Pioneer Story Page 6

Strong, sturdy walls

At dawn, the family rolled the first log into position. Using the broad ax, Matthew began squaring the log. Big boned and muscular, Matthew could swing an ax all day without tiring. At fifteen, he was quiet, reliable, independent and resourceful. Like his Pa, he loved to hunt and fish. Like his Pa, he had started slipping away from home for long periods of time. He enjoyed exploring the wilderness, living off the land. Mary knew that soon her son would leave his parents, find a wife and start his own life. For now, he would help them tame their new land.

Chop, chop, chop, the heavy blade of the broad ax sliced off the wood. When one side was flat, Matthew rolled the log a quarter-turn and squared another side. A growing blanket of wood chips littered the ground. Soon the log was a four-sided beam. Next, Matthew cut a notch into each end of the log. With that accomplished, he, his little brother George, and his parents, muscled the completed sill timber up onto three squat, stone piers. Lifting the massive foundation log was back-breaking work, but necessary to protect the log from termites and dry rot.

By late morning, a second sill log was cut and installed. Finally, Matthew notched the ends of two additional timbers to interlock with the notches of the sill logs. Once assembled, the four logs became the foundation tier of the cabin. Their new cabin would be square. Each side of the cabin was twenty feet long.

A wooden floor

Many cabin floors were just cold, damp earth. Wooden floors were sometimes added later when planking could be cut with a pit-saw. Ma wanted warm, dry floors. Pa was willing to invest a week building Mary her wilderness luxury.

While Matthew squared more logs, George cut slots inside the sill timbers. Robert busied himself hewing floor joists that spanned the cabin and fit neatly in George's slots. Next, George and Pa spent three days splitting planks from two dozen seasoned logs. The tool they used was a hardwood wedge, called a glut. The glut split the wood with the grain when pounded with a heavy, home-made mallet. They positioned the planks across the floor joists. Carefully, they shaved the joists to level the flooring. Finally, Pa drilled holes through the flooring and pinned it in place with hardwood pegs.

A door and window

By now, Matthew had rough-cut the second, third and fourth tier of logs. Precision cutting would not be done until each log was lifted to the top of the walls. A twenty foot timber was too heavy for the family to lift more than a few feet off the ground. The solution was to build a ramp of long saplings along an outside wall. George smeared wet mud on the saplings to reduce friction. Matthew attached a pulley to a branch, high in a nearby Maple tree. Robert had spared the tree to shade the cabin. For now, it would help them build, too. Pa threaded a rope through the pulley and attached it to a log. With little effort, he inched the log up the ramp and onto the walls.