By degrees the
surrounding trees were "girdled" and killed. Those that would split were
cut down and made into rails, while others were left to rot or logged up
and burned.
A year showed a great improvement in the pioneer's home. Several acres
had been added to the clearing, and the place began to assume the
appearance of a farm. The temporary shanty had given place to a
comfortable log cabin; and although the chimney was built of small
sticks placed one on the other, and filled in between with clay,
occupying almost one whole end of the cabin, it showed that the inward
man was duly attended to; and the savory fumes of venison, of the
prairie hen and other good things went far to prove that even backwoods
life was not without its comforts. [Footnote: The author has often heard
his mother say that the most enjoyable period of her life was in a
pioneer home similar to the above.]
In a few months, the retired cabin, once so solitary, became the nucleus
of a little settlement. Other sections and quarter sections of land were
entered at the land office by new corners. New portions of ground were
cleared, cabins were erected; and in a short time the settlement could
turn out a dozen efficient hands for house raising or log rolling. A saw
mill soon after was erected at the falls of the creek; the log huts
received a poplar weather boarding, and, as the little settlement
increased, other improvements appeared; a mail line was established, and
before many years elapsed, a fine road was completed to the nearest
town, and a stage coach, which ran once, then twice a week, connected
the settlement with the populous country to the east of it.
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