The Pioneer EraOut West
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Many of the pioneers were farmers. Early pioneers did not settle on the prairies. The prairies were barren lands with no trees. Because, there were no trees the settlers thought nothing would grow on the prairies. They wanted the rich, fertile land for their crops. We have many ancestors that were pioneers.
They had a deep faith in God. They believed that we should have freedom to worship God. They believed in One Nation Under God. This Nation was founded on Bible believes and principles.
Pioneer homes were sometimes made of logs fitted into a rectangle. Logs were notched to fit into each other. Cutting the logs to fit took great skill and hard work. It could be built by one person with a heavy axe and a hunting knife. It was made with rough logs laid horizontally. The cracks between the logs were filled with small wedges of wood, moss, and mud to keep the cold and damp weather out and for protection from the wind and cold. Pioneers did not have glass, nails, screws, or bolts to use in their homes. Glass and nails were very expensive. They used greased paper for windows and sometimes windows were covered with plain wood shutters or greased animal skins. Doors were hinged with wooden pegs. The floor was dirt. The top of the roof was pitched or slanted. The roof was made of roughy hewn flat slabs of wood. They had oil lamps for light and fire places for heat.
The fireplace, used for cooking and heating, did not keep people very warm. The pioneers complained that when they stood facing a fireplace their backsides were cold. Another kind of home they built was the sod house. They were made from sod "mud and grass". The pioneers cut bricks out of the ground.They turned the grass side down and stacked the bricks to make walls. The top of the house was made out of sod bricks. Sometimes they put thin hay on the top of the sod house. They also had dirt floors. The pioneers put paper over their inside walls and they used greased paper for windows.
As you can see life in the pioneer days was very hard. Before people could buy land it needed to be surveyed by the government. Property was sold to the highest bidder. Land that was not purchased was sold at auctions for about $1.25 an acre. Pioneers who came out West before the government sold land were called squatters. They did not legally own their property. Sometimes they lost their land if someone else bought it. Planting a garden was one of the first jobs a pioneer had to do.
Gardens supplied vegetables and fruits. An apple orchard of fifteen to twenty trees was considered a must for each farmer. Apples were mostly used for eating out of hand as a snack any time of day.
They were stewed or baked or used for making cider to drink or for making vinegar. 'Dried apples' were made and mostly eaten by the children of the family. A grape arbor was also considered a must for the family in earlier days. Grapes were mostly eaten fresh, some for an occasional pie.
Early settlers found fruit & vegetables in the woods and would gather the edible varieties before their gardens were ready. They ate flowers such as violas, dandelions, & Johnny-Jump-Ups, wild berries such as huckleberries, blackberries & strawberries, nuts such as pecans, walnuts, & hickory nuts, and they ate many other wild plants.
Early settlers trapped and hunted bear, deer, wild turkey, prairie chickens, squirrel, and quail. Pioneers preserved their food for the winter. They preserved the meat by smoking it, wrapping it and salting it. Most pioneers grew Indian corn. They made hominy, mush, and corn bread from the corn. They also grew carrots, potatoes, squash, onions, tomatoes, beans, peppers, corn, cucumbers, apples, pumpkins, celery, and wild rice. Pioneers preserved fruits and vegetables too. They would pickle the vegetables or dry and hang them in the attic.
Most pioneers brought a cow and some hogs with them. Their livestock did not live in barns. They lived and grazed in the woods. Pioneer families thought animals could take care of themselves. The milk cow was a very important part of the pioneer family livestock. Milk was extensively used as a drink and in cooking.
Refrigeration of milk was not possible in the pioneer days. Fresh milk was strained into half-gallon crocks and set on the floor of the vegetable cave during the summer. Each crock was carefully covered by a square piece of board and the crocks stacked on top of each other. Each evening the cream was carefully laddled off, set aside to sour and later churned into butter, to be sold or exchanged for merchandise. The milk from which the cream had been removed, which when it was sour, thick and set like a custard, was served with some sweet milk, brown sugar and a bit of cinnamon or nutmeg for taste. Sour milk or clabbermilk, as it was then known, was much used in the making of pancake batters, for cottage cheese and some families made longhorn yellow cheese.
The milk not used for food was fed to the farm animals. This made the hogs very happy. Early hogs were called razorbacks. They provided ham, sausage, and bacon. For thousands of years, the horse has been one of the most useful animals. They once provided the fastest and surest way for land travel. Hunters mounted on horseback chased and killed animals. Pioneers used horses to settle the American West in the days of stagecoaches, covered wagons, and the pony express.
They also worked with oxen, mules and donkeys. Sheep also played quite a role in the family needs. They produced the wool to spin into yarn for knitting stockings. The finer grades were taken to the woolen mills to be made into cloth for men's everyday shirts, children's dresses, etc... A few geese were usually kept on the farm to fill the many feather beds that were needed - usually two for each bed in winter - one to sleep on and one to use as a cover. Two or three pounds of the small fine feathers were needed for one feather cover. These feathers were also used to fill pillows.
Most things needed by pioneers were made at home. Everyone in the pioneer family worked very hard. From the time that a child could walk & talk she would do what she could to help her family. Pioneer children often had to remain home to help with the farm instead of attending school. Most of our ancestors were home-schooled.
The pioneer family made their own soap, candles, clothing, shoes, and furniture. Items they could not make such as dishes, iron tools, gunpowder, and ammunition, were purchased in shops. Money was little known and seldom seen among the earlier settlers. There was little use for it. Pioneers often bartered "traded" for items they needed.
If someone needed an iron pot he/she might buy it with a chicken or a dozen eggs. This type of purchase was known as the "barter" system. Sometimes the settler would have a credit account with the shop owner. Most settlers were very honest and would pay their debts faithfully. However, for property taxes and postage neither the barter nor the credit system would answer, and often letters were delayed a long time in the post office for the want of the postage fees demanded by the Government to receive it. It would take a week or more for a letter to travel from place to place. The mail would be transported via a lone horseman that traveled around 500 miles in dangerous terrain.
This was known as "The Pony Express". The long-awaited news was delivered at the pioneer's post office, several miles from his cabin, only once every week or two.
Animal pelts were used to purchase most necessities. Peltries, as they were called, were the item most easily traded and it came to be custom to estimate the value of everything in peltries. Even some tax collectors and postmasters were known to take peltries and exchange them for the money required by the Government. Traders collected a variety of furs including; beaver, racoon, fox, mink, otter, marten, and bear, but because it was in greatest demand the beaver was the standard by which all the others were judged. All other types of pelts were given an equivalent value in beaver skins: a marten equalled half a beaver, for example, while an otter equalled one beaver. The result was that the total value of a quantity of furs could be given a Made Beaver value and then could be exchanged for an equivalent value of trade goods.A length of calico was worth a certain number of peltries. After 1840, the demand for beaver pelts was drastically reduced. Jim Bridger was one of the most famous mountain men of the American Fur Trade. Jim Bridger was born in the spring of 1804. Bridger He grew up and went off to be a free trapper and great icon in American History.
The West was a very unhealthy area for the settlers. It had many conditions that the settlers were not use to. For one thing it was infested with mosquitos and other insects and strange disease that often made the settlers sick. One reason people got sick was because they did not understand basic sanitation. They didn't wash their hands after they went to the outhouse "restroom" & they didn't wash up before they ate. Thus, fevers, and ague were a very common problem for the settlers. Ague was a form of malaria caused by mosquito bites. Malaria caused chills and burning, shaking, headache, and backache. This would make the victim deathly sick. People who got the ague stayed in bed for weeks. It made people suffer horribly. When they were sick they could not work or take care of their homes.They learned to trust in God. They would pray to God for healing. They knew that God made all things and there is nothing in our lives that he can't do if he chooses too. 
God gave them wisdom and knowledge about the land that he created. He showed the settlers different herbs, roots, and tree bark & taught them how to use the land for their good. The settlers started to try home remedies and in cases of sickness the early settlers depended mostly on herb teas-made from the herbs, roots, and tree bark that God provided in his creation. These were used for many ailments. Herbs were gathered in the summer for medicinal purposes. For tiny infants a tea of catnip, flowers and leaves was used. This was also used for older children in cases of summer complaints, cramps, for malarial fevers, or the three day-ague. Raw onions with raw cucumbers in vinegar on bread and butter was used for colds. Elderberry blossom tea was considered good for colds. For a baby's cold, an application of goose greese and a bit of kerosene mixed together was applied to the chest and then covered with a woolen cloth. Also some of the goose greese mixture was applied to the soles of the feet, then gently warmed by the fire place and then put to bed on a warmed feather pillow. If the tea didn't help they would call the doctor. 
To call a doctor in those days meant going by horseback to the nearest town to get some medicine or on occasion wait until the doctor came in from his calls and then maybe wait until he made a still more urgent call that had come in earlier. If necessary, he would accompany the caller to the sick person. Doctors thought the ague was caused by decaying vegetables and bad air. There were many home remedies for the ague. One was to swallow pills made from spider cobwebs. Farmers found that if they drained standing water from their fields there was less ague because the mosquitos habitat was destroyed.
Early settlers worked much of the day. They would wake up early milk the cows, cook, eat breakfast, and start doing the rest of the work for the day. They worked hard and had little time to socialize with neighbors-the neighbors were far away from each other. But they found time to have fun. People got together at quilting and apple paring parties. Hog butchering and house raisings were times to have fun when the work was done.
Favorite games and sports were card playing and horse and foot races. Men enjoyed wrestling and shooting matches, while the women enjoyed sewing and cooking contests and the children played games like skipping rope, chasing hoops, and tag.
Many children did not attend a school building. They were needed at home to help with farm work. So their parents taught them at home. They grew to be some of the most prominent leaders of our Nation. Today some children are still homeschooled like our pioneer forefathers were.
Here are some of the famous home-schooled children. Presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, James Madison, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were all home-schooled. Generals: Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, Douglas MacArthur, George Patton were all home-schooled. Inventors: Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Cyrus McCormick, and Orville & Wilbur Wright were all home-schooled. Scientists: George Washington Carver, Pierre Curie, Albert Einstein, Booker T. Washington, and Blaise Pascal were all home-schooled. Artists: Claude Monet, Leonardo da Vinci, Jamie Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, and John Singleton Copley were all home-schooled. Statesmen: Konrad Adenauer , Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, William Penn, and Henry Clay were all Home-Schooled. Composers: Irving Berlin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Anton Bruckner, Felix Mendelssohn, Francis Poulenc were all Home-Schooled. Writers: Hans Christian Anderson, Charles Dickens, Brett Harte, Mark Twain, Sean O’Casey, Phillis Wheatley, Mercy Warren, Pearl S. Buck, Agatha Christie, C.S. Lewis, and George Bernard Shaw were all Home-Schooled. Religious leaders: Joan of Arc, Brigham Young, John & Charles Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, William Cary, Dwight L. Moody, and John Newton were all Home-Schooled. Educators: Frank Vandiver ( Fred Terman (President- Stanford), William Samuel Johnson (President Columbia), John Witherspoon (President of Princeton) were all Home-Schooled. United States Supreme Court Judges: John Jay, John Marshall, and John Rutledge were all Home-Schooled. Other Famous people: Charles Chaplin – (Actor ), George Rogers Clark- (Explorer) Andrew Carnegie – (Industrialist), Noel Coward – (Playwright), John Burroughs – (Naturalist), Bill Ridell – (Newspaperman), Will Rogers – (Humorist), Albert Schweitzer – (Physician), Tamara McKinney – (World Cup Skier), Jim Ryan – (World Runner), Ansel Adams – (Photographer), Charles Louis Montesquieu – (philosopher), John Stuart Mill – (Economist), John Paul Jones – (father of the American Navy), Florence Nightingale – (nurse), Clara Barton – (started the Red Cross), Abigail Adams – (wife of John Adams), and Martha Washington – (1st lady & wife of George Washington) were all Home-Schooled. Some of the pioneers were able to attend a one room school building and have a teacher that taught all ages of children.Early teachers traveled from home to home. They boarded with families who wanted their children educated. Early schools were called subscription schools. Parents had to pay for children to attend. Thus, most of the poor couldn't afford to go.
The home was the center of pioneer life. Most pioneer families were large. Parents had between six and eighteen children. Boys began working in the fields when they turned six years old. They were expected to learn a trade. They would learn from watching their father, grandfather, uncles, and older brothers. Many were apprenticed to other families.
Girls helped with heavy housework. They learned from their mother, grandmother, aunts, and older sisters. Hired help was not needed if there were many children to do the work. Boys and Girls grew up and typically married someone who lived close usually their neighbors.
The pioneers were the early farmers. Farms are what gives us most of the food we eat! Farmers are kind to their animals.They know that God made the animals. God gave them to mankind. ________________________________________________________________ ~Crafts~ You will need: Tiny plants will soon grow. _____________________
GARDEN IN A JAR Baby-food jar with lid Use the mouth of the jar as a Hot glue (adults only) the play dough into the lid and wait about 10 seconds. Have the kids stick flowers into the dough. Leave lids on a cookie sheet to dry over night. When the play dough is dry, screw on the lid carefully. You can write a name on the jar with glitter or decorate any way you want.
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SODA BOTTLE GREENHOUSE 2 clear 2-liter bottles (from soda), 4" high (this creates the bottom of your house) this is the base. about 9" high this will be the "lid" or top for you house. of the 4" base. to create your own greenhouse. (depending on the seeds you use). ______________________________
BALLOON PLANTS 1. Hold a balloon firmly by the neck. The neck is the long part. Use a funnel, and pour 1/2 cup of dirt into the balloon. Do not turn the balloon over. (Try to find clear balloons to use.) Add about 1/4 cup of water through the funnel. Be sure the soil in the balloon is wet. It should not be soggy, though. into the balloon. Do not turn the balloon over. by the neck. Now carefully blow air into the balloon. Keep the balloon from tipping. Tie a ribbon around the knot. The neck should be the top. to begin growing! POTATO HEAD PLANT Cut off both ends of a potato. Stand the potato upright on one of the flat cut surfaces and scoop out a hole in the other end. Carve out a face on one side of the potato. Have the children help place two cotton balls in the potato´s scooped-out top. Let them water the cotton balls and sprinkle them with grass or alfalfa seeds. Place in a sunny spot and watch his hair grow. __________________________
Mr. Grass-head Aka: Mudd Baby You will need: · Grass seed · Old pantyhose · Potting soil · Yogurt containers · Stick on eyes (optional) · Mini Pom Pom’s (optional) · Paint (optional) Put about 2/3 tablespoons of grass seeds into the feet of old pantyhose. Put about 1 - 1 1/2 cups of potting soil on top of that. Then tie a knot in the end to keep it from falling out. Put stick on eyes on Mr. Grass-head's “Mudd baby’s” face, add a mini pom pom for his nose & paint him a smile. Fill the yogurt cup about 3/4 full with water. Then put the Head onto a yogurt cup. Make sure to leave a long enough "tail" on the pantyhose so that it reaches the water. Also make sure to keep water in the cup so that the grass will grow. It's fun to watch Mr. Grass-head “Mudd baby” grow and you can cut his hair, too.
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Add this game to your website, click here. This game requires the Macromedia Shockwave Player. If nothing appears please install the player.  Like this game? Download the full version. PC Version | Mac Version ~Links~ The Foremothers Tell of Olden Times Pioneer children toys and games Critters of the West
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