PERMANENT SHELTER WAS OFTEN SECONDARY TO PIONEERS
PERMANENT SHELTER WAS OFTEN SECONDARY TO PIONEERS ©
by Holly Timm
[originally published 6 January 1988
Harlan Daily Enterprise Penny Pincher]
The early settlers brought very little with them when they came to the Kentucky mountains. The shape of the land itself, the thick forest and heavy canebrakes made this part of the country impassable to wagons and difficult even for an oxcart.

Most families came with what they could carry on their own backs and those of their livestock. You could probably fit all their possessions easily into the back of a small pick up truck.

The settlers usually arrived as a group of families, often related by blood or marriage. Traveling together this way was increased protection from raiding Indians and meant a shared workload for men, women and children.

In most instances, some of the group had been to their destination previously, choosing and marking where they intended to settle. Often some of the ground would be cleared and prepared for crops before they brought their families here.

The first order of business on arrival was planting those crops rather than home building. Temporary shelters would be thrown together using whatever material was at hand.

Sometimes an overhanging rock ledge could be converted into reasonably comfortable living quarters by erecting a brush fence across the open side. More fortunate settlers might have had canvas tents that could be rigged as walls. Such dwellings were called rockhouses.

In other instances, a large hollow tree stump could be turned into a shelter in much the same way. George Burkhart is known to have provided just such a home for his family at the base of a huge old sycamore tree.

Once the other necessities of life were arranged, time was available to build a better home. Neighboring settlers would join together to raise a cabin, taking turns until all had homes.

The cabin site would be chosen carefully with two major considerations. First, it must be reasonably close to a reliable supply of water, preferably a year round spring, and second, a clear view of the immediate surroundings was an essential precaution against Indian attacks.

Most of these early cabins were one room, store-and-a-half buildings. Trees had to be felled and the logs cut to the proper length and notched at the ends to fit together at the corners. A sensible man would have watched for good cabin material while he cleared his land and often have several logs already prepared.

The holes and cracks between the logs would be plastered with mud to keep out drafts and keeping these chinks plastered was a part of the yearly preparation for winter.

A roof could be thatched or shingled. Thatch was quicker, made from whatever strawlike plants were at hand but not as good or long lasting as shingles cut individually by hand.

Doors were hung on leather or wooden hinges and held shut by a latch. In the summer they would be left open for light and air. Most cabins would have at least one small window with shutters to close in winter or very bad weather.

The entire family and sometimes two families would eat, sleep and live in these cramped quarters although sometimes a loft would be built in the upper portion for some of the children to sleep.

The fireplace was of course essential for heat and cooking. Sometimes it would be built first of wattle, a combination of sticks and mud erected on a base of rock which formed the hearth.

Enough sticks would be used to give the structure strength and a semblance of shape and enough mud to hold it all together and cover the sticks sufficiently to keep the chimney from burning up.

Usually within a few years this arrangement would be replaced with a chimney built of rock. There are quite a few rock chimneys still standing in the area and some of these may be all that remains of an early cabin.

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