Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1873-10-16
Yours respectfully,
A. McCLKLLANp.
Sod Houses. Nebraska Brown Fronts.
BY PROF. J. d. BUTLER.

LINCOLN, NEBRASKA.
The last United States census of Ne
braska farms showed one acre of wood
land for every three under tillage.
Nevertheless large portion of that
State is timberless. South of the Platte
river lumber for buildings is chiefly OBJ
tanned from Chicago or the Mississippi
river, via the railroad running west
ward from Burlington. But such lum-
Der is expensive, one-third more so than
in New England, and many pioneer
has no money, or next to none. How
then can poor man obtain a house !?
He can build sod house himself, in
curing no expense whatever except for
a door and window, which he can buy
ready made for 81 at any railroad sta
tion.
The sod-house builder finds his mate
rial ready to his hand, in every furrow
of the virgin prairie his plow turns up
The sods, cOmpacted by the tramp of
buffaloes and bound together by the
roots of the "devil's shoe-string" and
every other vegetable product, form
better bricks than the Hebrews could
have furnished Pharaoh even before he
denied them straw. Out of this prairie
quarry about nine days labor of one
man suffices to complete a sod house
fifteen feet square on the inside--a
dwelling warmer in winter and cooler
in summer than any frame house. /
have seen such an abode nine years old,
yet still in good repair. Many dwellers
in houses of this sort have assured me
that they have suffered nothing from
dampness, even when they had no floors,
no ceilings, no plastering nor paper
hanging. But all these four additions
soon garnish the original simplicity of
many sod-houses.
The very roofs of sod-houses are Of
ten made of soda supported by poles,
which the settler can cut along the
banks of every water course. But ifhe
lives near no stream he must buy at
least rafters, and perhaps boards and
shingles for covering his house top
Sod roofs are warmer, lumber roofs are
less likely to leak. This novel style of
architecture is increasingly popular and
prevalent in Central Nebraska. A ma
jority of the dwellings on the home
steads in Saline and York counties,
along the BurlingtoE and Missouri riv-
er railroad as it pushes west from Lin
coin, are sod-houses. No doubt those
in other counties are SO too. So are the
habitations of many among the 4, 200
buyers of railroad land Of the Burling-
ton and Missouri River Railroad Com
pany.
In weeks ride just now through the
sod-house region-while calling at
many doors and entering not few-I
have found no man, no woman, no
child, homesick for the land they came
from. On the other hand, all were full
of heart and hope-assured that by be-
coming landlords they were about to
become the lords of the land. As the
Homestead Bill gives them farms, so
the sods gives them free houses; and
they are doubtful which is the better
boon.
i The railroad lands above mentioned
have been bought on ten years credit,
six per cent. interest, and on purchases
made since 1872, nothing of the princi-
pal is payable until the end of four
years, while twenty per cent. is thrown
of from land prices for prompt pay
ment.