Soddy, Sweet Soddy

Covered in thick tall grass, the flat treeless prairie stretched out before them. It waved in the wind like an ocean of grass under a vast blue sky. In the 1800s, American pioneers, many of them new immigrants, moved west toward the promise of free farmland. 

Homesteaders sought land near a stream or creek and a small hill to serve as a windbreak. By law, homesteaders were required to farm the land for five years and build a home before filing a claim for ownership. Lacking timber, they could not build traditional frontier log cabins. Sod was the cheapest and most plentiful building material available. 

Known as "sod busters," new homesteaders used teams of mules, oxen, and horses to pull special plows that could cut through the tough, deep roots of prairie grasses. They sliced out large patches of sod - the grass, roots and soil - which was jokingly referred to as "Nebraska marble." They laid the sod root-side-up and stacked it like bricks to build strong walls. Roofs were made of cedar poles, layers of bundled brush, mud, grass, and sod. Only door and window frames were made of precious hardwood. 

Thick walls protected homesteaders from fire and weather extremes - soaring heat, driving rain, tornados, wind, frigid cold, and blizzards. But sod homes were damp; rainwater dripped from the ceiling. Thick muslin sheets were hung up to keep dirt from falling from above. Sometimes canvas or plaster was used to line the interior walls. Dirt was everywhere!









- - - - - - - - - -
© Don Johnston Incorporated
For use with Protocol in Accommodations for Reading (PAR) by DeCoste & Wilson
donjohnston.com/par