Self-Guided Tour of Lincoln-era Log Cabin Village - Created: 04/20/2020 -3-

1850 Clat Adams Cabin (Log Cabin Store) - Pioneers would come to a village to sell or trade what they grew or hunted and buy the supplies they needed. It was here where they would get their mail, hear the latest news, exchange stories, and play cards or checkers. Items they would have purchased were lanterns, wood or metal tools, a wash tub, a scrubbing board to clean their clothes, etc. Basically, anything they couldn't bring with them, that they needed to work the soil, hunt with, fish with etc.

1835 D.D. Hull Cabin - This one room cabin was built near Plainville, IL, on a farm, by David Denton Hull for his wife Suzanne and their 13 children. The fireplace was brought and re-built with this cabin.
Food was cooked in the fireplace in the winter, plus it was used to keep the cabin warm. But, in the Fall, Spring and Summer they would have cooked outside. They used iron pots and pans that could stand the heat. Pioneers grew, raised and hunted their own food. They would grow potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbage, and other vegetables. They would hunt for wild game and raise chickens for eggs, cows for milk, and sheep for wool to make clothes. Pioneer families had many kids. They needed a lot of kids to help with the work and unfortunately, some kids did not make it, because of a lack of good health care and the harsh life they led. Most Log Cabins had only one room, which was for eating, cooking, living, and sleeping. Usually, the kids slept in a loft area above the main living area.

Herb Garden - The village Herb Garden, is located between the Clat Adams Store and the Hull Log Cabin. It is surrounded by a "waddle" fence, to keep the "critters" (wild and tame animals) out. A "waddle" fence is made by cutting green saplings (small trees) and weaving them around posts dug into the ground. When the saplings dry, they make a rigid fence. Early settlers grew herbs, aromatic plants with leaves, seeds, or flowers that were used for flavoring food in cooking, as a medicine, or as a perfume. Some of the herbs they used, are growing here. They're labeled so you can see what they look like. It is interesting to read what herbs were grown and what they were used for in Pioneer times before the modern medicines we have today. Some of the medicines of today, came from a lot of these Herbs.

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                                                           2nd Saturday in September Frontier Settlement Day Event