A six year old pioneer

Autobiography and reminiscences by John W. Carroll.

During the sixth year of my age my father, owning no land where he lived, purchased a small tract about four miles away, which was a primeval forest, near which place lived Esq. Jno. H. Galbraith.  Preparations for a move began right away and consisted in my father going on the place, axe in hand, cutting away the timber and making sufficient opening to set a house.  This done, he began felling small trees, eight to ten inches in diameter, cutting them off at required length, hauling them to the selected spot, inviting the neighboring citizens to help to raise the house; a dinner was prepared and sent to the place, and a gallon of whiskey completed the arrangements.  On each of the four corners of the house was a man whose duty it was to notch the logs down, one upon another, being handed to them by other men who were on the ground; thus the work proceeded, interspersed with much good feeling and friendly jests until the last log was put up.  Then one piece was put upon either end of the house extending about 24 inches out from either side; on the outer end of this, on either side, was placed a long pole called an abutment, against which the ends of the hoards were to rest.  Then the pieces on the ends were shorter and shorter to the top.  Now we were ready for the boards which were laid on, and a pole of sufficient weight put on them to hold them down and so on to the top; then we began and chopped into the logs of the house on each side and hewed them down thus taking off the rough bark: this done, we proceeded to nail boards on the inside of the cracks between the logs and to fill up the outside of the openings with mud; this done, we had a warm cabin; we then began laying the floor which was made usually of puncheons hewn out and put down as closely as could be done with a hand axe; next, long-riven boards were gotten out and shaved as smoothly as possible and a door shutter made of them hung on wooden hinges, which usually made a loud creaking noise on being opened or closed. The place for a fire was usually four to six feet wide, built upon the outside with logs and laid on the inside with mortar and rocks, the hearth back and all up to where the chimney proper started, which was built of sticks and mud.  This completed, our humble mansion was ready for occupancy.  We had no saw mills then as now, driven by steam, nor nails with which to fasten down boards or plank.  Such things of course were in use, I suppose, in some places, but for lack of money on our part did not extend to us.  We moved in and began making rails and building a rail fence around the house.  We built a log stable for a horse, a smoke-house for our meat and a log house for a corn crib, and dug a well.  By the time this was all done, it was springtime —March.  Father went to clearing a piece of land and I, to piling brush, being the eldest and only help at this time.  Late in the season we succeeded in getting six acres of land cleared and planted in corn which of course made only a poor crop on account of the shade being too dense to admit the growth of corn hence the yield was small.  However we continued to clear land and build till father had a good small farm of rich land for that section.  Thus in course of time better buildings took the place of our primitive log cabin.  We were possibly as happy as if our surroundings had been better, that is, we children: for this was all we knew.  The labor which we did, though hard, was no particular hardship to us, as we knew nor thought of anything else.