The Log Cabin period of American History embraced a large area and a long span of years. Strictly speaking "log cabins" appeared for only a relatively short period, being superseded by the "log house", the distinction being that wwhere the one was small and primitive, the other larger and considerably more comfortable.

In this document we are concerned with those earlier years when the first waves of settlers crossed the Alleghenies and flowed into the vast American Midwest.

The first homes built by those pioneers were small and crude, their furnishing sparse. But even in it's most primitive state the log cabin was admireably built suited to the country and the life of the inhabitants.

So great was the early American's affection for log construction that in later years when crude puncheon furniture and wooden tablewar had been replaced by fine mahagony, chin and silver, he still built his house of logs, perhaps with many rooms, clapboard outside, plaster inside, but it was still basically a log house, the sturdy descendant of those earlier more primitive versions.

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