The ~Christian Country Farm~

FRONTIER LIFE...

WHAT WAS THE BEST PART OF THE TRAIL?

        Reaching the end of it! Actually, the dangers and difficulties of the trail were only the beginning of hardships the pioneers would face. By the time they arrived in Oregon or California, pioneers were exhausted. Most were nearly, if not completely. out of supplies. But there was no time to waste. Winter was coming quickly, and they needed a place to live.

      Many pioneers built temporary houses called "lean-tos"--simple log shelters left open on one side--to live in while they began working on a cabin. Others lived in their wagons while they worked. {OH, HOW TIRED THEY WERE OF THOSE WAGONS!~NOT ME!!!}    Then they took their wagons apart and used the wood to build furniture or pieces of their new home.

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO RAISE A LOG CABIN?

a} three weeks           b} two months

c} one day                 d} one year

     Believe it or not, the answer is  c.  It took a long time to clear the land and prepare logs for a cabin. Still, if a family did that ahead of time and the neighbors came to help, they needed only one day to raise a one-room log cabin. {Pioneer families could raise log cabins all by themselves; it just took longer.}


WHY WERE PIONEER FAMILIES SO BIG?    

     Because more children meant more pairs of hands to help do the work. In Pioneer days, people worked from sunup to sundown. They had to make everything from soap to bread to candles to clothes by hand.

     Even the youngest children had chores to do. They gathered eggs, nuts, berries, and feul for fires. They weeded the gardens, fed the chickens, and watched the fields to drive away squirrels and birds who ate the corn. Older children helped make jams, jellies, butter, candles, soap, and medicines. Thay fetched water, milked cows, plowed, planted, washed, ironed, mended, and looked after the younger children. No wonder one pioneer woman wrote,           "A lazy person should never think of going to Oregon."


WAS THERE TIME FOR SCHOOL ON THE FRONTIER?

              

     A little. In the early days of the frontier, children were taught at home because people lived so far away from one another. Even when more settlers arrivd, some children did not go to school because their parents needed their help at home. Those who did go usually attended one-room schoolhouses where children of all ages were taught together. Often the teacher wasn't much older than some of his students!

     Some teachers had a hard time making teenage boys behave. Young men who had driven teams of oxen across the continent and maybe even fought Indians or shot grizzlies didn't want to be told what to do! One California teacher made it clear he was the boss by placing a six-shooter on his desk on the first day of school and saying,  "We're here to learn. If anyone misbehaves, there's going to be trouble."

     It wasn't all work on the frontier. Children did find time to climb trees, jump rope, visit swimming holes, and play tag, hopscotch, and hide-and-seek. They also played with homemade marbles, checkers, tops, and rag or cornhusk dolls.


WOULD YOU GET MAIL ON THE FRONTIER?   

     Yes, but at first you'd have to wait a long time for letters because mail service wasn't very regular. When stagecoaches began running in 1858, mail service got much better.

    Even speedier than the stagecoaches was the Pony Express. This famous mail service from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, whisked letters across nearly 2,000 miles in just ten days. Brave young horseback riders rode at top speed all day and all night, even in snow and sleet or through the desert. Each rider rode 70 miles and changed horses six times before he handed the mail off to the next man. The Express was in business about nineteen months before telegraph lines connecting the East and West made it unnecessary in 1861.      
                                                       



Taken from "The Pioneers" by Kenneth C. Davis

Kelly KJV
Deuteronomy 6:5-9*Proverbs 31:28*Titus 2:5*
Psalm 19:14*Joshua 24:15*I Corinthians 15:58

Social Studies Project

04:39 PM, Nov. 15, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

Hi,I need help on a Social Studies project.Can you help me??Well anyways,I need help finding a famous pioneer on the Life of the Frontier.I don't know how to find it,its to hard.I've tried everything...Can you please help me???

Hi

04:41 PM, Nov. 15, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

hi again,I forgot to tell you my name is Juliana.I'm the one that posted you a comment about the social studies project.Please e-mail me at julia8@windstream.net
Thanks!!!