Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I like history. I like the study of history and the reading of history; all aspects. Through my years of reading, visiting historical sites, scrounging through musty papers and conversations, one aspect of this wonderful hobby has been the various dwellings our ancestors used; they fascinate me.
I have been hung up on barns for years and will travel hundreds of miles just to gaze at, examine, photograph and poke around in old barns. Barns in America more or less follow the traditional architecture of Europeans. Log houses are most clearly brought to us by the Scandinavians. Our magnificent buildings of stone and brick come from Italy and more recently from our uptight Victorian forefathers. But there is one type of house or dwelling that is purely American...the sod house. Admittedly, we sort of borrowed here and there from the Native Americans, but nowhere else was and has sod been used more ingeniously than in this country.
The work being reviewed here was first published in 1968 (that is the version I am reviewing here) and is based largely on historical records held by the Nebraska Historical Society. The many photographs in this work come from the collection of Soloman Devoe Butcher...a truly driven man. Other than actually going to the archives of the Nebraska Historical Society, it would be difficult to come up with a better collection of actual photographs of sod buildings than we find in this work.
This book traces the development of the sod house from the time before white Europeans entered the area which we now know as Nebraska, Iowa and the Dakotas. I love the line which introduces chapter two of this study..."Made without mortar, square, plumb or greenbacks." That pretty well says it all.
But readers take note! In our time we often think of "folk technology," which is what we are talking about here, as being very primitive and quite inferior to our own. In all reality we are kidding ourselves. Many of the techniques and skills that our forefathers used make our modern techniques actually seem primitive...we could learn, or should I say "relearn" much by a close study of such things. This book well illustrates that fact. Construction techniques are well documented, materials needed, work intensity noted, many structural variations are noted, using both many photograph and many drawings.
Not only does the author offer us an in-depth study of the sod house or building, from the primitive dugout to multistory complexes, but also gives us a very good geography lesson along with plant lore, life styles, weather conditions, family life, tools, crafts, skills, etc.
One of the most wonderful things about this book is that the author uses hundreds of actual letters and first hand accounts that have been preserved over the years. Example:
"Elder Oscar Babock, a Seventh-day Baptist minister of North Loup, Nebraska, gave $2.78 and ? as the cost of a fourteen-foot square dougout in 1972, itemized the cost as follows:
One window (8x10 glass)..................$1.25
18 feet of lumber for front door...... .54
Latch and hanging (No lock)............ .50
Length of pipe to go through roof... .30
3 lbs of nails to make door, etc......... .19 1/2
Total................................................. $2.78 1/2"
Personal accounts of the hardships faced by these people are numerous as are accounts of the triumphs. We get wonderful accounts of their social live, interactions with natives and neighbors, entertainments, songs, stories, and on and on. This is a true wealth of information for those interested in such matters.
Some of these homes and structures, built well over a century ago, still stand, but alas, many have been destroyed either though ignorance or simple neglect; fortunate for us that we do have a wonderful photographic and textual record of these times.
Think of pulling into an area where you can see from horizon to horizon, no people, no trees; just flat endless grass and sky. Think of yourself with a team of mules, a plow, a few cloths and primitive tools, a wife, six kids and no house! What to do, what to do?
Well these folk knew and it is quite an adventure to learn how they managed.
This work is ideal for any interested in the history of or westward expansion, pioneers, architecture, folk skills, folk ways and well, history in general. This work covers area in Nebraska, the Dakotas, Kansas, Iowa and those general regions.
Don Blankenship
The Ozarks
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