The Pennsylvania-German in the Settlement of Maryland (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913 edition. Excerpt: ...But the bulky nature of furniture precluded much of it being carried on the journey to the wilderness. The lack of regular furniture was made up by all sorts of makeshifts. A table was usually made from a split slab, the top surface smoothed off and four legs set in auger holes. Three-legged stools were made in the same way, as were also benches on which to sit at the table while eating. Wooden pins driven into the logs and supporting clapboards served as closets and shelves. Sometimes bedsteads were made in this way: A single fork was placed with its lower end in a hole in the floor and the upper end fastened to a joist. A pole was placed in the fork with one end through a crack between the logs of the wall and this was crossed by a shorter pole within the fork with its outer end through another crack. Sometimes other poles were pinned to the fork a little distance above these for the purpose of supporting the front and foot of the bed, while the walls were the supports of its back and head. As the settler prospered and his possessions increased, sooner or later, the simple log cabin was replaced by a more pretentious dwelling. This, too, was often built of logs, but in that event the materials were better prepared and the logs joined more evenly, and sometimes the outside was covered with clapboards, and in some instances with plaster, producing the "roughcast" house. In regions where limestone was plentiful the house was often built of stone in a very substantial manner; so much so that some of these houses built by the early settlers are standing to-day. These houses were very much more commodious than the first log cabin, generally being two stories in height, with sometimes a garret, the floors being divided into several rooms, ...