During the 1830s thepopulation ofMichigan grewquickly. In 1830,

27,000 people lived in Michigan.By 1840 more than 212,000 peo-ple lived here. Most pioneersarrived in Detroit from theEast. What was life like forthese early settlers as theyheaded into the wilderness?

Getting to the land theyplanned to settle was often achallenge. The roads weremuddy, rocky trails. There wereno bridges, which made crossingeven the smallest creek a prob-lem. Fallen trees, getting lostand wild animals also causedproblems.

Once the family got to theirland they made a shanty to livein until their log cabin could be

built. Thefather andsons cut 50 to60 trees andstacked theminto a rectangular structure.The gaps in the logs were filledwith small strips of wood andmud, called chinking. The roofwas made of shingles that weresliced from logs. The shingleswere held down by smaller logs

because nails wereunavailable. Adoorway and awindow were cut.A door was madefrom split logs,and since glasswas unavailable,greased papercovered the window.

A fireplacewas also added.Since there wereno matches andneighbors mightlive miles away,the fire wasalways kept burn-ing. There were

no walls dividing the cabin, soblankets set off a bedroom.Children usually slept in the loft.

When the cabin was finishedthe land had to be cleared. Oxenpulled a plow to break up theland for planting. Once the grainwas harvested it was hauled to agrist mill, which was usuallymiles from the cabin.

Wild animals were nui-sances, but the worst pest wasthe mosquito. Since Michiganwas very wet, there were lots ofmosquitoes. Many pioneers suf-fered from the ague. It wascaused by mosquito bites. Aguewas rarely fatal, but it left peo-ple with a high fever and chills.

Pioneers did not spend alltheir time working. They playedgames, such as wrestling, run-ning, horseshoes and tug-of-war.

The pioneer period did notlast long. By the 1850s roadsand cities were conquering thewilderness, and houses werereplacing log cabins.

The MittenA Publication of Michigan History magazine DECEMBER 2001

PioneerLIFE

PioneerLIFE

This log cabin

built in the

1830s is part

of the Troy

Historical

Museum.

Tom

She

rry

Pioneer women alwayshad plenty of work todo. To help them withtheir many tasks

Michigan’s early settlersinvented devices that savedtime and labor.

To prepare food, house-wives used a varietyof handy wooden

tools. A cherry pittermade a boring

task easier. Acheese strain-

er separatedthe curd

from the whey in cheesemaking. Pioneers oftenchurned their own butterand made extra butter to sell to a store.

Another cash crop waswild bee honey. Finding a beetree was hard, so the earlysettlers used a homemadebee box. The box was aboutfour inches by eight inchesand had three moveableparts. A drawer, containingflour, was located in thebottom. This was cov-ered with a pull-outshelf. The top had awindow in the centerand was hinged.

The box was actual-ly a trap. Sweet baitlaid on the closed shelfattracted the bee. Whenseveral bees “took thebait,” the pioneerclosed the top, trappingthem. Pulling out the shelfforced the bees to drop intothe flour-filled drawer. The

bees became coated withflour. When released, the

whitened bees wereeasy to follow back

to their hive.The pioneer took

most of the honey

in the hive and sold it. The settler also carved hisinitials on the tree to claim itas his own.

Insects and rodentsplagued the settlers. A piesafe, a cabinet with doors cov-ered with screening, protect-ed pies and leftovers frompests. A cage-like mousetrapserved two purposes: it gotrid of pests and captured foodfor pets.

Besides labor-savinginventions, pioneers also cre-ated items to decorate theirhouses. Human hair wreatheswere popular. Hair was savedfrom brushing and cuttingsand coiled into shapes. Sincephotographs were rare, a hairwreath was a cherished keep-sake of a loved one.

When NECESSITY was the MOTHER OF INVENTION

HAIR WREATH

MOUSE TRAP

All

phot

os A

llan

Mal

an

BEE BOX

Where to TakeYour Family

Walker Tavern

From 1836 through 1855—when

a stagecoach ride from Detroit to

Chicago was a five-day trip—a

favorite stopping place to change

horses, relax, enjoy a meal, or

spend the night was Walker

Tavern. Today, exhibits at Walker

Tavern in Cambridge Junction

include an 1840s parlor, bar-

room, dining room, kitchen and

barn. The historic site is open

Memorial Day through Labor Day

and the

remainder of

the year

by special

appointment.

Telephone

(517) 467-

4401 or contact the Michigan

Historical Museum. Visit on-line at

www.sos.state.mi.us/history/

museum/musewalk.

The Michigan

Historical Museum

Visitors can experience what it was

like to ride on a plank road in the

Statehood and Settlement gallery

at the Michigan Historical

Museum in Lansing. Also, the

Michigan Historical Center’s Web

site offers lesson plans and activi-

ties relating to Michigan’s pioneer

era. Telephone (517) 373-3559,

TDD: (800) 827-7007. Visit on-

line at www.sos.state.mi.us/history.

Pioneers coming toMichigan traveledalong dirt roads that

followed the routes of Indiantrails. These roads were fullof holes and often muddy.After traveling on one ofthese early roads, one pio-neer wrote that she had been“jolted to a jelly.”

Manyother pio-neers, especiallythose coming from NewYork, arrivedin Michigan by boat.

They started their jour-ney on the Erie Canal. TheErie Canal looked like asmall river. It was 4 feet deep and 42 feet wide, but it stretched 363 milesacross New York state.

Passengers traveled on flatboats—large woodenboats that looked like a box. These flatboats werepulled by horses that walkedalong the edge of thecanal.

During the day, passen-gers remained on the boat’sdeck. They sang or talkedwith the other passengers. At night, travelers slept inthe cabin. It was not a pleas-ant place to sleep. The straw-padded bunks were oftendirty and smelled. Thecabin's door and windows

were closedto keep outthe mosqui-toes and thebad smells ofthe canal.This left the

cabin hot and stuffy. Erie Canal flatboats trav-

eled about 2 miles per hourand cost the passengersabout half a penny a mile.When flatboats reachedBuffalo, New York, passen-gers boarded steamboats forthe three-day journeythrough Lake Erie toDetroit. Once in Detroit, thepioneer families headedinland to settle the Michiganwilderness.

THE ERIE CANAL

How They Got Here

Flatboats

on the Erie Canal

were pulled by horses.

*The Mitten is produced by the staff of Michigan History

magazine, which is part of the Michigan Historical Center.

The Michigan Historical Center is part of the Department of

History, Arts and Libraries. Dedicated to enhancing the

quality of life in Michigan, the department also includes the

Mackinac Island State Park Commission, the Library of

Michigan, the Michigan Film Office, and the Michigan

Council of Arts and Cultural Affairs.

For more information, contact Michigan History at

(517) 373-3703 or visit us on-line atwww.sos.state.mi.us/history/mag

1. What were some of the challenges pioneers

faced while traveling to their new home?

a. poor roads

b. robbers along the trail

c. flat tires

2. Many Michigan pioneer settlers came from the

state of _______________.

3. How did flatboats move?

a. by steam engine

b. they were pulled by horses on the shore

c. by wind-powered sails

Vocabulary

WORDSChallenge: something thattakes a lot of effort toaccomplish.

Grist mill: a grinding mill.

Nuisance: something thatis bothersome or annoying.

Conquering: taking over.

Devices: objects made todo a specific function.

9

L T A K O S D C L R N K A N L Y J B K A

M V F R F O S K A Q L Q M A K A F U A N

T F K B H I X E I B M P N W Q Y Y W Y L

A S W G V A F Y N Q I A E A K R F S I A

R G N I K N I H C R C N E K E G H G T S

P H V V E P R T U L E F P I O N E E R S

I B B V D X C F L H D D R U R H N U N N

P I Z C B O E K N Z Q X L P V X E U G A

P W G K O P T W K S C T N I A P B A E V

M O S Q U I T O A C B B J Y W W M W E O

Find the following PIONEER

words

PIONEERS

CANAL

CABIN

CHINKING

MOSQUITO

AGUE

WILDERNESS

What DidYou Learn?

BONUS:Pioneers sold_______________ to stores for extra money.