorite as well.  Muscogee (Creek)Indians made grits by soaking corn kernels in hardwood ash then cooked the rinsed kernels in a ceramic vessel.  The gruel was then mixed with crushed hickory nuts of deer bone marrow and topped with an egg.

A Creek warrior by Frederic Remington, 1903

Several times a day I come across pioneers and settler groups I'd never imagined, and my thoughts have turned to migration from other parts of the huge continent. 

Southerners were required to cut back far from the opulence they'd known before the Rebellion. Their recipes show the cheerful, enthusiastic cooks continued to love their foods, but to adapt, like when they'd used sorghum (instead of sugar) in staples like preserves. They came to depend on eggs, fish and wild game instead of fresh meat.

Still earlier records from the Lewis and Clark Expedition show a willingness to get food out at record times.  Bills state that a vital emergency food was 'portable soup.'  It was also known as 'veal glue' and 'pocket soup.' The expedition bought 193 pounds in Philadelphia!  

The recipe calls for 10 pounds of veal, then  meaty bones, like calves feet. It was cooked in 'a sufficient quantity' of salted water and strained many times, the last time through flannel. Finally the glue was dried into 'tablets' that would last 4-5 years.  

Lewis and Clark

   Though cook stoves were easily available by the 1880's, this was far from the truth earlier in the 1800's.  Railroads made life a great deal easier.  From the beginning of the transcontinental railroad project in 1863 until its completion (1869) and throughout the century, cook stoves emerged in smaller communities throughout the West.

But life in wagon trains demanded that pioneers end breakfast by 4 am. Opinions vary, but some wrote that they made up their bread while riding in wagons.  At the end of the trail, they wrote that a vessel containing pancake batter stood ready in their kitchens.  Yeast was the starting levening agent, and the batter fermented. Even when it froze, the pancakes were tastier. 

As nomad  hunter-gatherers, Indians led a simple life, as well. During the various stages of transition, though, their diet changed.  By 1890 Indians were strictly confined to their reservations and not allowed to hunt, fish or forage as before.  Rations were to replace that and various agencies supplied them.

The Rosebud Agency was the reservation home for the Brule Lakota Sioux. It's an icon to many of us who read Western history and it was here that many tribes received their rations. Below is one photo of the Rosebud Agency beef distribution.

It seems that live cattle were also distributed to the Lakota.

All tribes received food rations of some sort, even after personal allotments of land had begun.  

Comanche receiving food distribution (the ladies with parasols were spectators)

A general tribal food distribution

But cooks continued to make holiday celebrations (though the very early colonies might not have).  The gifts were simple, and often non-existent, but the kitchens were bounteous. Laura Ingalls Wilder recalls her mother's cooking  for at least a full day before a celebration.  

An early hearth kitchen

HAPPY NEW YEAR 1820

By Cheri Kay Clifton

1820

As we wish our family and friends a Happy 2020, I thought it would be interesting to look back on everyday life in 1820. Like many of our Sweethearts, as an American historical western author, I’ve researched a plethora of facts and information about lifestyles in 19^th Century.

Some might say their simpler life could be envied compared to our fast-paced, technical-driven, media-saturated world of today. Still, in 1820, life, though slower, was much harder. Below are a few brief reminders of what American home life was like back then.

In many of the regions of the country, especially on the frontier, folks lived in a one-room cabin with dirt floor, fireplace for warmth and cooking, homemade pinewood table and chairs, straw mattresses, and candles for lighting. Not until later in the 1820’s did some have the luxury of cast iron cookstoves.

Housewives preserved foods by drying, salting and smoking. It wasn’t until the 1860’s that home canning came into use. A tin smith from New York by the name of John L. Mason invented a glass jar with a threaded lip and a reusable metal lid – the Mason Jar. Ice boxes didn’t enter kitchens until mid-1800’s.

 Typical foods were available at the general stores in town including salt, spices, sugar, molasses, raisins, fruits, vegetables, cheese, eggs, butter, salted meats, wine and chocolate.

Common pastries like oatmeal cookies, crackers, gingerbread, apple, cherry & pumpkin pies and even doughnuts were eaten throughout the 19^th century. Drinking tea was preferred over coffee until after the Civil War.

Local saloons and taverns offered all kinds of alcohol. Hard cider was a favorite in the North, while corn liquor was favored in the South. Cocktails were offered at social gatherings and in some homes. However, men imbibed far more often than women.

Electricity came late in the century, as did telephones. Without electricity, women did all their chores by hand … the cooking, the cleaning, the washing, and the sewing. Until the 1840’s, when clothing became more available in stores, Americans wore hand sewn clothes.

With no built-in bathtubs until the second half of the century, the typical family used a round, wooden or tin tub filled with hot water from the fireplace. All their water was hauled or pumped from a cistern or well. Toothbrushes became available in country stores by the 1820’s, though few used or realized their importance.

As far as filling their leisure time, the entertainment and amusements we take for granted today wasn’t in their world yet. No televisions, no radios, no stereos. No bicycles, no baseball, no basketball, no golf, no tennis, no football yet. But they enjoyed such games as cards, checkers, chess and billiards and sports like bowling and horse racing. Children played with homemade dolls, blocks and other simple toys.

Music, singing and musical instruments provided entertainment in churches, taverns and at home. Fiddles and violins were most frequent at socials and dances. Harmonicas and banjos were often enjoyed. The piano was owned by a few in the middle class and their youth were taught how to play from 1800 on.

On New Year’s Day, 1818, the 3-volume novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley was published; the next year Rip Van Wrinkle by Washington Irving. The popular classics by James Fenimore Cooper, Leatherstocking Tales and The Last of the Mohicans would be published in 1823 & 1826.

Saturday Evening Post first appeared on August 4, 1821, making it the oldest magazine in U.S. history. Not until 1830 was Godey’s Lady Book published, becoming one of the most popular women’s magazines.

 It’s hard not to compare our way of life with all the inventions and technical luxuries we have now to living without them in 19^th Century America. But I would imagine folks in 1820 were content with their everyday life. After all, “they wouldn’t miss what they never had.”

Wishing you all “Happy 2020 Trails!”

Come visit me at my web site, CheriKayClifton.com

A Step Back into the past at Hart Square

For the last forty years, Dr. Robert Hart has rescued, and restored nineteenth century structures--the largest collection of original, historical log structures in the United States, and has furnished each building as it would have been in that time. Dating from 1782 to 1873, the seventy log structures—chapels, barns, houses, shops, and more—are all furnished, and around 220 volunteer artisans demonstrate the period techniques of flax breaking and hackling, spinning, weaving, herb dying, open-hearth cooking, broom and shoe making, shingle riving, wheelwrighting, tinsmithing, and moonshining.

The 4th Saturday of October marks the one day a year Dr. & Mrs. Hart open their restoration project, Hart Square, to the public. I've had the privilege to attend this event twice as one of the re-enactors and its a day not to be missed.

I've taken many photos of the buildings over the past two years but its the small details I find the most interesting. Take a look at the following of the general store. Dr. Hart doesn't skimp on a thing.

Tools, Harnesses & Cloth Goods

Pots, Baskets and Beans

Sewing Notions (thread, needles, buttons, etc.), Boots and Dresses

Fine China, Coffee & Tobacco

Even a wooden casket to bury your dead!

Hats, Crocheted Lace & Feathers for Hats

Hats, Bonnets and Evening Coats

Drawers full of...uh, I actually have no idea what this was used for. I just thought it was  interesting! I'm assuming small things like nails, or buttons, or ...tiny things?

Curling Irons for your hair. 

(I'm not sure if you can see it or not, but the 'end' of that has a 'bowl' where a hot coal from the fire was placed. That's where your heat came from! Neat, huh?

Ribbon for your hair.

Elixirs and Salves. Modern Medicine for the times.

Barrels and Tins

The outside of the General Store

If you'd like to learn more about Dr. Harts life-long project, and see photos of the other structures he's restored, visit the Catawba County Historical Association.

About Lily Graison

USA TODAY  bestselling author Lily Graison writes historical western romances and dabbles in contemporary and paranormal romance. First published in 2005, Lily has written over a dozen romance novels that range from sweet to spicy.

She lives in Hickory, North Carolina with her husband, three high-strung Yorkies and more cats than she can count and is mother of two and grandmother of three. On occasion, she can be found at her sewing machine creating 1800’s period clothing or participating in civil war reenactments and area living history events. When not portraying a southern belle, you can find her at a nearby store feeding her obsession for all things resembling office supplies.

To see the dresses Lily has created, visit her Pinterest page.

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THE PIONEER CABIN

Because I write western historical romances set in the latter 19th century, I am interested in everything about the period in history. Yes, I am a history geek. Whenever we travel, I visit recreated historic villages and pioneer museums. Fortunately, there are quite a few of these well preserved homes withing easy driving distance from my own home.

Imagine raising a large family in a 10 x 12 log cabin. I complain because I don't have enough storage in our home. I can't imagine how difficult just finding a place for everyone to sleep must have been. Most of the cabins had a loft for the kids. With large families, the kids must have been laid out like sardines.

Cabin and well
Palo Pinto County, Texas

One of the places my family and I have visited is Log Cabin Village in Fort Worth, Texas. Homes from several counties have been moved there. Docents stationed at each home relate the history of that cabin. Hordes of school children visit, and there are occasional festivals to draw more visitors. One of the homes there is that of Isaac Parker, related to Cynthia Ann Parker, whose life was so tragic. But she's for another post.

Isaac Parker cabin

One of my favorite places to visit is the Belding-Gibson Ranch in Palo Pinto County. This family has faithfully preserved the original cedar log cabin, smokehouse, and cold room and incorporated it into the more modern portions of their home. I'm fortunate enough to have visited this ranch on two occasions when the Gibson family opened their home to visitors.

Settlers used the resources at hand. In Palo Pinto County, cedar is abundant. The Belding Ranch house is built of those cedar logs. The abandoned cabin was discovered by Mr. Belding in 1859, and he estimated it as three or four years old then. Other residents used stone or hardwood logs. On the prairie where no trees were available, sod homes housed families until they prospered enough to haul in lumber.

Belding-Gibson Ranch, Palo Pinto County, Texas
Smokehouse is on the left, original cabin on right.
Steps lead to the kitchen in the newer part of the house.

As you can guess, in addition to the cabin, most families also had a smokehouse for meat preservation and storage. If they were fortunate enough to live near a creek, they diverted a bit of the creek to go through a cold room. There also was an outhouse. Chamber pots were used in inclement weather or at night. 

A commode chair was a luxury. Usually they were more
enclosed with a lid so it could be used as a chair and
doors and sides to conceal the chamber pot.

Inside, the walls would be chinked to prevent weather and critters from entering the cabin. In cold weather, the homemaker might hang quilts on the walls to add insulation. No space was wasted. From the rafters, there might be small utensils and drying herbs and onion hanging. A "hob" (sometimes two) were built into the fireplace to hold heavy utensils for cooking. You can see below that this fireplace is deluxe and has two hobs. The hob allowed the cook to move the utensils varying distances from the fire. 

Cabin interior at the Palo Pinto County
historic village

In times of Comanche and Kiowa troubles, families left their homes and sought a fort. I don't mean one as seen in movies and TV. Sometimes a community might come together to build a refuge from the Indians.  I have a photo of Black Springs Fort, but it always shows up on the blog sideways, so I will simply describe it. In Palo Pinto County, a stone fort with a basement and two stories housed families. The exterior dimensions were about twenty by thirty feet. Often the husband and older sons would send the women and children to the fort while they banded together with other men to fight the Indians. Although this was a tense time, I imagine it also allowed the women to visit with neighbors, children to play with friends, and took on a social atmosphere for a time.

In Lubbock, where my husband and I grew up, there is a wonderful exhibit called the Ranching Heritage Museum. This is associated with Texas Tech University, but is behind the museum. I love going there, as the university still adds to the collection. Everything from a sod house to a Victorian home. Wherever you live, there is probably a historic preservation collection of cabins and homes from the 19th century. 

Masterson Ranch Line Shack
Ranching Heritage Museum
Lubbock, Texas

Photos are my own.

FRONTIER LIFE--SIMILARITIES BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND AMERICA

Posted by guest, Margaret Tanner, Award-Winning
Australian Romance Author

Life on the American and Australian frontiers have a strikingly similar history. For example, take the Australian Act of Selection, which is the basis for my novel FRONTIER WIFE, and compare it with The American Homestead Act.

In the colony of Victoria the 1860 Land Act allowed free selection of crown land. This included land already occupied by the squatters, (wealthy land owners) who had managed to circumvent the law for years and keep land that they did not legally own.

The Act allowed selectors access to the squatters’ land, and they could purchase between 40 and 320 acres of crown land, but after that, the authorities left them to fend for themselves. Not an easy task against the wealthy, often ruthless squatters who were incensed at what they thought was theft of their land.

In 1861 the Act of Selection was intended to encourage closer settlement, based on intensive agriculture. Selectors often came into conflict with squatters, who already occupied land and were prepared to fight to keep it. The bitterness ran deep for many years, sometimes erupting into violence.



Australian pioneer home
(Moderators apologize for the blurry photo--it's the
only free Australian pioneer cabin photo we found)






The first permanent homesteads on the Australian frontier were constructed using posts and split timber slabs. The posts were set into the ground, about three feet apart, according to the desired layout. Slabs of timber were then dropped into the slots. A sapling or similar, straight piece of timber ran across the top of the posts, which allowed them to be tied together so they could support the roof.

Clay was often plugged in between the joins and splits of the cladding to stop draughts. The internal walls were sometimes plastered with clay and straw, lined with hessian/calico, white washed or simply left as split timber.

Roofs were pitched using saplings straight from the bush and often clad with bark. Early settlers learnt from the aborigines that large sheets of bark could be cut and peeled off a variety of trees and used as sheets to clad the roof.

The original Homestead Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20^th, 1862. It gave applicants freehold title to up to 160 acres of undeveloped federal land west of the Mississippi River. The law required only three steps from the applicant - file an application, improve the land, then file for a deed of title.

Anyone who had never taken up arms against the U.S. government, including freed slaves, could file a claim on the provisions that they were over the age of twenty one and had lived on the land for five years.


Certificate of homestead in Nebraska
 given under the
Homestead Act of 1868


The Homestead Act's lenient terms proved to be ill-fated for many settlers. Claimants didn’t have to own farming implements or even to have had any farming experience. The allocated tracts of land may have been adequate in humid regions, but were not large enough to support plains settlers where lack of water reduced yields. Speculators often got control of homestead land by hiring phony claimants or buying up abandoned farms.
Most of us visualise the frontier home as a rustic log cabin nestled in a peaceful mountain valley or on a sweeping green plain. But in reality, the "little house on the prairie" was often not much more than a shack or a hastily scratched out hole in the ground.



Half dugout soddy home
Mangum, Greer County, OK
in Museum park








In the treeless lands of the plains and prairies, log cabins were out of the question so homesteaders turned to the ground beneath their feet for shelter. The sod house, or "soddy," was one of the most common dwellings in the frontier west. The long, tough grasses of the plains had tight, intricate root systems, and the earth in which they were contained could be cut into flexible, yet strong, bricks.

Ground soaked by rains or melting snow was ideal for starting sod house construction. When the earth was soft and moist, homesteaders would break the soil with an ox- or horse-drawn sod cutter, which was an instrument similar to a farming plough. Sod cutters produced long, narrow strips of sod, which could then be chopped into bricks with an axe. These two- to three-foot square, four-inch thick sod bricks were then stacked to form the walls of the sod house. Soddy roofs were constructed by creating a thin layer of interlacing twigs, thin branches, and hay, which were then covered over with another layer of sod. To save time many sod houses were built into the sides of hills or banks. Some settlers gouged a hole in a hill side, so they only had to build a front wall and roof.

As a result of their extremely thick walls, soddies were cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Soddies were also extremely cheap to build. Of course, there were drawbacks to sod-house living. As the house was built of dirt and grass, it was constantly infested with bugs, mice, snakes. The sod roofs often leaked, which turned the dirt floor into a quagmire. Wet roofs took days to dry out and the enormous weight of the wet earth often caused roof cave-ins.

 PRAIRIE SODDY 

Even in the very best weather, sod houses were plagued with problems. When the sod roof became extremely dry, dirt and grass continually rained down on the occupants of the house.

A typical American log cabin measured about ten by twenty feet, regardless of the number of inhabitants. Settlers often built lofts across the cabin roof or lean-tos across the rear of the cabin to give the family more space. Typically, frontier cabins featured only one room, which served as kitchen, dining room, living room, workroom, and bedroom.

Homesteaders could often build a log cabin in a matter of days, using only an axe and auger. No nails were required for the task.
The first step in construction was to build a stone or rock foundation, to keep the logs off the ground and prevent rot.

North Central Texas pioneers
the Youngs' log cabin



Once the foundation was laid, settlers would cut down trees and square off the logs. These logs were then "notched" in the top and bottom of each end then stacked to form walls. The notched logs fitted snugly together at the corners of the cabin, and held the walls in place. After the logs were stacked, gaps remained in the walls. Settlers had to jam sticks and wood chips into the gaps, then they filled in the remaining gaps with cement made out of earth, sand, and water. Fireplaces were built of stone, and often had stick-and-mud chimneys. Most cabins had dirt or gravel floors, which had to be raked daily to preserve their evenness.

　
Margaret's novel FRONTIER WIFE is published by The Wild Rose Press. 



AVAILABLE NOW!



BLURB: Only in the new world can a highborn young Englishwoman and a tough frontier man ignite the passion that will fulfil their hopes and dreams in ways they never imagined possible.

Tommy Lindsay arrives in colonial Australia to claim the rundown farm she and her brothers have inherited.
Hidden behind her fragile English rose beauty, beats the heart of a courageous young woman. She will need all this strength to survive the unforgiving heat, and the dangers lurking around every corner. Lost in the bush, captured by a feral mountain family, raging bushfires are nothing, compared to the danger she faces if she gives her heart to Adam Munro.

Adam Munro, a rugged frontier man, has no room in his heart to love a woman. All he ever wanted was a presentable wife who would provide him with heirs. He didn’t need passion in his life, not until he met the beautiful English rose living next door to him.

Margaret Tanner belongs to the Romance Writers of Australia, the Melbourne Romance Writers Group, and EPIC. She has won or been commended in competitions on several occasions. In February 2010, she won the  prestigious Australian Author of the Year Award from AussieAuthors.com for the second time.

Her World War 2 novel, THE TROUBLE WITH PLAYBOYS, was 3rd in the 2010 Preditors and Editors Poll. Her novel WILD OATS is a finalist in the 2011 EPIC Awards in the historical romance division. FRONTIER WIFE won 1st in the historical romance section of the 2010 Readers Favorite Award. DEVIL'S RIDGE from Whiskey Creek Press is a winner of the Grab a Reader contest held at WRDF.

She has had numerous short stories published over the years, but writing historical romance novels is her passion.  She is married with three grown sons, and one grand-daughter.  Margaret lives near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. She has recently reduced her working hours as a medical typist, to concentrate on writing.

Learn more about Margaret and her books at http://www.margarettanner.com/

 Margaret's buy link at The Wild Rose Press is
http://tinyurl.com/4pgh4wa


Her buy link at Whiskey Creek Press is
http://tinyurl.com/4kkwcc8