Reminiscences of Newcastle, Iowa, 1848; a history of the founding of Webster City, Iowa . it was raised furnished the method of even-ing or plum^bing. The shadow of a tree at noon was therule for starting square with the world. Several tiers oflogs were laid, and when building in winter, a fire wasmade at one end of the space to thaw the dirt, which mixedwith water, supplied mortar to chink the cabin excavation made the floor surface lower at one endthan at the other, say, about a foot or a foot and a half ledgemarked off two-thirds of the floor-area. The logs were rolled up on skid
Reminiscences of Newcastle, Iowa, 1848; a history of the founding of Webster City, Iowa . it was raised furnished the method of even-ing or plum^bing. The shadow of a tree at noon was therule for starting square with the world. Several tiers oflogs were laid, and when building in winter, a fire wasmade at one end of the space to thaw the dirt, which mixedwith water, supplied mortar to chink the cabin excavation made the floor surface lower at one endthan at the other, say, about a foot or a foot and a half ledgemarked off two-thirds of the floor-area. The logs were rolled up on skids with hand spikes—long slender poles—to a point as high as the men couldreach; then with forked sticks they were lifted into placewith the aid of steadying guide-ropes in the hands of menon the top tier. Before the gables were shaped to the properslant, the hewn beams for rafters were placed at intervalsacross the log framework. Roofing. Two poles with top forks were set in the ground so thecrotches corresponded to the gable peaks; in these the 30 REMINISCENSES OF NEWCASTLE, IOWA. CABIN BUILDING AND BEDS 31 ridge-pole was laid. Two parallel cross-center stays sup-ported the heavy shake roof. Shakes were pieces of oakboards from four to six feet in length, according to thesize of the hut. They were rived from a hewn log with afrow—a large cleaving knife with the handle set at rightangles with the blade. The frow was pounded into the logwith a small maul or mallet and a section of wood aboutan inch thick, six or eight inches wide and the desiredlength was split off. The shakes overlapped like ordinaryshingles. The lower ends often were loosely arranged sothey might be pushed aside in fair weather for light andventilation. Heavy poles were placed on top of the roofwhere the shakes lapped; these weights were kept at theproper distance apart by roof-knees-—notched logs fittedand fastened at right angles between the binding or weightpoles and along the gable edges of the roo
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectfrontie, bookyear1921
