A PEEK AT THE PAST
How Our Fathers Lived
by Leonard DeFrain

The young men and women of today have very little conception of the mode of life among the early settlers of Sanilac County. In but few respects, are the manners of the present time similar to those of many years ago. The clothing, the dwelling, the diet, the social customs, etc. have undergone a total revolution as though a new race had taken possession of the land. Pioneer life in Huron County finds its parallel in almost every county in the state and throughout the entire northwest. The land was to be cleared of forests. Cabins were to be erected, wells dug and the rivers and creeks made to labor for the use of mankind.

As many living citizens can well remember, the pioneers had many difficulties to contend with, not the least of which was the journey from civilization to their forest homes. The route lay through a wild and rough country; swamps and marshes were crossed with great exertion and fatigue; rivers were forded with difficulty and danger; nights were passed in the dense forests, with Mother Earth for a couch and the trees and foliage for a shelter; long weary days and weeks of travel were endured; but finally their eyes were gladdened and their hearts beat faster when a vision of their future home burst upon them.

While they were building their cabin, the family slept in the wagons or on the grass. Trees of suitable and uniform sizes were selected, felled and prepared. The day for the raising was announced and neighbors from near and far came to assist. The structure went up a log at a time and work stoppage was only long enough to "whet their whistles." The space between the logs was filled with split sticks of wood, called "chinks". The floor sometimes was nothing more than earth.

For a fireplace, a space was cut out of the logs on one side of the room, usually about six feet in length.

The living room was of good size, but to a large extent it was also a kitchen, bedroom, parlor and arsenal, with fitches of bacon, and rings of dried pumpkins suspended from the rafters.

Every log cabin had a history; if they could speak, they would tell us of the toil and privation undergone by our fathers, of the days made sacred by the birth of a child, of the religious services held there, or the merry-makings which the neighbors around attended.

One by one these old log homes have disappeared, however a few of them today are located across from the library in Bad Axe.