cktimes.ca Archives for Cultural Musings on Chatham-Kent
Cultural Musings on Chatham-Kent
The building of Chatham-Kent began with a single dwelling
Tuesday, February 25, 2003
As two people who have trouble sawing a length or wood correctly or hammering a nail without doing severe finger damage, the mere thought of coming to a rugged, desolate new land and constructing a home with only one tool (an axe) is really awe inspiring!Pioneers to Chatham-Kent, more often than not, arrived in the area with literally the clothes on their backs and nowhere to stay. Their initial task was to construct a suitable dwelling using the resources available. With eyes to see what others had done, they felled trees that were acceptable in size, cut them into suitable lengths and then commenced the laying of its foundations.
The structure was usually a small one, a one-roomed building with a floor space of not more than ten or twelve feet in area. The timber selected for the walls was of a size such as could be felled by one man, working alone. On the front walls, larger logs than the back walls were used so that by the time the last tier of logs were put into place, there was a sufficient slope from the front to the back to make the roof.
Poles were then laid across in the other direction and on these were placed the bark peeled off the trees in large sheets, opened up and laid two tier deep to make the roof. On the top of this bark were placed further poles tied down by basswood thongs to those poles underneath, and thus a strong roof was created without the use of nail or bolt.
The lumber for the floor and door was self-made. Basswood logs were split as thinly as possible and smoothed with an axe, on one side for floor pieces and on both sides for the door. The open spaces between the floor boards were filled with ashes.
If the dwelling had any window at all, it was one small pane of glass or at most two, but most of the first cabins were devoid of even that size of light-giving convenience.
Once this basic dwelling was completed it marked the pioneer's first achievement toward the establishment of himself and his family in their new home.
This initial home, or hut in reality, served the settler and his family for the first summer of their abode in the bush, or perhaps for several seasons, if the decision was made that it was more important to clear the land than to have a more comfortable home.
The erection of a house large enough to adequately meet the needs of a growing family was a later undertaking and was usually the co-operative work of the whole settlement; however, we are sure that early settlers never forgot the hard work, long hours and skill that went into their "starter home".
Jim and Lisa Gilbert are local, national and international award winning educators and historians.
