Choosing a Homestead

To the pioneer looking out over the Ohio River Valley and its tributaries, it was a land of incredible riches.  Before them stood endless stretches of wooded hills and grassy plains, majestic forests, rivers and lakes.  Most of all it held the hope of liberty and the opportunity for social equality and advancement.

The new country was thought of as "the wilderness" but in fact there were great areas of uplands like the prairies in northern Indiana and Illinois, and the treeless hilly regions within 100 miles of the Ohio River.  The grasses grew in profusion with unobstructed stretches of great herds of buffalo, deer and elk that fed on those grasses, drank at the rivers.  Waterfowl like ducks, geese, cranes, and herons in abundance, along with grey squirrels, prairie chickens and partridges provided food for every pioneer for the taking.

The forests were thick with deer paths, buffalo roads and Indian trails in all directions, wide enough to allow two or three wagons to pass.  Giant poplars, beeches, sycamores and sugar maples grew to great heights, providing lumber and protection.

Adventurous pioneers often went off with their families to isolated places to claim their homestead.  The average pioneer, however, favored a location, near or reasonably near, a settlement.  The choice of site was a matter of primary importance and not one taken lightly.  There must be adequate drinking water nearby, preferably a free flowing spring, pasture land for immediate use and fertile soil for planting.

The choice of lowlands along a stream (called bottom lands) offered perfect soil except for the annual attacks of malaria.  The bottom lands were extremely fertile and the "ague" became an accepted trade-off for the fertile lands. The alternative was the poorer and drier soil of the uplands.  Although healthier, they proved to be far less fertile farm land.

The pioneer first had to clear a few acres by hand where his cabin was to stand.  A belt of open land around those acres served as a protective barrier against Indians and wild beasts.  When the land chosen and prepared, it was time to build the family's cabin.

Next time...Building the Log Cabin
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On April 8, 1842, Elizabeth Bacon Custer is born in Monroe, Michigan.  She was the wife of George Custer.  After her husband's death, she dedicated herself to celebrating his life and exonerating him from the public opinion after his defeat at Little Big Horn.  Her writings are a rare look at military life from a woman's perspective."