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Windows of Glass
Curtains were almost unknown in the back country but every window had its shutter. Some shutters closed at night from the outside. Some slid back and forth from the inside a solid wooden slab.
A quilt hung the rafter as a divider between rooms. Nightcaps were worn by everyone. At the foot of the bed were tomorrows clothing was folded and packed, beside a stone bed warmer during the winter, wrapped in a towel. The hearth of the fireplace in the big room was reserved by the parents for dressing in the morning hours.
If you grabbed your clothes and dashed to the barn, making the cow move from their soft beds of hay, the warmth of the cow would rise up and allow you the warmed spot to dress for the day.
Often the houses hurriedly built, still had a dirt floor. Housewives got the floor ready for visitors by scratching a design upon the dirt in the manner of a decorative carpet. Designs could change with the seasons.
Caring for the axe was the pioneers most important possession. A man could walk into the forest with nothing but his axe, fashion snares to catch game, fell trees, clear the brush for growing a garden, and holding the blade in his hand he could use the sharp blade like a knife and whittle with it.
In the cold weather they would warm the blade before using it to make it less brittle. When they finished with it for the day they would rub it with fat. Axe handles often broke or cracked. A new one was always charring and seasoned near the hearth. The handle was straight, not curved like the ones we see today.
Sleeping lofts were placed at one end of the big keeping room. Planks had been laid on the cross beams of a cabin to form a balcony overhead. A ladder gave access to the loft. At night, when nights were hot, a door might have been left open for circulation, and the ladder was pulled up into the loft for protection against Indians or wild animals.
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Glass paned windows were so rare in the early country houses that people often carried their windows with them from house to house whenever they moved. A rented house usually had no glass windows.
