Typical Tasks for Homesteading Sherburne County
Recent research at the Sherburne History Center disclosed a copy of memoirs, describing the work of early settlement on farmland in the county. Written by Vernon Bailey, it provides interesting insight in the multitude of tasks needed to ready a farmstead for occupation. Between other work during the winter, Father and Charles cut and hewed the logs and timber for the new house, hauled them together in the snow. When spring came, the foundations of the house were laid, the walls were rapidly built up of great logs, fitted tight together and hewed smooth on the inner surface. The roof was framed of dry tamarack rafters, wide roof boards, and good pine shingles. A cellar for vegetables was dug under the house after the roof was on but later an outside bank cellar was constructed in the side hill at one corner of the house where milk and meat and vegetables and fruit could be kept cool in the summer and from freezing in winter. When the house neare...