Bieuim Building Construction, Types of Buildings, Fences and Fencing Practices, Field Forms and Agricultural Practices, and Other Aspects of Settlements

Home , Log house

guideline VOL. 3 No. 4 JULY/AUG 1973 ing from the westward movement out of estab lished seaboard nuclei, roughly between 1790 and 1850, or between the opening of the trans-Appa lachian West and the invasion of the grasslands. We propose to consider, in order, methods of BieuiM building construction, types of buildings, fences and fencing practices, field forms and agricultural practices, and other aspects of settlements. In treating methods of construction no initial time limit can be set, for their antecedents reach back at least to the European Neolithic. The procedure consists in the synthesizing of published materials with the results of extensive field observation. All too frequently there are no ready-made generic groupings. Every effort has been made to discover and adapt existing con cepts and terms, and to reconcile conflicting usages. Definitions and nomenclature are pro posed where they are nonexistent. A strong emphasis on folk practices will be evident throughout. This is because they better A TIME-PLACE PERSPECTIVE serve the ultimate purposes of the undertaking to find origins and to trace diffusions and changes. Folkways are comparatively the simplest and most FRED KNIFFEN AND HENRY GLASSIE direct expression of fundamental needs and urges. They conform to type with a minimum of individual F THE geography of settlement is ever to deviation, and thus attest to the innate conserva reach its full potential as the interpretable tism of their practitioners. They are often areally, record of the historical events and cultural even when not numerically, dominant. Further, folk processes imprinted on the land, the components practices with respect to material things have of settlements of all kinds must be systematically been badly neglected in comparison with, say, reduced to types and quantities before they are set traditional music and tales. Architects, for exam against the revealing vagaries of reality. ple, have largely disregarded the simpler folk It is the purpose of this study to examine a basic methods and forms of construction in favor of aspect of settlements—the methods of construc more sophisticated methods and more pretentious ting buildings. In the timber-rich eastern United structures. Finally, the new attack on rural poverty States other materials in common use in Europe will surely accelerate the destruction of unchroni- declined in importance as the frontier moved cled folk structures and practices to the point westward. New Englanders never built extensively where their record is beyond recovery. in anything but wood, and the stone construction Fully aware of the inability of two persons to of eastern Pennsylvania and the brick of Tidewa familiarize themselves with all the details of build ter, Virginia disappeared rapidly away from these 1 ing in wood, we proffer an open invitation to nuclear areas. correct and extend the observations and conclu European America has known three general sions of this presentation. methods of building in wood: with framed walls; with walls of closely set vertical timbers; and with walls of horizontal timbers. Framing, typologically ANTECEDENTS OF AMERICAN CONSTRUCTION IN WOOD the youngest, begins with a skeletal structure of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal squared timbers, It seems safe to assert that no significant which is then covered in one of several ways. In method of wood construction employed in America this study framing is given less emphasis because before 1850 was developed here. Techniques were it is already amply and expertly documented. It is modified, and even perverted, but their European the older building with timbers or logs, round or ancestry is certain. Seventeenth-century Europe faced, vertical or horizontal, about which there is a provided half-timbering;2 weatherboarding over lack of accurate information and little agreement heavy frame; vertical log, paling, and plank con on concept and nomenclature, and it is here that struction; and horizontal logs, planks, and timbers this study aspires to make its major contribution. with various corner joinings. The wattle-daub and However, with respect to areal distribution framing thatched huts, and even the more primitive "wig is of course of equal or even greater concern. wams" of branches, rushes, and turf that appeared This article is the first part of an undertaking to early in Massachusetts had their counterparts in describe and interpret the first settlements result- contemporary England. •'

41 guideline A PUBLICATION OF THE PARK PRACTICE PROGRAM FRAME CONSTRUCTION HALF-TIMBERING

NATIONAL RECREATION AND PARK ASSOCIATION Framing is so old in Europe that it became the Half-timbering—a heavy framing of squared dominant method of building in the English sea timbers with a filling, or nogging, between them— Willard Brown, Chairman, Board of Trustees board settlements. It is typologically more adv was part of the cultural heritage of most Europe Dwighl F. Rettie, Executive Director Ann Blackson, Circulation Manager anced than the vertical construction from which it ans in America at the time of the Revolution. is derived. The frames were built of very heavy Half-timbering was practiced in Britain, France, NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON STATE PARKS timbers (Fig. 1), with a safety factor far in excess and Germany, and northward into southern Swe den, to mention only the important source areas. Lemuel A, Garrison, President John S. Blair, Executive Secretarv The nogging was sometimes brick (Fig. 3), some times clay clinging to rods, or "cats," set vertically UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR or horizontally between the timbers (Fig. 4). Occa NATIONAL PARK SERVICE sionally the filling was stone, or plastered wattle or Rogers C. B. Morton, Secretarv lath. This skeletal construction eliminated the Ronald H. Walker. Director need for a large amount of lumber, presumably a Jean C. Henderer, Chief, Div. of State & Private Liaison reason for its wide use in Europe. Pat Conner, Managing Editor Glenn O. Snyder, Art Editor

FIG. I—Heavy framing, Indiana. (Photograph by L. Jones, courtesy Li brary of Congress.)

of any possible demand. This is a major reason why so many of the older houses have survived. It was not until about 1830 that so-called balloon DR. FRED B. KNIFFEN is presently Boyd Professor framing was devised, using much smaller and Emeritus at Louisiana State University, and lighter timbers set closely together (Fig. 2). Bal FIG. 3—Brick nogging in heavy frame, New Orleans. loon framing for dwellings began to be important DR. HENRY GLASSIE is Associate Professor, Folk only after 1850; barns continued to be heavily lore Institute, Indiana University. framed well into the twentieth century. Both authors have been involved in researching and writing many articles, reviews, and books on the sub ject of folk culture.

This article entitled "Building in Wood in the Eastern United States" is reprinted here by permission from the Geographical Review, Vol. 56, 1966, copyrighted by the American Geographical Society of New York.

FIG. 4—Clay cats in heavy frame, Louisiana. (Photograph courtesy W. Knipmeyer.) Half-timbering was common in the early sea board settlements, but the timbers were frequently covered with siding, a not unexpected conse quence of an abundance of cheap wood, just as FIG. 2—Balloon framing, Louisiana. the Old World thatch roof gave way to wooden To the extent, then, that wood was used in the shingles. Eventually the use of nogging was dis English and Dutch seaboard colonies framing was continued (but not, as has sometimes been sug almost the sole method of construction. Except in gested, exclusively because of the low lime con the upland South and its culturally dominated tent of American clays). This stage of construction The opinions expressed in GUIDELINE are those of the authors periphery, frame construction was transmitted al evolution was practiced by early New England and not necessarily those of this publication, the Park Practice westward and became the near-universal form, settlers who came from heavily wooded southeast 4 Program, its sponsoring and cooperating organizations, agencies or quickly replacing the pioneer log house. The ern England, the one area where heavy framing the officers thereof. Contributions to GUIDELINE are invited. Illus significant changes were from heavy to balloon was clapboarded without the use of nogging. trative materials and a brief biographical sketch of the author should framing and, much earlier, from half-timbering to Although surviving examples of half-timbering accompany text intended for publication. Send all material to: an almost exclusive sheathing and weatherboard- are fairly common in the easternmost states, Editor, GUIDELINE, Division of State and Private Assistance, Na ing. notably in Virginia and in German areas of Penn- tional Park Service, Washington, D.C. 20240.

43 42 sylvania, the method was not carried westward to tion seems to have originated in the Near East in any great extent. However, nineteenth-century the Neolithic and to have spread across Europe as tices, about as wide as the diameter of a post, In the attempt to account for the prevalence of German immigrants from Europe introduced half- a major element in the Neolithic complex. By the were filled with clay and grass or with stones and vertical construction among the French in America late Neolithic it was a dominant form of construc mortar, sometimes plastered over or even covered it has been suggested that it was inspired by timbering in Ohio (Fig. 5), Wisconsin, Missouri, 17 and Texas, and perhaps elsewhere,5 and the tion in all of Europe except the far north, the with planks. Peterson distinguishes poteaux as Indian vertical post stockades or palisades and French in the Mississippi Valley (Fig. 6) have western Mediterranean, and the Atlantic area of squared above ground, pieux as round posts. Here buildings or was borrowed from the Gulf Coast continued the practice virtually to the present.6 England, in the last two of which stone was of again usage has varied with time and place. Spaniards. Neither suggestion seems tenable in A variant, one might say an improvement, is the view of the fact that the earliest form of construc Vestiges of half-timbering are occasionally seen in greater importance. Initially, the posts were driven 22 brick nogging within the light balloon framing of into the ground a foot or so apart, and the spaces placement of the vertical members sur sole (on a tion in French Canada was poteaux en terre, which was introduced into Louisiana by the Cana the latter nineteenth century (Fig. 7). between them were woven in wattle or filled with sill) rather than en terre; from pictures, the old 211 clay and straw. During the late Neolithic, in the courthouse at Cahokia, Illinois, appears to be a dian Iberville. Moreover, since conslusive evi area of Jutland, the posts were set without inters surviving example (Fig. 8). The old term surely was dence indicates that vertical post construction of tices for added warmth, perhaps through influence palisades and buildings reaches back to the from the palisades known throughout Europe. This European Neolithic, it would seem unnecessary to type of close-set vertical timber construction seek further for explanation of its American incid spread slowly; it did not reach Russia until the ence. It is in keeping with the evidence to assume third century before Christ, and England until for the present that a method of construction Anglo-Saxon time.7 which was very old and largely vestigial in western Vertical construction survives in an old Saxon Europe experienced a brief rejuvenation in tim church in Essex8, composed of vertical half logs ber-rich colonial America. between sill and plate, tongued and grooved on adjoining edges to produce a tight fit. Numerous examples of vertical construction have been noted HORIZONTAL LOGS, TIMBERS, AND PLANKS in France, especially in Normandy.9 Construction Fig. 9—Virtical plank construction. Fig. 10— Poteaux construction. Construction in which the individual members using vertical logs and timbers is cited for early 10 are placed horizontally, close together, and one FIG. 5—German half-timbering, Ohio. New England, and the medieval "puncheoning" poteaux sur sole, employed concurrently with 11 above the other has been used nearly everywhere —wattle-daub on upright posts—for Virginia. poteau en terrei8 and colombage,^ a term used at in the New World. It appeared most widely in the The use of vertical oak planking (Fig. 9) to provide least on the upper Mississippi and in Canada to upland South, only slightly less so in the timber structural support in place of studding, which designate half-timbering. The two poteaux terms, houses of French Canada. Every form of horizontal extended into the nineteenth century, has been then, referred to closely set, unbraced vertical construction employed in America has ample traced from England.12 Vertical board-and-batten timbers, colombage to more widely spaced, nor European precedent, and again it is unnecessary construction has been postulated for Spanish mally braced, vertical, squared timbers, the 11 to invoke either local borrowing from the Indians Florida, and Spanish records show that settlers spaces between filled with various materials. At or independent invention. in St. Augustine built houses "palisado" style least two writers20 have used poteaux sur sole to before 1597.14 Another example of vertical log The fundamental distinction is the manner in designate horizontal construction, which is surely which the horizontal members are joined at the construction is a twentieth-century Scandinavian a perversion, even if it is popular modern usage. barn in Wisconsin.15 corners. The variety of techniques employed is In French America, only among the Mississippi considerable. A basic difference distinguishes two and Great Lakes settlements did vertical construc all-inclusive groups—the utilization or nonutiliza- tion long remain popular. In Canada it gave way tion of corner posts or supports to which the FIG. 6—Half-timbering and clay nogging, Louisiana. (Photograph cour generally to horizontal timber construction or 21 horizontal timbers are attached. To the second tesy W. Knipmeyer.) stone, and Dumont records the change to brick group belongs the method commonly used in or half-brick and half-wood (half-timber) struc American log houses, in which the timbers are so tures in New Orleans in the early eighteenth notched at the ends that they become immovable century. In rural Louisiana poteaux en terre pers when locked to the timbers above and below. In isted well into the nineteenth century. To this day some marginal areas, however, the original and pieux en terre remains faintly alive in Louisiana in effective type of corner-timbering has deteriorated the form of a tight paling yard fence (Fig. 11), to the point where the timbers no longer lock and barriere en pieux debouts, in the original form of must be secured by some other means. which cypress palings are driven into the ground. All horizontal construction may be descriptively classed as having either even tiers or alternating FIG. 8—Poteaux sur sole construction, Cahokia Courthouse. (Photograph tiers (Fig. 12). In the first group the timbers of the by A. J. Delong, courtesy Library of Congress.) corresponding tiers of the four walls lie even with But it was the French in America who employed one another; in the second the timbers in one wall vertical construction most extensively, poteaux en lie half a thickness above or below those of the terre (Fig. 10) or pieux en terre (a variant term is corresponding tiers in the adjoining walls. This FIG. 7—Brick nogging in balloon framing, New Orleans. pieces en terre) was the earliest method used latter relative position is inherent in all "true" corner timbering. VERTICAL POSTS, PLANKS, AND TIMBERS throughout the great arc of French colonial settle ment extending from Acadia westward to the Great There are several methods of providing corner Building with closely set vertical members is so Lakes and southward to the lower Mississippi support for even-tiered horizontal timbers. One 16 widespread, and so varied in detail, as to suggest Valley. Poteaux en terre consisted of close-set consists of a vertical post with continuous grooves that any common origin must lie in a remote vertical posts tamped into a trench, pieux en terre from top to bottom, into which the tapered ends of European concept. Indeed, vertical post construc of sharp stakes driven into the ground; the inters- the horizontal logs are dropped. In another the FiC. 11—Beirriirt en pieux debouts, Louisiana. vertical post is mortised to receive the tenoned

44 45 (Photograph by C. E. Peterson, courtesy Library of Congress.) ends of the horizontal pieces. A third utilizes four examples might suggest by their nature and loca posts driven irrto the ground at each corner tion a stimulus diffusion from the areas of true ("Canuck" style), so arranged that the horizontal corner-timbering to the south, false corner-timber timbers are held in place (Fig. 13). A possibly ing is more likely to have originated as a product related form is a "hog trough" of heavy planks, the of English carpentry than as an indirect inspiration apex set into the corner, the wings abutting the from Swedish settlers. From New England false ends of the horizontal logs, to which they are corner-timbering spread through upstate New spiked or pegged (Fig. 14). York and as far west as Michigan, but it never attained any great areal or numerical importance. In the eastern United States six methods of producing a truly corner-timbered joint are em ployed: saddle notching, V notching, diamond FIG. 15—Piece sur piece construction, Brown's Valley, Minnesota. notching, full dovetailing, half dovetailing, and square notching.22 In all but the last each log is Horizontal construction with corner posts has locked into the ones above and below it, and the generously invaded the areas of the United States necessity of nailing or pegging is eliminated. peripheral to Canada—New England, New York, the Upper Lakes region, and the northern Great Plains states.'10 It occurs also in areas as remote from Canada as Pennsylvania, Virginia (Fig. 16), and Tennessee, in these last surely a direct importation from Europe by Germans. Also non- French in origin, and hence evidence of the once-widespread European practice, are timbers tenoned into corner posts, found in seventeenth- century garrison houses of the New England FIG. 20—V notches. 21 FIG. 13 —Methods of corner-post frontier. There are rather frequent later refer construction. (After Hale [see text ences to this method of construction for northern FIG. 151—Saddle notches. footnote 2ol, New England. FIG. 18—Erixon's terminology [see text footnote 25] for log ends of corner-joints. 1, crown; 2, head; 3, top notch; 4, bottom notch; 5, lower FIG. 12 (upper left)—Even tiers (above) and alternating tiers (below). necking; 6, upper necking; 7, long groove; 8, the back of the log; 9, butt FIG. 14 (lower left)—Hog-trough corner construction. end. Saddle notching is the simplest method and is The support of horizontal timbers by corner usually used on logs left in the round. For the posts is an old form of construction in Europe. It corner to be tight the logs must extend somewhat was apparently carried across much of the conti beyond the plane of the wall, and the application nent from Silesia by the Lausitz urnfield culture in 24 of siding is difficult. Although in modern rustic the late Bronze Age. Examples persist in south 25 cabins and in frontier structures the end of the log ern Sweden, in the Alps, and probably else may extend a foot or more beyond the plane of the where. In French America horizontal timber con wall, in traditional American practice the end struction came early but was later than poteaux en 26 rarely extends more than a few inches. There are terre to be widely practiced. Piece sur piece, as 27 three forms of saddle notching: double notching, the method is commonly called, was used, at in which the notches are on both sides of the log; least sparingly, throughout French America. Al and single notching, in which the notch may be though it has been impossible to localize the either on the top or on the bottom (Fig. 19). European source of piece sur piece construction as carried by the French to America, its ancient The V notch seems to have developed directly appearance in Europe and its present-day survival FIG. 16—Corner-post construction FIG. 17—False corner-timbering. from the saddle notch on the bottom of the log northern Valley of Virginia. A, lap or rebated joint; B, tongue there militate against an independent New.World only. Instead of being rounded, the notch is cut FIG. 21—Diamond notch origin. and groove; C, butt joint. sharply in a V, into which the chamfered head of the lower log fits (Fig. 20). If the log is left in the Piece sur piece was the prevailing method of TYPES OF CORNER—TIMBERING round the crown is pear-shaped; if the log is hewn wood construction in early French Canada. The the crown is shaped like the gable end of a house FIG. 22—Full-dovetail notches. old Hudson's Bay Company buildings and remote There are several methods without corner posts, —indeed, it is often referred to as "roof topping." police posts are overwhelmingly of this type. The all of European origin, in which horizontal timbers In V notching the ends of the log are cut off flush; some Scandinavian types, seems to have been American practice of notching the ends of the logs are notched and fitted in alternating tiers in a 24 the square or box corner thus produced permits developed from V notching. has invaded Canada, in some parts fairly recently,28 manner to lock them continuously from bottom to the addition of board siding or, rarely, brick Full dovetailing is the most complicated of the but it has by no means displaced the older top. In what might be termed "false" corner-tim veneer. methods commonly used in American corner-tim method, which is still very much alive. One of the bering the tiers are even and the interlocking, if bering, and the most difficult to execute. It effec merits of the Canadian method is that construction present, is restricted to one tier (Fig. 17). False In the diamond notch (Fig. 21) both the top and tively locks the logs in both directions, produces a with corner (and intermediate) posts, unlike the corner-timbering had appeared in the New Eng the bottom of the end of the log are chamfered to box corner, slopes downward on every face (so American corner-timbering, permits the utilization land garrison houses by the middle of the seven produce a diamond-shaped crown. Diamond 12 that water drains out), and is employed both on of short logs and at the same time puts no teenth century, not long after the arrival of the notching, which bears a superficial and probably 29 hewn and, though rarely, on round logs (Fig. 22). restrictions on the size of the building (Fig. 15). log-using Swedes on the Delaware. Although later accidental similarity in the shape of the crown to

47 46 The dovetail is familiar to every joiner of timber, No other method of corner-timbering has signifi yet many who could apply it in framing a house did cant distribution in the eastern United States, but not use it when corner-timbering logs. For exam odd methods are occasionally encountered, espe ple, in New England dovetailing was used in the cially in the areas settled relatively recently by early garrison houses55 but was seldom, if ever, Scandinavians and Finns. One such is the double- 57 used in the log construction of ordinary houses. notch joint (Fig. 26), named by Erixon as the form Elsewhere, in areas of log construction, dovetail most commonly used in Sweden. In the United ing was applied to all kinds of buildings. States it is encountered commonly in the Upper Lakes states—and in Hollywood movie sets rang ing in locale from Wounded Knee, South Dakota, to Charleston, South Carolina. A popular brand of toy logs is of this type. In both the movies and the toys the use is an unfortunate and unnecessary violation of the verities of time and place. The double-notch joint seems to have been widely distributed in Europe at one time; outside Fennoscandia surviving examples are known in the Spreewald, near Berlin, in Poland, in Switzer land, and in southwestern France. Its more recent FIG. 23—Half-dovetail notches. popularity in northern Europe was apparently not In half dovetailing, also known to all woodwork matched in the source areas, for it did not have an ers, the head of the notch slopes upward but the effective early introduction into America. bottom is flat (Fig. 23). It is, in effect, half of a V notch, yet it seems to have been developed from a full dovetail. The top angle of a full-dovetail notch is more acute than the bottom angle, and the bottom angle was easily straightened to produce the half dovetail, which is no less effective than the full dovetail but much easier to make. The square notch is simple, and familiar as a tenon to a woodworker (Fig. 24). It lacks the structure to lock the logs, a deficiency sometimes remedied by drilling and pegging through two FIG. 27—Diffusion of building methods from seaboard nuclei, FIG. 28—Distribution and dominance of methods of horizontal log square or more. The square notch degenerated in and areas of predominantly log and frame construction as of construction. Based on approximately one thousand individual different areas from both the V notch and the half 1850. Routes are diagrammatic. Variation in width of streams examples. Differences in weight of terms are indicative of relative dovetail. The two forms are distinguishable by the suggests strength of diffusion. importance. shape of the log: the V notch and its derivative FIG. 26—Double-notch joint. construction of the type which they had known in square notch are found on logs square or rectan United States. The log work of Scandinavia was similar to that found throughout Europe in the Europe, and which may still be found there, gular in section (that is, about eight by twelve 45 Bronze Age: the log were generally left in the particularly in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. inches); the half dovetail and its derivative square DISTRIBUTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF CORNER-TIMBER round; the notches were on the top or both sides of The previously stone- or mud-using Scotch-Irish notch are usually found on planked logs (that is, ING the log about a foot from the end, producing a quickly adopted Pennsylvania German log con logs hewn to some six inches in thickness and characteristic overhang; and each log was struction, primarily because of its practicality in about fourteen to thirty-six inches in width). Horizontal log construction employing true cor grooved along the entire length of its bottom to fit timber-rich America. Pennsylvania German log What is probably a variant of the square notch is ner-timbering originated in the Mesolithic with the 58 tightly with the log below it. Although log houses work, and subsequent American log work, were Maglemosian culture, which was centered in the half notch (Fig. 25). It is only occasionally used were certainly built in New Sweden, references to characterized by logs notched near the end, a Denmark, southern Sweden, and northern Ger exclusively but frequently appears with the square them are strangely few. The first mention of log method that eliminated the overhang and pro many. By the Bronze Age horizontal logs had notch as a means of adjusting the position of a houses outside New Sweden is in 1669 for Mary duced a box corner. Spaces between the logs 56 replaced vertical posts as the commonest method particular timber. land, in 1680 for North Carolina,41 but there is no were filled—"chinked"—with clay, stones, poles, of construction from France to Russia and from 59 evidence that the houses were truly corner-tim or shingles. The logs were usually squared, split Norway to Czechoslovakia. Prehistoric horizontal bered, or that they were inspired by Swedish and faced, or planked. Logs were hewn for a log construction was universally characterized by sources. The Swedes had little contact with their variety of reasons. A large log could be handled round logs notched on the top or on both sides, a English neighbors, and their log work did not more easily when reduced in size; and a large foot or more from the end of the log. spread beyond New Sweden; in fact, they soon round log took up interior space and produced an Horizontal log construction was not part of the abandoned it for stone and brick.42 Even their irregular wall that was hard to utilize. Primarily, cultural equipment of the Dutch, English, or however, hewn logs were thought to produce a 40 normally conservative religious architecture was French emigrants to the New World, since it had English or American rather than Swedish.45 tighter building, more finished in appearance. receded during the early medieval period into the wooded mountainous sections of an area bounded Beginning in the late seventeenth century, and In the German areas of southeastern Pennsyl reaching a peak in the early eighteenth, great vania three forms of corner-timbering are found: on the west by an arc reaching from Scandinavia 44 through Germany into the Alps, and possibly into numbers of Scotch-Irish and Germans arrived in saddle notching, V notching, and full dovetailing. the Pyrenees. The Swedes who settled on the Pennsylvania and settled just west of the English. In the saddle notching, in contrast with that of Delaware in 1638 were the first to employ horizon The Pennsylvania Germans used horizontal log prehistoric Germany and modern Scandinavia, the FIG. 24—Square notch. FIG. 25—Half notch. tal log construction in what is now the eastern

49 48 notch is usually only on the bottom of the log, and the Valley of Virginia bordering the Blue Ridge Saddle notching, V notching, square notching, to environment, nor was it a Scandinavian intro as close to the end as possible. Saddle notching and the other down the Allegheny Front, met in and half dovetailing, the last strongly predominant, duction; rather, it was introduced by the Pennsyl was used primarily for barns and other outbuild southwestern Virginia, northwestern North Caroli were carried through the Tennessee Valley, and vania Germans and carried by them and by the ings, and for temporary structures, which were na, and northeastern Tennessee, and here saddle thence southeast into Georgia, south into Ala Scotch-Irish in all directions from southeastern less carefully constructed than houses. Pennsyl notching, V notching, and half dovetailing all bama, southwest into Mississippi and Louisiana, Pennsylvania (figs. 27 and 28). vania German houses and the better-built barns commonly appear, even on the same building. In and west into Arkansas and Missouri. Although the For completeness, "stovewood" construction, and outbuildings were either V-notched or, less this southern Appalachian region, corresponding log work of the mountainous areas of Arkansas found most abundantly in Wisconsin but also in often, full-dovetailed. roughly to the early settlement areas of Watauga and Missouri is comparable in quality with that of Michigan and Quebec,46 should be mentioned. In The Pennsylvania German forms of corner-tim Holston, and Nolichucky, half dovetailing came to the Tennessee Valley, in the Deep South the some half-timber structures stovewood-length logs bering were carried from southeastern Pennsyl prevail on houses and on carefully made barns quality declined with distance. Here, where hori form the nogging. In others they are laid horizon vania in all directions by the Germans and the and outbuildings, and saddle notching—usually zontal log construction is still very much alive, tally in lime mortar to form unbraced walls (Fig. Scotch-Irish (Fig. 27). The earliest movement, with the notch only on the bottom, occasionally saddle notching is strongly dominant on barns and 30). Barns, sheds, two-story buildings, and lumber beginning about 1732, led into central Maryland with the notch only on the top—became dominant outbuildings, and square notching and half dove men's shanties with stovewood construction have and the Valley of Virginia. All three corner-timber on temporary cabins, or "pole shacks," and on tailing are frequently encountered on older hous all been observed. ing forms may be found in the northern Shenan less carefully made barns and outbuildings. How es. In some southern areas where the pines were doah Valley, but during the movement east into the ever, V notching was still used, rarely on houses so small that they could not be used if hewn, the SUMMARY Blue Ridge and south through the Valley of but frequently on barns. In the southwestern logs were split, and the half-round section was Virginia V notching came to predominate (Fig. 28) Appalachian region half dovetailing degenerated used with the flat side facing inward. Half-round In the American westward expansion between to the virtual exclusion of the other forms. Al into square notching as V notching had done in the logs usually were half-dovetailed but sometimes 1790 and 1850 wood became even more important though barns and outbuildings were often con Virginia Piedmont. were square-notched or notched only on the as a building material than it had been on the structed as carefully as houses in the Valley and bottom, to produce a semilunate crown approxi seaboard. Nevertheless, every significant method Blue Ridge of Virginia, the corner-timbering was mating the full dovetail (Fig. 31). of construction employed had its European ante frequently of lower quality than that used in cedents. In the exuberance fostered by an endless houses, and occasionally the logs were left in the supply of wood, construction methods were re round. vived that were no more than vestigial in much of The English east of the Blue Ridge received the western Europe, if indeed they were even tradi concept of horizontal log construction more by tional. This is true of construction using closely set diffusion than by direct migration. Although they vertical or horizontal timbers. employed the Pennsylvania German handling of FIG. 31—Semilunate crown on half-round During the early colonial period wood-saving the logs, they developed new corner-timbering logs. half-timbering, then widely practiced in western types from V notching instead of reproducing it. Europe, was fairly common. It died out rapidly in The square notch is the commonest form of favor of siding over the framing and thus was corner-timbering east of the Blue Ridge, particu insignificant in the westward movement. Only the larly in the Virginia Piedmont, where also a few Louisiana French held steadfastly to half-timber buildings use the half notch exclusively. The FIG. 29—Clapboarded frame house, South Carolina. ing. In this and other respects construction prac diamond notch is found only rarely outside the A stream of log construction in which half tices in the French pockets stood in strong con general area of the North Carolina—Virginia bor dovetailing greatly predominated but square trast with those of incoming, frontier Americans. der from the Tidewater to the Piedmont. The notching, saddle notching, and V notching were These had no equivalent of the French poteaux en saddle notch is commonly found east of the Blue also employed flowed northward through the Ten terre, poteaux sur sole, and piece sur piece. In Ridge and well into the Tidewater, but it is nessee Valley and central Kentucky into southern complement, the French rarely adopted American restricted to smaller outbuildings; the Tidewater Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, where it encountered a log construction. English retained rived cypress shakes or clap stream in which V notching was strongly dominant In the New England stream the heavily framed, boards over timber framing as the prevailing moving westward from Pennsylvania (Fig. 27). clapboarded house was dominant until the substi method of folk construction (Fig. 29). Only the northward flow of Pennsylvania cor tution of light balloon framing in the latter half of The movement from eastern Pennsylvania down ner-timbering into the westward-moving New Eng the nineteenth century. This was true also of the the western Appalachian valleys began later than land stream was largely ineffectual. Here it en western projection of the Middle Atlantic States that down the Valley of Virginia, yet the same three countered false corner-timbering and the concep and of that of the Tidewater South. Where their forms of corner-timbering—saddle notching, V tually different French method of setting horizontal influences prevailed, the log house was regarded notching, and full dovetailing -may be found in the timbers into corner posts, and was overlain by as a temporary structure, to be replaced by Alleghenies along the northern section of the more-recent exotic, but excellent, log construction traditional forms as soon as circumstances permit Virginia- West Virginia border. In this area, where techniques introduced from Fennoscandia directly ted. Only in the upland South was log construction half dovetailing, which was probably brought to into the Great Lakes region. The predominance of the accepted practice. America from Europe as a dormant aspect of full the simpler methods of corner-timbering—square Great changes have taken place in the construc dovetailing, first became commonly employed, are and saddle notching—over V notching and dove tion, materials, and forms of buildings since 1850. farms where the houses are full dovetail and the tailing in the northern tier of states tends to Still, a survey of farm housing published in 193947 outbuildings half dovetail; farther south in the support the conclusion that the migrating New revealed that some 97 percent of the rural dwell Alleghenies, however, into southeastern West Vir Englanders, like the English of the Tidewater, ings sampled were built of wood (frame, 93.2 ginia and Kentucky and adjacent Virginia, and regarded log construction as so temporary as to percent; log, 3.7); 1.8 percent of brick; 0.5 percent down the Cumberlands, half dovetailing predomi be unworthy of the skills they undoubtedly poss of stone; 0.4 percent of earth; and 0.4 percent of nates on buildings of all kinds, though a few have essed as workers in wood. concrete. Thus, true to the tradition strengthened V notching, and numerous outbuildings and barns FIG. 30—Stovewood construction, Wisconsin. The horizontal log construction with true cor during the westward movement, wood was the have saddle notching. ner-timbering that came to characterize the Ameri overwhelmingly dominant building material, at The two Appalachian streams, one coming down (Photograph courtesy R. W. E. Perrin.) can frontier was, then, not a New World adaptation least for the humbler dwellings.

50 51 Log houses, though of course far fewer than in The next stage of our work should shed greater 1850, conformed in their relative abundance to the light on the cultural meaning of the several meth old pattern. From the seaboard westward along ods of timber construction, on their associations the New England route log houses were few. This with different groups of peoples, on their place in was true also of New Jersey (for some reason the westward movement, and on their relative Pennsylvania and New York were not sampled) importance during the change from frontier to and the Tidewater counties of the South. Percen settled community. The first step will be to relate tages climbed sharply in the upland South, even specific methods of wood construction to specific into the southern parts of Ohio, Indiana, and types and forms of folk housing. It should then be Illinois. In Halifax County, Virginia, well out in the possible to match the idealized results of a Piedmont, the percentage of rural log dwellings systematic approach against the revealing vagar rose to 42. In the more recent "frontier" sections ies of reality. of the Upper Lakes and the wooded West48 log construction was well represented.

FOOTNOTES

'The brick-and tone-using Dutch on the Hudson are not IHRexford Newcomb: Architecture of the Old Northwest Ernest Pickering: The Homes of America [New York, 1951],p. considered here because they were insignificant as a cultural Territory (Chicago, 1950), p. 21. 9, Fig. P—1). However, Mercer (pp. 577—579) quotes Dutch source. ,9ln modern French colombage refers to frame construction. visitors who, traveling in 1679—1680, contrasted the English -The term half-timbering" is employed here in the full "2"Richard W. Hale, Jr.: The French Side of the "Log Cabin frame house with the Swedish log house in which the logs are realization that its use is discouraged by architectural historians Myth," Proc. Massachusetts Hist. Soc, vol. 72, 1957—1960, notched a foot from the end. Two things are learned from this as misleading and confusing. However, we know of no substitute boston, 1963, pp. 118—125; and Marius Barbeau: The House description: first, by 1680, only five years before large numbers term to apply to heavy framing, commonly with horizontal, That Mac Built, 77ie Beaver: A Magazine of the North, Outfit of Germans began arriving in eastern Pennsylvania, the English vertical, and diagonal squared members spaced as much as 276, December, 1945, pp. 10—13. colonists had not adopted Swedish construction; second, authen several feet apart, and with the interstices filled with various -}Op. cit. [see footnote 16 above], Vol. 2, p. 50. tic seventeenth-century Swedish log houses were corner-timbered materials. --In addition to the Jesuit Relations" cited in footnote 16, see like those found today in Sweden and not like those in America 'Fiske Kimball: Domestic Architecture of the American Richard Colebrook Harris: A Geography of the Seigneurial labeled seventeenth-century Swedish. Mercer (p. 579) states also Colonies and of the Early Republic System in Canada during the French Regime (unpublished Ph.D. that he knows of no definitely Swedish or seventeenth-century 4Martin Shaw Briggs: The Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers in dissertation. The University of Wisconsin, 1964), pp. 147 and log houses that were extant in America in the early twentieth England and America I620—1685 (London 1932). p. 56. 278. century. It seems, therefore, that the so-called seventeenth-centu ry Swedish houses in America are more recent than that and, •'For illustrations of half-timbering in Wisconsin see Richard 2: 'See Dumont, op. cit. [see footnote 16 above], Vol. 2, p. 7. although conceivably built by Swedes, reflect Pennsylvania W. E. Perrin: Historic Wisconsin Buildings: A Survey of Pioneer 4 - V. Gordon Childe: The Bronze Age (New York and German log-construction techniques rather than Swedish. Architecture, 1835—1870, Milwaukee Public Museum Publ. in Cambridge, England, 1930), pp. 206—208. History No. 4, 1962, pp. 14——25. Zoar, Oho, has a number of 2'Sigurd Erixon: The North-European Technique of Corner "'Bartlett, op. cit. [see footnote 31 above] 1, p. 255. examples of German half-timbering, and so have the German Timbering, Folkliv, No. 1, 1937, pp. 13—60, especially Fig. 25 '"Our attempt to compile a synonymy of terms for corner-tim settlements between San Antonio and Austin, Texas, though in and PI. XIV. bering has yielded nothing worthwhile. The only usage that the examples observed there the half-timbering was hidden by 2tiHarris, loc. cit. [see footnote 22 above]. might conceivably prove confusing is the apparent employment siding. 27Hale, op. cit. [see footnote 20 above], p. 121, cites the use of "halved" for our "square" notch by Mercer (op. cit. [see ''French half-timbering in Louisiana uses both brick and clay of piece sur piece for the "notch and saddle" construction that footnote 14 above], p. 80). 7 cats as nogging. The brick nogging is referred to as biquette entre found its way into Canada from the United States. Again, this "• Op. cit. [see footnote 25 above], p. 30. poteaux, the clay simply as bousillage. Plastered brick nogging may be a modern usage, but it is a perversion of the term used 18Karl Schuchhardt: Vorgeschichte von Deutschland (Berlin, appears in New Orleans, but more-rural bousillage is now for corner-post construction before American notching was 1934), p. 29. invariably weatherboarded except, occasionally, for the front introduced into Canada, probably about 1740 (see Mercer, op. :iyChilde, op. cit. [see footnote 24 above], p. 206; wall, which is protected by a broad roof overhang. Here the cit. [see footnote 14 above], p. 571). Incidentally, Mercer's Gimbutas, op. cit. [see footnote 7 above], p. 74. bousillage may be whitewashed and the wood framng left citation, for 1727, clarifies a misunderstanding sometimes ex 4I,C. F. Innocent (The Development of English Building exposed, or the whole may be plastered over. This old practice pressed that Canadian French laws opposed the use of timber for Construction [Cambridge, England, 1916], p. 109) finds no explains the frequent appearance today of small rural frame construction in towns where stone was available. Surely this evidence that log construction was ever practiced in England. houses with only the fronts painted white or whitewashed. The measure was directed against the fire hazard inherent in closely Pierre Deffontaines, in Les hommes et leurs travaux dans les clay-wrapped rods, or "rabbits," of Louisiana bousillage are set wooden buildings, rather than against log or timber construc pays de la moyenne Garoone" (Lille, 1932), Plate 26, shows what horizontally set, whereas in Europe they are more commonly tion as such. is unquestionably corner-timbering in an old abandoned struc vertical. 2KMercer {op. cit. [see footnote 14 above], p. 571) refers ture in southwestern France, but this seems to possess no 7 S. J. de Lact: The Low Countries (translated by J. A. E. (citation for 1664) to a church constructed of '.'.'. round wood significance with respect to French practive in America. Nenquin; London and Toronto, 1958), pp. 62—88: Marija dovetailed at the corners," which sounds much like an Ameri 41 Kimball, op. cit. [see footnote 3 above], p. 7. Gimbutas:The Balls (New York, 1963), pp. 103—104. can-style structure. Dovetailing, however, was known to every 42C. A. Weslager: Log Structures in New Sweden during the MBriggs, op. cit. [see footnote 4 above], pp. 56—57. Recent joiner; the logs may have been dovetailed into a corner post. If Seventeenth Century, Delaware History, Vol. 5, 1952—1953, pp. research indicates that the vertical logs were originally set in the this was a case of alternating tiers and true corner-timbering, it 77—95; reference on p. 92. ground and that the sill was introduced to preserve them (see H. must have been an isolated freak. 4 'Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker: The Founding of American L. Edlin: 2yA limit to the size of a corner-timbered building is imposed Civilization: The Middle Colonies (New York and London, y See Antonio di Nardo: Farm Houses, Small Chateaux and by the very weight of the'timber and by the tapering of tree 1938), p. 241. Country Churches in France (Cleveland, 1924), especially pp. 18. trunks to an unusable disparity in dimension between the two 44The Scotch-Irish were primarily Lowland Scots who had 75, and 82. Note that in contrast with half-timbering the vertical ends; twenty-four to thirty-six feet has been advanced as the emigrated to Ulster. The Pennsylvania Germans, also known as members are close together and lack diagonal or horizontal average maximum practicable length. There is no widely the Pennsylvania Dutch, were primarily from the Rhenish bracing. practiced means of enlarging a corner-timbered house except by Palatinate and Switzerland, but were also from Bohemia, Silesia, "'Kimball, op. cit. [see footnote 3 above], p. 6. adding a story; for the logs are not commonly spliced, and Moravia, Wurttemberg, and Hesse. "Henry Chandlee Forman: Virginia Architecture in the building a new structure poses the problem how to connect it 45Moravian log work is much like that introduced by the Seventeenth Century (Williamsburg, Va., 1957), p. 30. with the old. Germans into Pennsylvania (see Ethnographica, lll-IV, Mo- ,2 Kimball, op. cit. [see footnote 3 above], p. 6. See also John '•"Philip W. Sultz, in "From Sagebrush to Hay and Back ravske Museum v Brne, 1962). Polish log work, on the other Frederick Kelly's description of plank-frame" houses in Con Again," American West, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1964, pp. 20—30, shows hand, more nearly resembles Swedish practice (see H. Grisebach: necticut as early as 1690 (Early Domestic Architecture of a number of pictures of buildings, chiefly, one may surmise, in Das polnische Bauernhaus [ Beitrage zur polnischen 1.amies Connecticut [New Haven, 1924],pp.40—41). western Wyoming. On pages 26, 27, and 30 are shown respective Kunde, Scr. B, Vol. 3; Berlin, 1917] >. It now begins to appear "'"Evolution of the Oldest House," Notes in Anthropology, ly a house, a jail, and a church, all of which appear to have that the primary source of log construction in America not only Department of Anthropology, Florida State University, Talla corner-post construction. The other buildings illustrated are was not Swedish, but neither was it Rhenish German or Swiss. hassee, Vol.7. 1962, p. 7. corner-timbered. More-likely conveyers were the Germans who came from "Henry C. Mercer: The Origin of Log Houses in the United "Stuart Bartlett: Garrison Houses along the New England Moravia, Bohemia, and Silesia. To this day it is the local States: A Paper Read ... at Doylestown, Pa., Jan. 19, 1924 Frontier, Pencil Points, Vol. 14, 1933, pp. 253—268; reference tradition that the Schwenkfelders who arrived from Silesia in (Reprinted from a Collection of Papers Read before the Bucks on p. 255. 1734 brought V notching to Pennsylvania. County Historical Society, Vol. 5, pp. 568—583), p. 572. const2Bartlett, op, cit. [see footnote 31 above], p. 254. 46Richard W. E. Perrin: Wisconsin Stovewood" Walls: '•'Perrin, op. cit. [see footnote 5 above], p. 12. :!;'The nomenclature proposed by Erixon (op. cit. [see foot Ingenious Forms of Early Log Construction, Wisconsin Mag. of "'See, for example, [George-Marie Butel-] Dumont: Mem- note 25 above], p. 14) for the constituent parts of corner-timber History, Vol. 46, 1962—1963, pp. 215—219. 48 oires historiques sur la Louisiane (2 vols.; Paris, 1753), Vol. 1, p. ing is used here and is illustrated in Figure 18. The figures are 48.8 percent for Albany County, Wyoming. 50, and Vol. 2, p. 50; and (for Quebec) Reuben Gold Thwaites, :14In support of his theory that the American log cabin is of and 25.4 percent for Albany County, Wyoming, and 25.4 percent edit: The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. 7 Swedish origin, Mercer (op. cit. [see footnote 14 above], p. 582) for San Miguel County, New Mexico, but the New Mexican log (Cleveland, 1897), p. 281 (Relation of 1635). states that the "notch and chamfer" (V notch) corner-timbering is house is possibly not entirely of Anglo-American provenance. "Charles E. Peterson: Early Ste. Genevieve and Its Architec Scandinavian. Further, the log house in America as pictured in ture, Missouri Hist. Rev., Vol. 35, 1940—1941, pp. 207—232; many books and labeled seventeenth-century Swedish is roughly reference on p. 217. V-notched and has wide, chinked interstices (see, for example.