Quizzes	Vocabulary	Children from the 1870's	Laura Ingalls Wilder	Learn about her houses
Why did Laura write her books	Learn about survival in the 1870's	Our Pioneer Families	More Laura Ingalls Sites	Bibliography

    Surviving in the 1870's took a family working together to build a home, maintain, feed, and clothe themselves. It took work from the family each day, not just going to the store. Typically men, women, and children worked on the farm and household tasks from dawn until dusk.

    The pioneers would first buy their home site. They need to pick a nice place for a home but, good farming land. The pioneers would quickly begin clearing the land after they had purchased it. There were no machines to clear the land, it all had to be done by hand. Family and neighbors all pitched in to help clear off all the rocks and chopped brush.

    A log cabin was a typical frontier home. The men and boys cut the trees into logs together to form a cabin. There was always a fire place at one end of the cabin. The hearth was made of stones it was usually the families favorite place. The fire was used for cooking, light, and warmth.

    It was daily work to maintain and furnish the home. They made most of their furniture from trees. They made their mattresses and filled them with grass, leaves or feathers. Most of the household utensils were whittled from tree limbs. They made their own soap from boiling animal fat and ashes.

    The family also had to be fed which was not easy. The basic foods of the pioneers was corn and meat. The family ate corn in some form almost every meal. Corn was their chief crop because it kept well any season.

    Most pioneers raised cattle, hogs, sheep, and chickens for their meat. They also hunted wild game. They had to prepare the meat for later use. In Little House in the Big woods Pa hunted deer, rabbits, and bears. Then he had to skin and gut the meat while Ma preserved it. They had no refrigeration, but they knew how to keep the meat from spoiling. Some of the meat they dried in the sun, smoked over the fire, they salted or soaked it in salt water.

    The women raised the vegetables and herbs. They would cook the vegetables up in hearty meals. Milk was the meal time drink provided by the family cow. The milk was easy to get at home. It was to hard to get tea or coffee at the store because the town was to far away and it cost to much money.

    Clothing was the hardest thing to provide. The materials were expensive. It was time consuming to spin and weave the cloth. There was more time involved to make the cloth into clothes. Most people only had three or four outfits to wear while they worked and one for church.