Modeled by A. Jaegers.
]
Later on these daring forerunners of civilization were followed by
settlers, who, with their families, established the first permanent
homes: single log houses and hamlets, like little islands in the vast
ocean of the primeval forest.
[Illustration:
THE FIRST CABIN.
]
These “backwoodsmen,” completely isolated from the civilized world and
compelled to wage constant battle with hostile nature as well as with
ferocious savages and wild animals, have been justly glorified as
heroes. They were at once explorers, carpenters, builders, woodmen,
farmers, breeders, trappers, hunters and fighters,—in short, everything.
But their wives and daughters, who accompanied them, certainly deserve
to be honored too, as one can hardly conceive situations more trying
than those which these courageous women had to face.
First of all there were the daily labors of the household and farm, the
unceasing cares of motherhood, the toils and sufferings in times of
drought or sickness. Because of the isolation of their homesteads, void
of even the slightest comforts and improvements, these women had to toil
from early morning till late in the night. They worked with their
husbands, clearing the lands. They planted and raised the vegetables in
the little kitchen gardens. They prepared the meals, baked the bread,
did the washing and scrubbing, the milking, preserving, pickling,
churning and brewing. They also broke and heckled the flax, from which
they spun the linens. They sheared the sheep and transformed the wool
into yarn and cloth, which they dyed, cut and turned into suits and
dresses. They knitted the socks and underwear, made the candles and many
of the furnishings, in short, they produced whatever the family needed
and consumed, giving all and asking little. They even helped to defend
the cabin and the settlement in times of danger.
[Illustration: