Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1911-04-08

eight to ten miles distant from your nearest
ncighbor. If you should choose to SETTLE
among a group Of steep upand-downs, quite
moved from wagon road little nearer to
trail, and yet a greater and laborious overland
distance from a sawmill, it is obvious that you
Will have to depend, to a great degree, upon your
own resources and upon your ability to create
with Your own hands from those things which
nature has provided in well-wooded country.
Imagine yourself placed in of these val
leys or upon one of these foothills with great
er amount of baggage, tools and provisions than
could be conveyed over country Of this char
acter with yoke Of oxen. Then to be
manded, Here is the forest and all it contains;
go, prepare for yourself your future abode"
This is a story of home making under such
conditions. The progress of the work is illus
trated and in its completion other than the
raw materials of the forest entered into the struc
ture or its furnishings save a small amount Of
hardware and incidentals forming portion OF the
initial supplies brought in as settlers outfit.
Two young men, homeseaders both city bred,
completed the entire work, unasssted
OF the tools used the doube-bitted ak per
formed the greater portion of the heavy work IL
followed in the wake of the cross-cut saw after
the Telling of the trees, and, from then on was
the chief implement Of construction With II
every duty of preparing the logs for raising them
into their positions in the building most ade-
quately performed. First it scored the logs
lengthwise, on two opposite sides, ready for wedg
Inc and splitting into semicrcular halves. Then
~ followed as the tool for hcwing the fiat sur
faces Of the haf-ogs which, completed, formed
the smooth inside walls Of the dwelling. After
eacl leg had been raised into position came the
task Of "notching down." which required even
mcEo skill in the use of Those few of the
native inhabitants Of the forest who are most pro-
hcieut in making the dovetaed notches which
arc necessary in completing a perfect set OF
fnterocking timbers are known as corner men"
AT native house raising the ones chosen for the
work are usually skilled woodsmen residing in
widely separated settlements among the hills.
How we'll this part Of the work was done by two
yourC mon totally unaccustomed to pioneer life
is better illustrated in the series of photographs
WHICH shows each sucCessiveopera of preparing
the cSs and raising The framework of the structure
In soirg Oh TO the flooring, shngling. window
framing, partitioninE, finishing and furnishing
you would know how it was all accomplished in
the absence OF the products OF saw and plan
ing mill or any of the manufactures so essential
20 building constructors and home making
Five very common tools constituted the board
making outfit This primitive substitute for
Favriil included ak; two three steel
wedges and many hand made, OF hickory;
frov. with hickory handle the blade made Of
ser.ian Of iron tire; mallCt and maui, each
CT rom uuseasoned hickory timber.
he selection cf perfect board trees is
CUCs work to a degree, IS practiced b. the M
tivcs. Out Of every four trees chosen By tho
woOGsman's system Of identifying marks, usually
only one is perfectly adaptable TO board making
by tho method of splitting with mallet and frov.
The most reliable way 10 select The right kind
OF timber is to observe the general trend of the
crevices in the bark The course Of these lines
should be nearly perpendicular with the trunk.
Another good method OF judging straight
grained trunk Is TO note the distribution and the
general design OF the scaly, turtle-shell patches