Who Were the Pioneers?
Pioneers were the first people to settle in the frontiers of North America. Although many of the pioneers were farmers, others were doctors, shopkeepers, blacksmiths, missionaries, lawyers, and so on. They came from many places in the United States to start their new lives. The majority of their ancestors came from European countries such as England, Germany, and Scotland. Before leaving their homes they either saved money for the trip, sold their land and other possessions, or agreed to work for others on the trip.
Although the pioneers traveled to the frontier for many different reasons, they all wanted an opportunity to start new lives. Many of the pioneers were farmers. They went to Oregon, Texas, and other areas of the frontier for the inexpensive or even possibly free land. This land was available for homesteading. They wanted the rich, fertile land for their crops. Other people came to the frontier because they had heard stories that made the new lands sound like magical places. Some went to the frontier in order to prospect for gold, to hunt and trade fur pelts, and for many other reasons.
Where Did the Pioneers Travel To?
The pioneers traveled
to the frontiers of North America. In the 1700's the frontiers were the
Appalachian Mountains. Later they traveled west across the Mississippi
River. Look at the maps below to see the Westward Expansion of the
United States.
The orange-colored section represents the settled areas of the the United States.
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#1 shows that the settlers had moved into the
Appalachian Mountains by the 1760s. Map #2 shows that settlement had reached as far as the Mississippi River by 1783. Map #3 shows that during the early 1800s pioneers began claiming fertile areas of land beyond the Mississippi River. Map #4 shows that during the mid-1800s Americans started settling the Great Plains, Pacific Coast, and Texas. |
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How did the Pioneers Travel? Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was one of the most famous trails ever. It was a series of trails that were used by the first explorers and fur traders. It was the longest overland trail in North America. In the 1840s America and England agreed that Oregon would belong to the first country to settle the most people in that area. The United States encouraged people to move to Oregon by offering land for homesteading. In 1843 the "Great Migration" to Oregon began. These pioneers who traveled to the area used the Oregon Trail. The trail started in Independence, Missouri and went past Chimney Rock, Nebraska. From there it crossed the southwest tip of Wyoming and into the southern part of Idaho. The trail ended up in the northwest corner of Oregon. It took them approximately six months to travel the 2000 miles from Independence, Missouri to their final destination in the Oregon territory.
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Pioneer Homes
When pioneers got to their destination, there were no rentals or pre-fabbed houses. They had to make due with what they had and learn to create their own homes. Their first homes may have been their own covered wagons if need be!
- Tepee, also spelled as "Tipi". This type of home was usually made using canvas or hides. Pioneers would have used this home as a temporary domicile. The tepee is made by making a tripod of poles. Pioneers most likely used saplings for this. More poles were added as was needed. The poles were covered using hides or canvas. There was a smoke hole in the top of the tepee so that pioneers could have a fire inside the tepee and not smother from the smoke. It was not actually very common for pioneers to use this method of housing, but was necessary from time to time.
- Lean-to. The lean-to that is built in its most extravagant form would look like a tent in the shape of a box. However, it was sometimes necessary to simply drape canvas over a tree limb and use smaller trees or branches to create some type of protection from the weather. The front of the lean-to acted as the door, remaining open during the day and closed at night to provide protection from the weather as the pioneers slept.
- Shanty. The shanty is a simple building that would remind people of today of a medium sized shed. The shanty was no more than one room, built with materials to be found around the pioneers such as wood. If the shanty had a window, it may have been made of wax paper.
- Log cabin. This was a permanent type of home, built by the pioneers. The log cabin is made from wood that the pioneers cut down and fit together. Often, to fill the spaces between the logs, pioneers would mix wheat or even prairie grass with mud and pack it between the logs.
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http://americanhistory.si.edu/ourstory/f/sodhouse.html
Link here to play a game to build a pioneer sod house
Be a sod house detective: http://americanhistory.si.edu/ourstory/pdf/sodhouse/sodhouse_detective.pdf
Pioneer Chores
Life in the pioneer world was very different than it is in modern times. You may understand how pioneers lived by comparing the pioneer world to your own world.
What kind of chores do you do at home? Do you do the dishes, clean your room and take care of your pets? Pioneer children had a very different life. Many of them did not even attend school because there may not have been a school available and the children were needed for work at home. Even if they did attend school, most of them would not have graduated, having to drop out of school at a very young age to help with the work at home. How do the chores below compare with what you do at home?
- Get up at sunrise and milk the cows, feed the farm animals.
- Work all day in the fields plowing, planting, weeding and harvesting.
- Bring in water from the creek or rain barrel for cooking and washing.
- Hunting for food.
- Cleaning and preparing food, which may include cleaning and salting or smoking the meat as well as cleaning, drying and canning the vegetables.
- Looking for firewood, then chopping and stacking it.
- Spinning plants to make thread. Using thread to make material. Using material to make clothes.
- Searching for herbs for cooking and healing.
- Assisting with the building of homes or barns.
- Cooking.
- Taking care of younger brothers or sisters.
- Helping with any repairs on the property such as mending fences and fixing leaking roofs.
Pioneer children had very little time to play. Very often, the play time they got was when they snuck off from doing their chores to go take a swim in the creek! There were no video games and no allowance for work done. By the time they got to go to bed, they were so tired that they welcomed bedtime!
Pioneer Hygiene
People of today are obsessed with cleanliness. So much so that we even make antibacterial soap. We are trying to wash away things we can't even see! But, it wasn't always so.
Below are some facts about pioneer hygiene. Read through them. You may be shocked by some of the things the pioneers considered "clean"!
- Do you like to take baths? It's pretty common for children to dislike bath time. So, we adults do things like putting toys and bubble bath in the tub with our children. Not so with the pioneers. Surely those children hated bath time too, but that may have been because everyone in the house shared the same bath water! By the time the children got to it, chances are it was barely warm because they were the very last ones to get to take a bath!
- Do you enjoy sweet smelling soap? Did you know that the pioneers bathed mostly with lye soap? This is a soap made from water, ashes and lard!
- Do you have to do dishes at home yet? Does your mother check to make sure you got all the dishes clean? Imagine being a pioneer who may have had to wash dishes in the creek! Pioneers sometimes washed their dishes in the creek. They had no scrub pads and sometimes had to use sand to get the dishes clean! Even if they washed the dishes in the house, they still had to fetch the water and heat it up.
- Pioneers sometimes did not get to wash their hair or body all week long. Bath day came once a week in the winter time. In the summer, pioneers may rinse off in the creek or river prior to bath day.
- With pioneers sometimes having as little furniture as one chair and one table, it would seem like housecleaning would be a breeze! However, there were no vacuum cleaners and they made their own brooms to combat the constant dust.
Thinking of how the pioneers lived may make you look at your own home differently. How much time is spent in your home on cleaning the house and the people that live there? Pioneers would have felt blessed had they been able to be that clean!
Pioneer Tools
By the time the pioneers got to their destinations, they were exhausted and simply glad to stay in one place for a while. It was at that point when they realized things were not going to get any easier from here on out. If one was fortunate enough to have brought things like tablecloths, they most likely would have ended up being used as material for clothing or even shelter. Simplistic living such as the pioneers did is hard for those of us living in the age of information technology to comprehend. Review some of the facts below about pioneer tools and how they were used. (A tool is anything that helps to do work.)
- In the pioneer world, there were no refrigerators. Pioneers often smoked or salted their meat to keep it put up. Fruits were dried and cooked later. Winter was a harsh time for them, but also a blessing as pioneers could pack meat into "snow barrels" to keep over the winter.
- Of course, pioneers did not have electricity. There were no light bulbs. Pioneers used candles that they made themselves to light the way. However, there was not always a need for this since they usually woke up by the sun and tired enough at the end of the day to be in bed when the sun went down!
- There were no power tools, so all the work was done with hand tools. Trees were cut and made into boards using hand saws, wedges and axes. Homes were built using hammers and highly effective notches.
- Women found themselves tending the field as well as the house since survival was everyone's concern. Often, the pioneers would each have their own bowl and fork and no other kitchen utensils. This certainly cut down on the dishes!
- There were no cars, trains or trolleys at this point in time, so all travel was done by horseback, donkeys, wagons or walking!
Pioneer foods
In the pioneer world, people were not able to go to the nearest grocery store to pick up food for dinner. If you had used the term "fast food" with one of the pioneers they would have thought you picked something from the garden and ate it, because preparing food in the pioneer world was an art as well as a chore. Have you ever had to get creative to make something to eat at home? Pioneers constantly had to get creative and try new things in order to survive.
- Meat. Pioneers hunted for their meat, but the work did not stop there. Once they made the kill, they would have to clean and prepare the meat for storage. First the meat would have to be skinned and the insides removed. Then it would have to be cut into manageable chunks. Once the meat was cut up, pioneers would often salt their meat heavily in order to preserve it for long periods of time. The result was that when the pioneers went to cook the meat, they first had to scrub it in order to remove the salt and make the meat taste good.
- Pioneers ate lots of vegetables because they could be grown in large amounts and canned if the pioneers had the materials to can with. If they did not have the materials to can with, then they would simply dry out what vegetables they could and cook them later. However, one frost could destroy an entire crop and there were no grocery stores to go to in order to get more!
- As you drive down the road in the summer, you may notice signs for "U-pick" fruits such as strawberries and blueberries. Pioneers had to go into the forest to pick their berries. In doing so, pioneers would have to be aware of any bears that might also want to be picking berries! Fruit was dried for later use or canned if the materials were available. Fruit was often the only "sweets" that pioneers had access to!
Pioneers often ate heavy meals. But there was virtually no obesity.
