My husband owns a 217-year-old cabin in Louisiana. No one visits. I've been there twice and we've never stayed overnight. It's well-maintained, but it's empty on 1,200 acres of swamp. I wish I had known you were doing this. Contact me for next time. Please. It's amazing.
@@charliewecker Yes! I have TONS on a digital camera video stick from like 2012. Keep checking back. I will find it and put it on Imgur before the weekend. I will edit my original comment with a link. Cheers!
I Am Thai. from Thailand. From another hemisphere I like and love history. And the way of life in history Thank you. You and the team created this type of video. I like it a lot and feel lucky to see your channel.
Like you, I enthusiastically follow the Townsends channel. I studied “big” history (such as wars, kings, revolutions, political alliances) from an early age, but as I got older, I became more interested in the day-to-day lives of ordinary people in the past. Congratulations on your excellent English. I do not know even one word in the Thai language, unfortunately. Is “hah-poo” or “haa-boo” a better approximation of “thank you” in Thai? Greetings and best wishes from the U.S.A.
@@Tina06019 thank you Tina thank you = ขอบคุณ Women / girl say = ขอบคุณคะ Men / boy = ขอบคุณครับ You can copy the word "ขอบคุณ,ขอบคุณคะ,ขอบคุณครับ" and click to hear the pronunciation in Google Translate. If you want to talk to me. You can you and me through my Instagram.
@@Tina06019 thank you = ขอบคุณ Women / girl say = ขอบคุณคะ Men / boy = ขอบคุณครับ You can copy the word "ขอบคุณ,ขอบคุณคะ,ขอบคุณครับ" and click to hear the pronunciation in Google Translate.
Yes, totally. Early American history (colonial times through the Civil War) is taught in middle school in my neck of the woods, and then they take world history in 10th grade and then later American history (Reconstruction to present) in 11th grade. I love Epic Rap Battles of History, and wish teachers could show the truly historical ones to their students... but there's usually quite a lot of profanity in them, so no can do.
@@mountainghost556 , so true ! I am finding out most schools don't even teach American History any more. The liberals say, that teaches Patriotism and that is bad ! We are so had, since these people took over our once great nation :- ( They don't teach children they indoctrinate them.
If you would like to explore over 80 cabins in one place, you need to come to Hart Square in North Carolina. Bob Hart collected them from Catawba County and set up a village on his land. It’s truly amazing!
My 4th gr aunt said, in her memoirs, that our immigrant ancestor's first shelter was one room, built of sod with just a door for natural light. As time and resources were available they built an upgrade to a log structure. The thing that captured my imagination was her description of the walls in (what she considered) her room. She said she found a slit in the wallpaper as a small child and would insert her fat little fingers through to reveal what looked like a felt wall covering under the glued paper and over the logs. She said that to touch the logs through the paper made her feel safe, secure.
@Paul Greening Well! :) Small world! That's just a few miles south of where my ma was born in Olds :) Her grandfather was born in Ontario and migrated to Westerdale between 1880 and 1890. Grandma told me stories about how important school was. When the snow was deep her father would hitch up the sleigh while her mother warmed stones on the fire, put them in cast pots to secure under the seats of the sleigh to keep the children warm on the way to school. The one-room schoolhouse was usually warm by the time they got there because the caretaker lived next to the school. After grade school, Grandma's parents boarded her in Olds so she could continue her education. I asked her once about how they kept food fresh and learned that some had icehouses but her family had an old well that had gone dry. The menfolk would get together in work parties, go down to the lake in the area and cut ice. They hauled it back and packed the icehouses or in gr grandpa's case, dropped the ice down the old well. They eventually filled it with enough ice to last through most of the summer. Instead of a pail on a rope to bring up water....they had a platform they put perishable food on and brought it up and down the well that way.
@@corvuscrow5485 I'm not trolling, I'm serious. There are parts of Minnesota and the Dakotas where pockets of Scandanavian immigrants NEVER accepted the practice. It was virtually non-existent among white people until the late Victorian times. When did it start in the Midwest?
Oh, this is so interesting. Great episode John! I'm an architect and I myself live in a timber-framed house from 1634 over in Germany. I want to clearify that weathering of exposed wood is not that much of an issue on these old houses. When it rains there is usually not much water that comes in direct contact with the wood and furthermore the beams won't soak the water in as much. As long as the wood can dry off after the rain, there won't be any problems. Then the folks at the time unsually use loam in combination with wood as you see on the cabins in the gaps between the beams. Loam has the advantage that it binds moisture, so it will take all the remaining water off the wood and emit it back to the air. To further enhance the durability of the wood they also often use an impregnation with linseed oil and terpentine. Linseed oil was easy to get at the time and to use it you just have to cook it up an filter it through some textile. Then you mix it up with terpentine and you have a water repellent impregnation for your wood. You should use it especially on the heads of the beams, because they tend to soak in water if the were exposed as on the corners of these old cabins. Best regards and greetings from Germany!
EverywhereWest, wow thank you for adding the information on how to treat the wood. Very interesting. You must be smiling when Americans talk about "old" wooden homes and your home is from 1634. :) I love comments like yours!!
Great info, although here in the states linseed oil is extremely hard to find and illegal in many jurisdictions. You can find boiled type fairly regular but it would seem that the boiling process really kills it's older uses like exterior wood finish. Don't know it that the case in Germany as well.
I have seen a couple of cabins that have three and four foot overhang all around to keep the water off the log walls and help shed it farther away from the foundation
That is so cool you live in a house that is almost 400 years old.... wow incredible.... if only those walls could talk . I'm just wondering if you're near the Black Forest . I grew up walking distance from that Swedish Log Cabin he shows at about 11: 11. That cabin was in really bad shape when I was a kid and young adult.... finally somebody realized what a gem they had there historically . Also everyone I grew up with said we could really feel the spirit of the Indians in those woods , the creek and cliffs . There really was a magical feeling around there .
The timber is only safe if it has been seasoned appropriately, and then treated with Linseed as you have stated. If not seasoned appropriately, it will still hold and soak up moisture.
You really should look into the Norwegian roundlog houses. They last for hundreds of years. And they are even moveable, so you could pack it all down and go. The oldest log home in Norway, still standing, and still lived in, is over 700 years old. They used moss or flax linum as insulation between the logs. There were many immigrants from Norway to the USA in the 1800´s, so I guess there will be a lot of old Norwegian log homes as well.
@@Frank-dv4zu I know the focus of the channel. And I know the history. To study 18th century North America, you need to look to Europe, as the immigrants brought the craftsmanship with them, and the tradition of house building. Nothing were invented there and then.
@RavenPoe No, its a real house. Some small cottages and our King even has a big mansion in log. See this link: no.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fil:Oppdalsmuseet_Bygdemuseum_Skjørstad-stuggu_Laft_tømmerhus_17c.-19c._Log_house_cottage_Vår_Spring_Benches_Skifer_Slate_etc_Oppdal_Open-air_Museum_Trøndelag_Norway_2019-04-25_5277.jpg
I'm from italy, and some years ago i was living in Germany. I visited some log cabin, the oldest was 1492. It had stones foundation for about 50cm, about 1 1/2 feet,and simple V notches. Floor made of wood and cob.
When I came to the United States from China in 2010, I knew that there was something different about this country, something deeply special and profound. I think this channel perfectly exemplifies that spirit! God bless America
Jacob Morris I recently took a tour of the huge, old cathedral of Cologne/Germany. It’s an incredibly intricate gothic masterpiece and both the largest and the tallest building of its kind in Europe. Construction started around 1250 and took about 200 years. It is indeed staggering to think about. These people did that without machines. No electricity, no steam engines, no nothing. Human beings are capable of astonishing feats.
Rara Avis it’s amazing to think of how many people spent their whole lives devoted to building a cathedral, or similar buildings, that they themselves knew full well they would never see finished.
Most never expected the houses to outlive themselves. Especially in the territories. They expected to work on them throughout the years, surely, but never to shoot for 400 years later, no. Houses then weren't like houses now, in the frontiers. People moved a lot, and I do mean a lot. Indian Wars, all kinds of wars, and what have you. Economics too. Marriages & Deaths. It's only been...what...the last 100 years of modern production techniques that suddenly people decided they want their houses to last 200 years, like they live in Paris, London or NY. I am in an Indian Territory house, that was brought in as a kit (the old kind) by one of the first railways. It was picked up, and moved en masse using logs, and rolled 10 miles to where it is now, using a couple mules and 5 or so guys. It was never intended to last 75 years, much less 120, but here it is. From zero electricity and indoor plumbing, to being completely redone with both. From zero insulation (thank God it is a double wall with 3/4 inch thick tongue and groove style walls) to fully insulated. I remember the north wind in the winter blowing thru the dang walls. I didn't have it bad, I knew people in shotgun shacks that literally only had single walls covered with asphalt shingles. COLD ain't the word. The roof alone is a work of insanity engineering of the old way...free standing 20' rafters at a pitch so steep, you barely can crawl it to the peak, pyramid style. The ceiling joists are 20' single stretches on 24" centers, like the floors. At this point, they are so petrified, you almost can't drive a 16 penny COATED nail thru them, they are so hard. And the best part... they ain't no 1 & 3/4 by 3 & 3/4" so-called 2X4's. These are exactly 2 X 4's. With exception to the wall plates and headers, which are 2X6's...exactly. The floor stringers were amazing solid chunks of 6X6's at 20' foot long, but they were too far gone to save. As far as we know, the house was brought in to the territory in 1900-ish. Maybe 1901. I wasn't a carpenter, and neither was Dad, but we rebuilt the house bottom to top. It has parts from other houses as old as it in it. Lumber is dirt cheap that way. Evidently, the guys who put it together weren't carpenters either. Neither were the guys throwing up log cabins and shotgun shacks down the road. You did what you could with what you had, and learned along the way, because there wasn't a town to go to in the frontier, to get help. You had to do it all yourself. It blew my mind that there was something called a "french drain" for moving water away from foundations. That tiny idea, super simple, wasn't ever used here for whatever reason, so a lot of foundations got destroyed over the years. Mind-boggling simple... as simple as 16" centers as an engineering concept. You ain't never had fun until you had your mother holler at you because you are walking on a floor with 24" centers and it is bouncing enough she can feel it on the other end of the house.
@@tonystoakley5816 Mine is nowhere near as interesting as some of the others I have read on here. Mr. John & the others taught me in one of the vids that they actually sided the old log cabins to update them, which I swear I have never heard of. Here, all they did was walk 200' away & just went and built another house, because of (at that time) all the old growth timber. I remember 2 log cabins from pre-statehood that were still around here, as a kid, but they are long gone. Once sawmills started coming in, you could of course get cut lumber (or you/general store brought it with you out of state during the land-rushes to inside the territory) so you built a one-room shack, then built out one room at a time, from what I was always told, using field stone foundation. Some nice, some really crude, but generally about the same time as you hand dug your cistern, which you collected up rock to line the walls with (some I have seen are massive, 20' across, 50 foot plus deep, dug with shovels and bars to bust through the bedrock) while you also did your foundation. Root cellars were common of course, just not the fancy ones so much. I talked to a feller out here on the 'net who was near London somewhere, 15 years ago or so, who lived in one of ya'lls stone houses. He said it was 500 or so years old & it would drive them insane because the inside of the walls would sweat, so every 10 or 20 years, they would have to redo/maintain the interior walls. A lot of "official" government buildings here were originally stone, and not necessarily cut, just slapped together. It wasn't until the brick manufacturers got started up towards Tulsa way in the 1910's (I think, don't quote me) that fired brick got used in buildings or houses. It boggles my mind that kids now can't conceive of what the old-timers did. You didn't hire a U-Haul to move, you literally got 5 neighbors, cut some trees down, grabbed some poles, hooked 3 or 4 mules to your entire house, rolled it off the foundation, and drove your house across pastures (and creeks too) to wherever you were going with it. People were here in the I.T. long before the U.S. bought it. Running the cow-trails, trading with indians, trapping companies, etc. I mean...there were small, but fully functional towns here during the Civil War, including some battles fought here, and we weren't even a state. Nobody here wanted any part of it, on any side, from what I remember. So almost 100 years of people being here (really, really close to when Mr. John & the others would be in time from what I know) running trading posts...fast forward that 100 years, and land-rushes...fast forward 50 years...just 50 years...and it is fully industrialized agriculture with shipping lanes through here for trains/wagons on coal processing SURPASSING Pennsylvania for the steel mills up north. Then one day...in 1929, the banks collapse. Overnight...it is all gone, and the population evaporates by 75%. That's how FAST it went...from a few towns with trading posts, to full blown rail & industry in about 125 years. From my great grandpa in a dugout house with a cow on top eating the grass, to me in a post-industrial collapse that none of it ever recovered from. From zero courts, government (outside local) or lawmen, to now. I don't think people fully appreciate how fast America moved in expansion. It moved FAST. Sorry. I like it when people tell their stories they know about what their families did and all that. More people should. We got here in 1657 in Mass. Bay Company territory, the old boy was a judge for them, then somewhere around 1700 or so, we started moving, and never stopped. Every time a government was set up, we left for the frontiers. We weren't the only ones. I.T. here is full of old families that did exactly that. The family that started Vicksburg is here, down the road from me. Same thing with them. Not up until my dad and where we are now, did anyone stop moving, because now there ain't nowhere else to go.
American Barns and covered Bridges “ is a book that describes early American life . It has a story about a black walnut tree in Maryland that was 28 ft in diameter . The tree was cut and hollowed to make a store out of .
Just started to watch this and when Jon said he was heading to Philly to look at a few and I thought....could he be heading to the Swedish Cabin in Lansdowne, my hometown? Yup. So glad you got to see it!!! :-)
I'm from Bedford, PA & have been to Old Bedford Village so many times. Isn't it both strange & exciting to see something familiar and from home on a show like this? So neat!
One of my ancestors, Peter Nilsson Lyckan, was a settler in New Sweden and was buried at the church there. At some point, he owned the land that's the current Philadelphia Naval Yard and hung the first iron sign in Philadelphia. Thanks for visiting there.
Really great series on the cabin building. Reminds me that my grandparents grew up in log cabins in Virginia. America is YOUNG, and it wasn't that long ago that the rural areas were living like this.
I've been to Cades Cove in Tennessee a couple years ago and I saw some old cabins and churches from the 1820s and stuff like that, it's was cool. I actually like seeing old stuff like old buildings and going to museums to see replicas of old kitchens and places from the 20th century. It's satisfying. And fun!
My mom lived in a house that started as a log cabin. Not as old as these guys obviously lol but still interesting I think. The original part became the living room and they would just add rooms every couple of decades. Such a Frankenstein house. lol The foundation was super cool. You could track the add-ons just from the style of foundation.
I live a few minutes away from the Gibbstown cabin. So cool to see appreciation for local history. The owner even asked for clay from our soil to help preserve it.
Plus, around here, the first cabin was turned into a shed or small barn after the second was built. A lot of our spring houses and bake houses started as the first cabin
On my grandfathers property, originally settled in the mid 1800's, the first cabin became an animal shelter. The 2nd cabin became a tool and wood shed. The 3rd has three additions, all built using different methods of log construction. The roof on the first cabin collapsed, but the walls are still semi-standing. It's small. Now I'm curious and I'll measure it when I visit in a week. I get a laugh out of the tiny home fad. That's how people used to live.
Decades ago, Roy Underhill built the exact kind of log cabin for his PBS television show, "The Woodwright's Shop" with only an axe, spokeshave, and chisel for tools (and the essential mug of tea and harp rack, of course!); and, as I recall, only two nails. If you can find the video from The Woodwright's Shop, I'm sure it will be very helpful.
My Great Great (and so on) Grandparents were Jonathan and Grace Fairbanks who built the Fairbanks House, which is the oldest standing wooden structure in America.
I grew up there. Read many books on the Park and Washington’s troops. A local Historian involved in the original archeological digs of the site reported that the foundations of those cabins were triangular. They later chose to build them as typical cabin structures to appease the public. I can more imagine a triangle, with fireplace and chimney at center end point. Makes sense. All action around heat and cooking area. Not sure if this is accurate but what I was told.
Many decades ago I read an article describing how the stick and cob chimneys were made. I wish I could remember the source and I am not sure if it was historically accurate but they built them with a slight lean away from the house (only connected at the fire box) and then had long poles wedged from the ground to almost the top of the chimney to hold it up. The idea was if the cob cracked loose from the wood structure and the wood started on fire they could knock the support poles away so the chimney would fall away from the house, possibly saving the main structure from the fire. I love both your cooking and historical skills videos! Keep them coming! Thank you for all that you do!
"The first settler in the woods is generally a man who outlived his credit or fortune in the more cultivated parts of the state." Ain't that the truth. :-P
Is this why I have an overwhelming urge to buy a plot in the middle of nowhere and build a cabin? Lol. Glad to know that sentiment was alive and well in the 1700s
My cousin had an original homestead cabin on her farm in Wisconsin, built about 1850. Unfortunately it was never maintained, and after the roof fell in, she had the log walls taken apart for salvage. She gave me two of them and I made some nice fireplace mantels out of them, with the original adze marks still on them. Really nice white oak. I'm looking forward to seeing what you build.
Cool.i want it. But the original homestead cabin would be at least 100 years older. I want it. But I live in the West and the only really old structures would be in the SW.
TA Outdoors does some recreation of houses in the UK. He currently finished a Saxon house, Viking House, etc. I find it interesting! I look forward to what you decide on.
Excellent vid, thank you. I have had the pleasure of building 3 log cabins in B.C. by myself. Believe me, you take whatever shortcuts are possible. Bark on, saddle joints, lots of chinking and stone fire place. Roof of saplings, leafed branches and evergreen boughs layered. The first two cabins were regular log style with dirt floor. Last one was vertical logs and a peat moss floor (most excellent in the winter). I look forward to your build. Look up Richard Proenneke and his Alaskan cabin.
Best of luck with your build. I look forward to your solving the same problems the original settlers faced. In Massachusetts, the early settlers did not build log cabins. They built their first (and second and third) homes the same way they had been built in England...sawn boards, dressed beams etc. A saw pit was one of the first facilities set up. Log cabins came with the Scandinavians a few years later. But you probably already knew that.
That was an astonishingly good video material! And trust me, you know it's done well if it's told by anyone not even remotely connected with American history (I live in Poland) . I am absolutely enchanted and thrilled to see its continuation. Keep up the grand job, and keep the nutmeg tavern community alive, by saving flavours and the aromas of the 18th century!
Jon, your videos just keep getting better and better, this one really hit close to home with me. I too am drawn to those older buildings, there is something almost magical about them. Can't wait to see the next video on your cabin building!
I lived not far from the Gibbstown cabin before I moved from NJ. My mother and I had an opportunity to visit it and tour the inside more than 20 yrs ago.
Help! Help! Jon has slipped through the "vortex" and is being held prisoner in a floating box!!!! He manages to escape temporarily, but is quickly recaptured! What should we do?????
Most of the earliest cabins were temporary structures built with dirt floors, catted chimneys, with weight-on roofs covered with splits or even bark. Most of the early chimneys did not even reach to the eave of the cabin, but were more or less just tall fire boxes reaching half-way up the exterior wall. Most pioneers were not planning on settling permanently in the places where these cabins were built and many settled for a half-faced camp structure until they moved on. If they did decide to stay, they usually added on to the existing structure using better material and craftsmanship with floors made from puncheons and stone chimneys and sills. When they had money and time, they may have split clapboards and covered the exterior walls... adding to their comfort and family status. I imagine most of the earliest cabins either rotted away or were torn down for the re-purposing of its materials. I can recommend a few books if you're interested.
Apparently the earliest building in Canada thats still standing was built by Zacharie Cloutier in Quebec, which my children are related to through their dad, whose family came to Australia
My family's1873, two story, French Canadian style cabin is still standing and lived in. It's located in Michigan's upper peninsula. It looks a lot like the very first cabin you looked at, but a different date. An added note.. look for some of the oldest structures at the back of properties being used as sheds and animal related uses. Or, if the old one wasn't repurposed, it could be knocked down so the timber could be reused. Another type of very old cabin, is two cabins end to end with a covered passage way between the two buildings. This is what happens when you have 13 living children. haha And if you use shakes on your roof, try Cedar. ?
My dad and his brother owned one of the oldest surviving log cabins and it was a family thing. Back 250 to 325 years ago it was built. And then my dad and his brother had it handed to them and they called it the KB Ranch which everybody laughed at! :-) we used to go every year and check on it in the fall and it's still there it's not in the best shape but it's still standing.
My wife's grandmother's old cabin was built in 1848 it is a split log, half dove tails, with pine pole rafters, the fire place was stone base but log and clay from there up. The roof was oak shakes, but later covered with tin. The wall was later covered in plaking, and papered with old newspaper and magazines. Although the cabin is somewhat in disrepair it is still standing. It location in west central Arkansas. My father-in-law used it to store hay. The old story's were so great to hear, about the Civil War, the Bushwacker, the Native people traveling up the old Missouri Trail.
my local church in the uk was built 1080, the roof timbers were dated and original. its all down to having a good foundations and a good roof , it had a fire a few years ago and part burned down but generally its a great shape. wood will last if its got a good foundation and roof so some of those cabins could last as long . a stone foundation would keep out varmints that Swedish cabin has nice foundation
You should look at some pics of the Fife Cabin at Lang Century Village in Ontario, Canada. It's a later time period but definitely a "first house" and has a log chimney. David Fife Cabin- This 1820s log cabin is typical of the settler's first one-room log home. Built by David Fife, a Scottish immigrant, the cabin is currently located in the village only a few miles from its original site. David Fife was the pioneer of Red Fife Wheat production in Canada.
At the very least it should have a nutmeg scented air freshener hanging off of the rear view mirror. @Townsends, feel free to steal my idea. Log cabin shaped nutmeg scented air fresheners with the Townsends logo sounds like a fund raiser to me.
I have two ancestors. They are on the battle moster of Valley Forge. They served under General Washington. Last name of Author. They were brothers. I love seeing these historic buildings. Knowing my family lived in places like that. It's amazing. Thank you for sharing these wonderful sites.
My dad use to work for a log cabin place when he was in his early to mid 20s. they are still in business, alot of his friends he wen to school with he work with there.. all of them but dad built themselves a house log cabin style but dad took a rain check on them helping him to build something and years later they did help him build a paint and body garage. they helped him cut trees on the property, hauled logs to the log cabin place and they milled his lumber for him from the logs and brought the lumber back and they all helped to built his garage.. My dad milled lumber from logs, hew logs and notched then logs, also drilled the holes to put the wooden pegs in to hold walls together and help with strength... he showed me a few times some of the cabin houses he worked on...
At the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton Virginia there's a log cabin from the 1740s. Chinked log construction with a clay floor and a chimney that's made of rough-stacked stone on the bottom and sticks and clay on the top. The chimney has a rope around it so that when (not if) it catches on fire, you can run out and pull it down to keep the house from burning. www.frontiermuseum.org/ www.frontiermuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/1840.tending.tobacco.IMG_6067-01.jpg
Unfortunately, that was not a log cabin. The cabin that he built was really meant as more of a parody of summer cabins in the 19th century, so it is far more finished that any rough-hewn cabin that Jon might be visiting. It actually has a wood floor. But, nevertheless, I would still love to see Jon visit the area :)
@@paigewelch6288 I read he got some logs from the woods around, and I think although the cabin is 19 century it has some features that could make it a serious candidate for the design he is looking for....specially the DIY look .. and the storage of provisions under the floor
@@julianchoque7402 He did use some logs from the surrounding woods, but they were mostly for providing support. A lot of the exterior planks that Thoreau used actually came from a shanty owned by a working-class family in Concord, which he had purchased from them. Judging from what Jon said in his video, it seems as though he wants to build the initial homestead i.e., a shelter that was built before anything else. Given that Thoreau had used previously cut/processed planks, I don't believe that Thoreau's cabin would be an ideal model for what they are trying to build. That's not to say that I would be opposed to Jas. Townsend and Son going to Walden Pond, but I don't think that Thoreau's cabin would be the precise model they are going for.
@@paigewelch6288 at this point we need Townsend to say his word....but I have a question, which is more important, the cabin or the kitchen? because the stove on Thoreau cabin is a lot more important than the campfire used in the videos, when that stove was introduced it was a major change and Thoreau confirmed it as a urban piece that costed more than the rest x sq inch....
My family the Urian Swedish family has the name on the granite monument to the first Swedes who landed along the Delaware river in 1602. They settled in Eastern Pennsylvania.
On the Swedish cabin...you remarked you thought the logs were oak... I bet they're chestnut...it would weather unsided 300 years with very little rot...and would have been very prevalent...course it's not found much anymore, but I remember finding 150 yr old barns in the mtns with no roofs but pulling logs off of the sill log, one could still see the adze blade shine on the wood like the day it was cut...
You need to check out the channel of Shawn James, it's called 'My self reliance'. He built a round log cabin by himself in Canada. He video'd every step. Great watch.
I have that on my subscription and sometimes watch it.... I haven't seen all of them though . I like his dog also . That is a pretty cool place he has there and it's neat to watch and cook food on that little wood burning stove for him and his dog
It's back to the future deja Vu. Your time machine looks different than the Delorean. I bet it's because yours runs on nutmeg. Love the historical reporting you do. ❤️
Very enjoyable video that has brought back fond memories. I was at the Swedish Cabin for a weekend sleepover Xmas party in the late 1980s with a small group of living history enthusiasts, one of whom worked on it's restoration during that time. We cooked in the fireplace, ate our meals in the main cabin, and slept on the floor of the loft. The cabin floor was packed earth/clay, and the roof was split wooden shingles only, so when lying in the loft at night you could see the stars thru the shingles at an angle even though the roof did not leak.
My sisters farm house in Harrow, Ontario, Canada turned out to be a Tulip Wood log house (discovered after we stripped off all the old lath and plaster interior) which where able to research dates back to 1790 on land that was granted to the owned by the King of England. So it is at least 230 years old now. The logs where notched together and then flattened inside and out. The Tulip wood logs (we believe they are Tulip wood) whwre at least 30" in diameter! Really cool!
I's suggest a gofundme page where we can help you offset the costs. In return you can give tours to the contributors, or even let us come help in construction. Recreating history, preserving those skills, its a passionate thing for many people.
My dad married my mom in 1955. He worked in Alaska as a river boat pilot. He built my mom at least 2 cabins that I know of. One was on top of barrels so that when the rivers flooded, the house would not float away.
Your videos are truly some of the most wholesome videos on the internet. Seriously. I never thought i out of all people would like this stuff. But honestly I’m hooked. 😭🤦🏾♂️
The amount of shouting in my house over that one tiny clip of the giant statue of the man with the hamburger was tremendous. You were less than a mile from my house!
The good ole Cadet restaurant. On 422 going towards Indiana, just down the hill from Dairy Queen. Yep my hometown area. Was so shocked to see it but gave me happy memories.
I've been watching your videos for some time on the roku -- I love them!! I live in Virginia and have lived in a couple of log houses. That V-(v top and bottom) notch around here is called, a "Scotch notch." The 1804 two-story log house I lived in had that. It was made of huge, hewn, American Chestnut logs, not a bit of rot. One old house I lived in was built on the corner stacks of rocks, like you mentioned, and a rock pile as the base of the chimney stack which was pretty stable: both sides of the floors were falling downhill away from it. It was built in 1912, two rooms up, two down, a mile up a mountain hollar. One of the children long ago had written everyone's name and ages in pencil in the upstairs window well. When someone needed a house, the whole community would come together, like as with a barn raising. This is why everyone's house in an area is the same: everyone knew what they were doing. There was a fella not too far from here (I'd have to go to my notebooks) who wanted his house to be different and he couldn't get anyone to come and help with it. He somehow got it done, but it points to people's mindset. I saw your episode on battered, deep fried, hard boiled eggs. That looks wonderful. Maybe a little powdered mustard added to the batter. I have chickens and will be trying that recipe before too long
I live in a 1841 cabin currently. It's fantastic and in really good shape. Of course, the outside is sided now with board and batten for longevity. Inside is gorgeous!
It's almost funny to see someone in period clothing drive a modern car! I love it! But the modern car runs on nutmeg.
he honestly looks a bit like my grandma
it runs on nutmeg and suet!!
I was about to post the same thing when I seen your comment
@@relybiggunsbigguns5478 Bad joke, I know but I couldn't help it :).
Lol
Seeing John drive a car is the weirdest thing I've seen him do on this channel.
Sadly, it confirmed for me that he was not, in fact, a time traveler.
What devilry be this horseless chariot yonder?
Someone needs to get him a horse drawn buggy stat! Of course his road trips might take years instead of days 😆
That was my first thought.
Nice chariot, but where are ze horzes?
My husband owns a 217-year-old cabin in Louisiana. No one visits. I've been there twice and we've never stayed overnight. It's well-maintained, but it's empty on 1,200 acres of swamp. I wish I had known you were doing this. Contact me for next time. Please. It's amazing.
Would you happen to have photo's by any chance? I would love to see it.
@@charliewecker Yes! I have TONS on a digital camera video stick from like 2012. Keep checking back. I will find it and put it on Imgur before the weekend. I will edit my original comment with a link. Cheers!
@@jamesdooling4139 just gonna leave this here as a reminder.
@@jamesdooling4139 👍
would be nice to see some pic's
I Am Thai. from Thailand. From another hemisphere I like and love history. And the way of life in history Thank you. You and the team created this type of video. I like it a lot and feel lucky to see your channel.
Like you, I enthusiastically follow the Townsends channel. I studied “big” history (such as wars, kings, revolutions, political alliances) from an early age, but as I got older, I became more interested in the day-to-day lives of ordinary people in the past.
Congratulations on your excellent English. I do not know even one word in the Thai language, unfortunately. Is “hah-poo” or “haa-boo” a better approximation of “thank you” in Thai?
Greetings and best wishes from the U.S.A.
@RavenPoe thank you
@@Tina06019 thank you Tina thank you = ขอบคุณ
Women / girl say = ขอบคุณคะ
Men / boy = ขอบคุณครับ
You can copy the word "ขอบคุณ,ขอบคุณคะ,ขอบคุณครับ" and click to hear the pronunciation in Google Translate. If you want to talk to me. You can you and me through my Instagram.
@@Tina06019 thank you = ขอบคุณ
Women / girl say = ขอบคุณคะ
Men / boy = ขอบคุณครับ
You can copy the word "ขอบคุณ,ขอบคุณคะ,ขอบคุณครับ" and click to hear the pronunciation in Google Translate.
I thought you were thai from mars
Teachers would be smart to include some of these videos in their history classes. Informative, fun and educational.
Yes, totally. Early American history (colonial times through the Civil War) is taught in middle school in my neck of the woods, and then they take world history in 10th grade and then later American history (Reconstruction to present) in 11th grade. I love Epic Rap Battles of History, and wish teachers could show the truly historical ones to their students... but there's usually quite a lot of profanity in them, so no can do.
That's called learning and we can't have that in schools.
@@mountainghost556 , so true ! I am finding out most schools don't even teach American History any more. The liberals say, that teaches Patriotism and that is bad !
We are so had, since these people took over our once great nation :- ( They don't teach children they indoctrinate them.
Steve Lethal your kids will have social problems in the future then
@@eniggaracer , where does you information come from ?
Teachers Union or experience ?
If you would like to explore over 80 cabins in one place, you need to come to Hart Square in North Carolina. Bob Hart collected them from Catawba County and set up a village on his land. It’s truly amazing!
Yes, it is!
The mountains of North Carolina is my favorite natural environment. Truly a great and beautiful place to call home.
It’s said his car runs on Pure Nutmeg Extract.
Haha
How much is that a gallon? 🤔
@@HealthyandLovingLife free with the right magazine😏
Healthy and Loving Life yes
He gets 80 miles per teaspoon
My 4th gr aunt said, in her memoirs, that our immigrant ancestor's first shelter was one room, built of sod with just a door for natural light. As time and resources were available they built an upgrade to a log structure. The thing that captured my imagination was her description of the walls in (what she considered) her room. She said she found a slit in the wallpaper as a small child and would insert her fat little fingers through to reveal what looked like a felt wall covering under the glued paper and over the logs. She said that to touch the logs through the paper made her feel safe, secure.
thank you for sharing that interesting tid bit :)
@Paul Greening Well! :) Small world! That's just a few miles south of where my ma was born in Olds :) Her grandfather was born in Ontario and migrated to Westerdale between 1880 and 1890. Grandma told me stories about how important school was. When the snow was deep her father would hitch up the sleigh while her mother warmed stones on the fire, put them in cast pots to secure under the seats of the sleigh to keep the children warm on the way to school. The one-room schoolhouse was usually warm by the time they got there because the caretaker lived next to the school. After grade school, Grandma's parents boarded her in Olds so she could continue her education. I asked her once about how they kept food fresh and learned that some had icehouses but her family had an old well that had gone dry. The menfolk would get together in work parties, go down to the lake in the area and cut ice. They hauled it back and packed the icehouses or in gr grandpa's case, dropped the ice down the old well. They eventually filled it with enough ice to last through most of the summer. Instead of a pail on a rope to bring up water....they had a platform they put perishable food on and brought it up and down the well that way.
@Paul Greening
When did clrcumclslon become common on the western frontier? How did this start?
Gregory Malchuk- Ok are you trolling or what?? WHY would you ask about circumcision??? 😳
@@corvuscrow5485
I'm not trolling, I'm serious. There are parts of Minnesota and the Dakotas where pockets of Scandanavian immigrants NEVER accepted the practice. It was virtually non-existent among white people until the late Victorian times. When did it start in the Midwest?
Oh, this is so interesting. Great episode John! I'm an architect and I myself live in a timber-framed house from 1634 over in Germany. I want to clearify that weathering of exposed wood is not that much of an issue on these old houses. When it rains there is usually not much water that comes in direct contact with the wood and furthermore the beams won't soak the water in as much. As long as the wood can dry off after the rain, there won't be any problems. Then the folks at the time unsually use loam in combination with wood as you see on the cabins in the gaps between the beams. Loam has the advantage that it binds moisture, so it will take all the remaining water off the wood and emit it back to the air. To further enhance the durability of the wood they also often use an impregnation with linseed oil and terpentine. Linseed oil was easy to get at the time and to use it you just have to cook it up an filter it through some textile. Then you mix it up with terpentine and you have a water repellent impregnation for your wood. You should use it especially on the heads of the beams, because they tend to soak in water if the were exposed as on the corners of these old cabins. Best regards and greetings from Germany!
EverywhereWest, wow thank you for adding the information on how to treat the wood. Very interesting. You must be smiling when Americans talk about "old" wooden homes and your home is from 1634. :) I love comments like yours!!
Great info, although here in the states linseed oil is extremely hard to find and illegal in many jurisdictions. You can find boiled type fairly regular but it would seem that the boiling process really kills it's older uses like exterior wood finish. Don't know it that the case in Germany as well.
I have seen a couple of cabins that have three and four foot overhang all around to keep the water off the log walls and help shed it farther away from the foundation
That is so cool you live in a house that is almost 400 years old.... wow incredible.... if only those walls could talk . I'm just wondering if you're near the Black Forest .
I grew up walking distance from that Swedish Log Cabin he shows at about 11: 11.
That cabin was in really bad shape when I was a kid and young adult.... finally somebody realized what a gem they had there historically .
Also everyone I grew up with said we could really feel the spirit of the Indians in those woods , the creek and cliffs .
There really was a magical feeling around there .
The timber is only safe if it has been seasoned appropriately, and then treated with Linseed as you have stated. If not seasoned appropriately, it will still hold and soak up moisture.
You really should look into the Norwegian roundlog houses. They last for hundreds of years. And they are even moveable, so you could pack it all down and go. The oldest log home in Norway, still standing, and still lived in, is over 700 years old. They used moss or flax linum as insulation between the logs. There were many immigrants from Norway to the USA in the 1800´s, so I guess there will be a lot of old Norwegian log homes as well.
thats really cool, but this channel's focus is on 18th century north america and i am not sure of these types of homes where built then and there.
@@Frank-dv4zu I know the focus of the channel. And I know the history. To study 18th century North America, you need to look to Europe, as the immigrants brought the craftsmanship with them, and the tradition of house building. Nothing were invented there and then.
@RavenPoe No, its a real house. Some small cottages and our King even has a big mansion in log. See this link: no.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fil:Oppdalsmuseet_Bygdemuseum_Skjørstad-stuggu_Laft_tømmerhus_17c.-19c._Log_house_cottage_Vår_Spring_Benches_Skifer_Slate_etc_Oppdal_Open-air_Museum_Trøndelag_Norway_2019-04-25_5277.jpg
This fantastic log structure is the Kings Mansion outside of Oslo Norway: blogg.tv2.no/kongebloggen/2013/12/23/velkommen-til-jul-pa-kongsseteren/
And here is a more humble settlement, homestead. no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Husmann
I'm from italy, and some years ago i was living in Germany. I visited some log cabin, the oldest was 1492. It had stones foundation for about 50cm, about 1 1/2 feet,and simple V notches. Floor made of wood and cob.
When I came to the United States from China in 2010, I knew that there was something different about this country, something deeply special and profound. I think this channel perfectly exemplifies that spirit! God bless America
🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲
🇺🇲🦅🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸
I think it would be interesting to see a well dug. The amount of work is staggering when you think about it.
He wanted a cabin not a broken back
Dkyguy1995 Yeah. Lol I didn’t say it would be easy for him. Just crazy when you think of the amount of work these settlers did
noob noob Thanks noob noob. This guy gets it.
Jacob Morris
I recently took a tour of the huge, old cathedral of Cologne/Germany. It’s an incredibly intricate gothic masterpiece and both the largest and the tallest building of its kind in Europe. Construction started around 1250 and took about 200 years. It is indeed staggering to think about. These people did that without machines. No electricity, no steam engines, no nothing. Human beings are capable of astonishing feats.
Rara Avis it’s amazing to think of how many people spent their whole lives devoted to building a cathedral, or similar buildings, that they themselves knew full well they would never see finished.
Sitting here in my 300 year old apartment (quite the "new" building for the area) and contemplating how different things are in America.
Plenty of two hundred year old buildings/homes in the US, but rare to find a 300 year old structure.
@@chazmichaelmichaels88 mostly because they're made of of straw
I dont think the builder of the house would ever imagine some one in 2019 would be critiquing his workmanship
Most never expected the houses to outlive themselves. Especially in the territories. They expected to work on them throughout the years, surely, but never to shoot for 400 years later, no. Houses then weren't like houses now, in the frontiers. People moved a lot, and I do mean a lot. Indian Wars, all kinds of wars, and what have you. Economics too. Marriages & Deaths. It's only been...what...the last 100 years of modern production techniques that suddenly people decided they want their houses to last 200 years, like they live in Paris, London or NY.
I am in an Indian Territory house, that was brought in as a kit (the old kind) by one of the first railways. It was picked up, and moved en masse using logs, and rolled 10 miles to where it is now, using a couple mules and 5 or so guys. It was never intended to last 75 years, much less 120, but here it is. From zero electricity and indoor plumbing, to being completely redone with both. From zero insulation (thank God it is a double wall with 3/4 inch thick tongue and groove style walls) to fully insulated. I remember the north wind in the winter blowing thru the dang walls. I didn't have it bad, I knew people in shotgun shacks that literally only had single walls covered with asphalt shingles. COLD ain't the word.
The roof alone is a work of insanity engineering of the old way...free standing 20' rafters at a pitch so steep, you barely can crawl it to the peak, pyramid style. The ceiling joists are 20' single stretches on 24" centers, like the floors. At this point, they are so petrified, you almost can't drive a 16 penny COATED nail thru them, they are so hard. And the best part...
they ain't no 1 & 3/4 by 3 & 3/4" so-called 2X4's.
These are exactly 2 X 4's. With exception to the wall plates and headers, which are 2X6's...exactly. The floor stringers were amazing solid chunks of 6X6's at 20' foot long, but they were too far gone to save. As far as we know, the house was brought in to the territory in 1900-ish. Maybe 1901.
I wasn't a carpenter, and neither was Dad, but we rebuilt the house bottom to top.
It has parts from other houses as old as it in it. Lumber is dirt cheap that way. Evidently, the guys who put it together weren't carpenters either. Neither were the guys throwing up log cabins and shotgun shacks down the road. You did what you could with what you had, and learned along the way, because there wasn't a town to go to in the frontier, to get help. You had to do it all yourself.
It blew my mind that there was something called a "french drain" for moving water away from foundations. That tiny idea, super simple, wasn't ever used here for whatever reason, so a lot of foundations got destroyed over the years. Mind-boggling simple...
as simple as 16" centers as an engineering concept.
You ain't never had fun until you had your mother holler at you because you are walking on a floor with 24" centers and it is bouncing enough she can feel it on the other end of the house.
@@TheCaptainSlappy thanks for that, interesting info. Good read.
@@TheCaptainSlappy so interesting thank you from Cambridge England
@@tonystoakley5816 Mine is nowhere near as interesting as some of the others I have read on here. Mr. John & the others taught me in one of the vids that they actually sided the old log cabins to update them, which I swear I have never heard of.
Here, all they did was walk 200' away & just went and built another house, because of (at that time) all the old growth timber. I remember 2 log cabins from pre-statehood that were still around here, as a kid, but they are long gone. Once sawmills started coming in, you could of course get cut lumber (or you/general store brought it with you out of state during the land-rushes to inside the territory) so you built a one-room shack, then built out one room at a time, from what I was always told, using field stone foundation. Some nice, some really crude, but generally about the same time as you hand dug your cistern, which you collected up rock to line the walls with (some I have seen are massive, 20' across, 50 foot plus deep, dug with shovels and bars to bust through the bedrock) while you also did your foundation. Root cellars were common of course, just not the fancy ones so much.
I talked to a feller out here on the 'net who was near London somewhere, 15 years ago or so, who lived in one of ya'lls stone houses. He said it was 500 or so years old & it would drive them insane because the inside of the walls would sweat, so every 10 or 20 years, they would have to redo/maintain the interior walls. A lot of "official" government buildings here were originally stone, and not necessarily cut, just slapped together. It wasn't until the brick manufacturers got started up towards Tulsa way in the 1910's (I think, don't quote me) that fired brick got used in buildings or houses. It boggles my mind that kids now can't conceive of what the old-timers did. You didn't hire a U-Haul to move, you literally got 5 neighbors, cut some trees down, grabbed some poles, hooked 3 or 4 mules to your entire house, rolled it off the foundation, and drove your house across pastures (and creeks too) to wherever you were going with it.
People were here in the I.T. long before the U.S. bought it. Running the cow-trails, trading with indians, trapping companies, etc. I mean...there were small, but fully functional towns here during the Civil War, including some battles fought here, and we weren't even a state. Nobody here wanted any part of it, on any side, from what I remember. So almost 100 years of people being here (really, really close to when Mr. John & the others would be in time from what I know) running trading posts...fast forward that 100 years, and land-rushes...fast forward 50 years...just 50 years...and it is fully industrialized agriculture with shipping lanes through here for trains/wagons on coal processing SURPASSING Pennsylvania for the steel mills up north.
Then one day...in 1929, the banks collapse. Overnight...it is all gone, and the population evaporates by 75%.
That's how FAST it went...from a few towns with trading posts, to full blown rail & industry in about 125 years. From my great grandpa in a dugout house with a cow on top eating the grass, to me in a post-industrial collapse that none of it ever recovered from. From zero courts, government (outside local) or lawmen, to now. I don't think people fully appreciate how fast America moved in expansion. It moved FAST.
Sorry. I like it when people tell their stories they know about what their families did and all that. More people should. We got here in 1657 in Mass. Bay Company territory, the old boy was a judge for them, then somewhere around 1700 or so, we started moving, and never stopped. Every time a government was set up, we left for the frontiers. We weren't the only ones. I.T. here is full of old families that did exactly that. The family that started Vicksburg is here, down the road from me. Same thing with them. Not up until my dad and where we are now, did anyone stop moving, because now there ain't nowhere else to go.
And in period costume, no less!
When my girlfriend's family ancestors in 1750s Virginia, the family of four lived in a huge hollowed out tree until their log home was built.
wow must be big trees there! amazing!
@@mchrysogelos7623 was
American Barns and covered Bridges “ is a book that describes early American life . It has a story about a black walnut tree in Maryland that was 28 ft in diameter . The tree was cut and hollowed to make a store out of .
I like to imagine he dresses like this at all times.
At Walmart collecting colonial items in full period dress & folks expecting a "slash & burn" at the President's tweet
One his early videos was "Do you dress like that all the time?" I'll leave it up to you to brows his old videos to find it.
So does his wife! LOL
Just started to watch this and when Jon said he was heading to Philly to look at a few and I thought....could he be heading to the Swedish Cabin in Lansdowne, my hometown? Yup. So glad you got to see it!!! :-)
I clicked on this video to see if that's where he was going!
my ex lived in lansdowne
I'm from Bedford, PA & have been to Old Bedford Village so many times. Isn't it both strange & exciting to see something familiar and from home on a show like this? So neat!
Makes sense he would drive a "Town & Country"
😂😂😂
He needs a new head liner
One of my ancestors, Peter Nilsson Lyckan, was a settler in New Sweden and was buried at the church there. At some point, he owned the land that's the current Philadelphia Naval Yard and hung the first iron sign in Philadelphia. Thanks for visiting there.
This is by far, one of the most interesting TH-cam Channels in existence right now.
Really great series on the cabin building. Reminds me that my grandparents grew up in log cabins in Virginia. America is YOUNG, and it wasn't that long ago that the rural areas were living like this.
Such a strange carriage! Where are the horses? Is that tiny map moving?
Ah, ya beat me to it.
How ever did he capture such realistic moving paintings and messenger them to my eyes and ears?
He's a witch! I knew it!
He needs to keep away from Salem!
@@christinamata3405 may we burn him?
"Those colonial reenactors are touching the house again!"
A Vlog for a Log Cabin
A Vlog Cabin
Nice
🥁 Bah-dum-bump!
I've been to Cades Cove in Tennessee a couple years ago and I saw some old cabins and churches from the 1820s and stuff like that, it's was cool. I actually like seeing old stuff like old buildings and going to museums to see replicas of old kitchens and places from the 20th century. It's satisfying. And fun!
Jered Timothy Frigillana 😂
I love how he’s reading historical plans from his iPhone
My mom lived in a house that started as a log cabin. Not as old as these guys obviously lol but still interesting I think. The original part became the living room and they would just add rooms every couple of decades. Such a Frankenstein house. lol The foundation was super cool. You could track the add-ons just from the style of foundation.
they’re still finding the super old log cabins. they’re usually part of a newer structure that is uncovered during demolition.
The Townsend’s Living History Museum is coming, y’all!!!
Benjamin Grist I like seeing museums of old building and history. Lol
I live a few minutes away from the Gibbstown cabin. So cool to see appreciation for local history. The owner even asked for clay from our soil to help preserve it.
Plus, around here, the first cabin was turned into a shed or small barn after the second was built. A lot of our spring houses and bake houses started as the first cabin
On my grandfathers property, originally settled in the mid 1800's, the first cabin became an animal shelter. The 2nd cabin became a tool and wood shed. The 3rd has three additions, all built using different methods of log construction. The roof on the first cabin collapsed, but the walls are still semi-standing. It's small. Now I'm curious and I'll measure it when I visit in a week. I get a laugh out of the tiny home fad. That's how people used to live.
Decades ago, Roy Underhill built the exact kind of log cabin for his PBS television show, "The Woodwright's Shop" with only an axe, spokeshave, and chisel for tools (and the essential mug of tea and harp rack, of course!); and, as I recall, only two nails. If you can find the video from The Woodwright's Shop, I'm sure it will be very helpful.
That's very cool! I will try to find that one
Loved that show
I remember watching that. Roy underhill. Is still going strong and met him a year or so ago down in NC.
My Great Great (and so on) Grandparents were Jonathan and Grace Fairbanks who built the Fairbanks House, which is the oldest standing wooden structure in America.
My ancestors as well!
I don't think it is the oldest "standing wooden structure", it is the oldest "timber frame house". There is a distinction between those two.
I grew up there. Read many books on the Park and Washington’s troops. A local Historian involved in the original archeological digs of the site reported that the foundations of those cabins were triangular. They later chose to build them as typical cabin structures to appease the public. I can more imagine a triangle, with fireplace and chimney at center end point. Makes sense. All action around heat and cooking area. Not sure if this is accurate but what I was told.
This is exciting news! I am very much looking forward to the cabin build
Would have been fun to see him look at his iPhone with a candle.
hahahaha it would!
Many decades ago I read an article describing how the stick and cob chimneys were made. I wish I could remember the source and I am not sure if it was historically accurate but they built them with a slight lean away from the house (only connected at the fire box) and then had long poles wedged from the ground to almost the top of the chimney to hold it up. The idea was if the cob cracked loose from the wood structure and the wood started on fire they could knock the support poles away so the chimney would fall away from the house, possibly saving the main structure from the fire.
I love both your cooking and historical skills videos! Keep them coming! Thank you for all that you do!
"The first settler in the woods is generally a man who outlived his credit or fortune in the more cultivated parts of the state." Ain't that the truth. :-P
Is this why I have an overwhelming urge to buy a plot in the middle of nowhere and build a cabin? Lol. Glad to know that sentiment was alive and well in the 1700s
My cousin had an original homestead cabin on her farm in Wisconsin, built about 1850. Unfortunately it was never maintained, and after the roof fell in, she had the log walls taken apart for salvage. She gave me two of them and I made some nice fireplace mantels out of them, with the original adze marks still on them. Really nice white oak.
I'm looking forward to seeing what you build.
Neat!
Cool.i want it. But the original homestead cabin would be at least 100 years older. I want it. But I live in the West and the only really old structures would be in the SW.
As an American living abroad in the UK during the quarantine, re-watching this has oddly soothed my homesickness
TA Outdoors does some recreation of houses in the UK. He currently finished a Saxon house, Viking House, etc. I find it interesting! I look forward to what you decide on.
Desert Blacksmith yes! I've loved the Saxon house build. I would think it's gonna get pretty chilly in there though, without a chimney or fire pit.
"adventon" in Germany dose similar stuff.
Excellent vid, thank you. I have had the pleasure of building 3 log cabins in B.C. by myself. Believe me, you take whatever shortcuts are possible. Bark on, saddle joints, lots of chinking and stone fire place. Roof of saplings, leafed branches and evergreen boughs layered. The first two cabins were regular log style with dirt floor. Last one was vertical logs and a peat moss floor (most excellent in the winter). I look forward to your build. Look up Richard Proenneke and his Alaskan cabin.
My great great grandfather cabin is still standing . it's 12 by 12 with a sleeping loft.
The first Tiny House.
Pretty much what I am grateful to have
Sounds like my apartment.
@@mountainghost556 most old settlers cabins ive found where about 12x12 and had 4-5 ppl living inside
@@mountainghost556 you have a löft?
Best of luck with your build. I look forward to your solving the same problems the original settlers faced. In Massachusetts, the early settlers did not build log cabins. They built their first (and second and third) homes the same way they had been built in England...sawn boards, dressed beams etc. A saw pit was one of the first facilities set up. Log cabins came with the Scandinavians a few years later. But you probably already knew that.
You need to team up with Barnwood Builders, on the DIY channel. They could answer a lot of questions for you.
SouthernNanny43 I was thinking the same thing! It would be a great collaboration.
This video makes me proud to be a Pennsylvanian! Thank you, John!😃
Number one rule of building a log cabin is, build it far away from people.
yesssss... shhhhh... lol
that's maybe why he can't find one lol
That was an astonishingly good video material! And trust me, you know it's done well if it's told by anyone not even remotely connected with American history (I live in Poland) . I am absolutely enchanted and thrilled to see its continuation. Keep up the grand job, and keep the nutmeg tavern community alive, by saving flavours and the aromas of the 18th century!
18th century house hunters. Fun video.
Uncle/Cousin Bob! My late husband's relative Bob Scott conducting the tour! Outstanding!
Hello beautiful
I would definitely help townsends build said cabin!!
The best part about watching this during the pandemic is that I can sight see historical places in the comfort of my own home. Thank you
That's a strange carriage! Must be one of Dr. Franklin's new inventions
Oddly nobody pointed out that witch carriage comes with built-in fainting couches for when you catch the vapors.
A horseless carriage! Blasfemy! 😂
I really like this video. I personally love those cottages from the Scottish islands with tatched roofs.
Jon, your videos just keep getting better and better, this one really hit close to home with me.
I too am drawn to those older buildings, there is something almost magical about them.
Can't wait to see the next video on your cabin building!
I lived not far from the Gibbstown cabin before I moved from NJ. My mother and I had an opportunity to visit it and tour the inside more than 20 yrs ago.
Help! Help! Jon has slipped through the "vortex" and is being held prisoner in a floating box!!!! He manages to escape temporarily, but is quickly recaptured! What should we do?????
Most of the earliest cabins were temporary structures built with dirt floors, catted chimneys, with weight-on roofs covered with splits or even bark. Most of the early chimneys did not even reach to the eave of the cabin, but were more or less just tall fire boxes reaching half-way up the exterior wall. Most pioneers were not planning on settling permanently in the places where these cabins were built and many settled for a half-faced camp structure until they moved on. If they did decide to stay, they usually added on to the existing structure using better material and craftsmanship with floors made from puncheons and stone chimneys and sills. When they had money and time, they may have split clapboards and covered the exterior walls... adding to their comfort and family status. I imagine most of the earliest cabins either rotted away or were torn down for the re-purposing of its materials. I can recommend a few books if you're interested.
Some good old cabins in colonial canada are still standing, if you need more examples
Many hidden from public knowledge. There's one in Ontario that I can think of that is protected but known to the public. Just off a main road too
Apparently the earliest building in Canada thats still standing was built by Zacharie Cloutier in Quebec, which my children are related to through their dad, whose family came to Australia
My family's1873, two story, French Canadian style cabin is still standing and lived in.
It's located in Michigan's upper peninsula. It looks a lot like the very first cabin you looked at, but a different date.
An added note.. look for some of the oldest structures at the back of properties being used as sheds and animal related uses. Or, if the old one wasn't repurposed, it could be knocked down so the timber could be reused.
Another type of very old cabin, is two cabins end to end with a covered passage way between the two buildings. This is what happens when you have 13 living children. haha
And if you use shakes on your roof, try Cedar. ?
Dude, take a road trip to Old Salem in Winston-Salem NC. You won't be disappointed!!!
Indeed! I would like to sit in their inn and have a conversation with Jon... I would even wear period clothing!
Great! I assume we will be treated to a series of videos about the building of a log cabin? One of my favorite things to watch.
Of course!
My dad and his brother owned one of the oldest surviving log cabins and it was a family thing. Back 250 to 325 years ago it was built. And then my dad and his brother had it handed to them and they called it the KB Ranch which everybody laughed at! :-) we used to go every year and check on it in the fall and it's still there it's not in the best shape but it's still standing.
I would like to start a crowd funding drive to restore and preserve it do you suppose your family would be interested?
My wife's grandmother's old cabin was built in 1848 it is a split log, half dove tails, with pine pole rafters, the fire place was stone base but log and clay from there up. The roof was oak shakes, but later covered with tin. The wall was later covered in plaking, and papered with old newspaper and magazines. Although the cabin is somewhat in disrepair it is still standing. It location in west central Arkansas. My father-in-law used it to store hay. The old story's were so great to hear, about the Civil War, the Bushwacker, the Native people traveling up the old Missouri Trail.
1 Million Subscribers!!! Congrats and well-earned sir.
my local church in the uk was built 1080, the roof timbers were dated and original. its all down to having a good foundations and a good roof , it had a fire a few years ago and part burned down but generally its a great shape. wood will last if its got a good foundation and roof so some of those cabins could last as long . a stone foundation would keep out varmints that Swedish cabin has nice foundation
Ok now this is a cause I can get behind!
You should look at some pics of the Fife Cabin at Lang Century Village in Ontario, Canada. It's a later time period but definitely a "first house" and has a log chimney.
David Fife Cabin- This 1820s log cabin is typical of the settler's first one-room log home. Built by David Fife, a Scottish immigrant, the cabin is currently located in the village only a few miles from its original site. David Fife was the pioneer of Red Fife Wheat production in Canada.
Does that car run on premium or plain nutmeg?
Loved the video, so much to see, ask, learn!
Diesel nutmeg.
High Octane Nutmeg
At the very least it should have a nutmeg scented air freshener hanging off of the rear view mirror. @Townsends, feel free to steal my idea.
Log cabin shaped nutmeg scented air fresheners with the Townsends logo sounds like a fund raiser to me.
I have two ancestors.
They are on the battle moster of Valley Forge. They served under General Washington. Last name of Author.
They were brothers.
I love seeing these historic buildings.
Knowing my family lived in places like that. It's amazing.
Thank you for sharing these wonderful sites.
Oh my gosh! I live right above the Swedish cabin!!! I’m so bummed I missed you guys!
Ever time I go to my grandparents we pass by the big cowboy statue how showed while going to bedfored
It’s so weird seeing that in a video
I'm not sure how I feel about Jon driving on camera, in period clothes... 😏
glad it just isnt me
Period clothing is a business write off!
Jon. Car. 18th century no car. Jon no car. Mind blown.
At least you can drive as fast as you feel like. I can just see the cop going not today,
Fits with ye olde cell phone and laptop!
The level of expertise and workmanship that went into constructing these houses is mind-blowing.
What is the sorcery? Man in period clothing? And in a mini van. My sir you are a wizard.
**John has hexed your cow to go dry & produce no further milk**
AHAHAHA...the comments on this video are great. I got some laughs.
My dad use to work for a log cabin place when he was in his early to mid 20s. they are still in business, alot of his friends he wen to school with he work with there.. all of them but dad built themselves a house log cabin style but dad took a rain check on them helping him to build something and years later they did help him build a paint and body garage. they helped him cut trees on the property, hauled logs to the log cabin place and they milled his lumber for him from the logs and brought the lumber back and they all helped to built his garage.. My dad milled lumber from logs, hew logs and notched then logs, also drilled the holes to put the wooden pegs in to hold walls together and help with strength... he showed me a few times some of the cabin houses he worked on...
If you research Swedish log cabins, I'm sure you could find lots of valuable information there! We have some really old structures from way back.
Not a bad idea. Many of these cabins and homesteads were, after all, built by first-generation immigrants from countries including Sweden.
At the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton Virginia there's a log cabin from the 1740s. Chinked log construction with a clay floor and a chimney that's made of rough-stacked stone on the bottom and sticks and clay on the top. The chimney has a rope around it so that when (not if) it catches on fire, you can run out and pull it down to keep the house from burning.
www.frontiermuseum.org/
www.frontiermuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/1840.tending.tobacco.IMG_6067-01.jpg
@michelle block - Thank you for the links.
you cant miss the Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862) legendary cabin!! in Walden pond!
Unfortunately, that was not a log cabin. The cabin that he built was really meant as more of a parody of summer cabins in the 19th century, so it is far more finished that any rough-hewn cabin that Jon might be visiting. It actually has a wood floor. But, nevertheless, I would still love to see Jon visit the area :)
If he goes, I need a heads-up! I drive by Walden daily. It’s a nice place to stop for a summer swim, too.
@@paigewelch6288 I read he got some logs from the woods around, and I think although the cabin is 19 century it has some features that could make it a serious candidate for the design he is looking for....specially the DIY look .. and the storage of provisions under the floor
@@julianchoque7402 He did use some logs from the surrounding woods, but they were mostly for providing support. A lot of the exterior planks that Thoreau used actually came from a shanty owned by a working-class family in Concord, which he had purchased from them. Judging from what Jon said in his video, it seems as though he wants to build the initial homestead i.e., a shelter that was built before anything else. Given that Thoreau had used previously cut/processed planks, I don't believe that Thoreau's cabin would be an ideal model for what they are trying to build. That's not to say that I would be opposed to Jas. Townsend and Son going to Walden Pond, but I don't think that Thoreau's cabin would be the precise model they are going for.
@@paigewelch6288 at this point we need Townsend to say his word....but I have a question, which is more important, the cabin or the kitchen? because the stove on Thoreau cabin is a lot more important than the campfire used in the videos, when that stove was introduced it was a major change and Thoreau confirmed it as a urban piece that costed more than the rest x sq inch....
My family the Urian Swedish family has the name on the granite monument to the first Swedes who landed along the Delaware river in 1602. They settled in Eastern Pennsylvania.
I like how he pats the cabin like it's a living thing x:) Good channel
On the Swedish cabin...you remarked you thought the logs were oak... I bet they're chestnut...it would weather unsided 300 years with very little rot...and would have been very prevalent...course it's not found much anymore, but I remember finding 150 yr old barns in the mtns with no roofs but pulling logs off of the sill log, one could still see the adze blade shine on the wood like the day it was cut...
Come to Jonesborough , TN..the oldest town in TN!! Both beautiful and historic!
There is a cabin in Plum Tree North Carolina that is old and original. The locals call it Miss Kay's cabin.
It might be worth checking into. 🙂
You need to check out the channel of Shawn James, it's called 'My self reliance'. He built a round log cabin by himself in Canada. He video'd every step. Great watch.
I have that on my subscription and sometimes watch it.... I haven't seen all of them though . I like his dog also . That is a pretty cool place he has there and it's neat to watch and cook food on that little wood burning stove for him and his dog
The Sumter, SC museum has some very old log cabins there you might find interesting.
It's back to the future deja Vu. Your time machine looks different than the Delorean. I bet it's because yours runs on nutmeg. Love the historical reporting you do. ❤️
Very enjoyable video that has brought back fond memories. I was at the Swedish Cabin for a weekend sleepover Xmas party in the late 1980s with a small group of living history enthusiasts, one of whom worked on it's restoration during that time. We cooked in the fireplace, ate our meals in the main cabin, and slept on the floor of the loft. The cabin floor was packed earth/clay, and the roof was split wooden shingles only, so when lying in the loft at night you could see the stars thru the shingles at an angle even though the roof did not leak.
Only you can make me want to build a log cabin
My sisters farm house in Harrow, Ontario, Canada turned out to be a Tulip Wood log house (discovered after we stripped off all the old lath and plaster interior) which where able to research dates back to 1790 on land that was granted to the owned by the King of England. So it is at least 230 years old now. The logs where notched together and then flattened inside and out. The Tulip wood logs (we believe they are Tulip wood) whwre at least 30" in diameter! Really cool!
I's suggest a gofundme page where we can help you offset the costs. In return you can give tours to the contributors, or even let us come help in construction. Recreating history, preserving those skills, its a passionate thing for many people.
0:45 I love Jon's smile here. You can tell he was like, "Yeah, nailed that take."
You are an inspiration! I am leaving for Virginia tomorrow morning for a 10 day historic tour! I love this channel. Keep up the great work!
My dad married my mom in 1955. He worked in Alaska as a river boat pilot. He built my mom at least 2 cabins that I know of. One was on top of barrels so that when the rivers flooded, the house would not float away.
We don't have many men like your Dad left, sadly.
Your videos are truly some of the most wholesome videos on the internet. Seriously. I never thought i out of all people would like this stuff. But honestly I’m hooked. 😭🤦🏾♂️
The amount of shouting in my house over that one tiny clip of the giant statue of the man with the hamburger was tremendous.
You were less than a mile from my house!
The good ole Cadet restaurant. On 422 going towards Indiana, just down the hill from Dairy Queen. Yep my hometown area. Was so shocked to see it but gave me happy memories.
@@sid32965 yep, and the Dairy Queen is still a great one. The Trader Horn is gone though 😢
@@scottmcdivitt2187 I know Trader Horn was my favorite store. I live in GA now so I miss everything about home
So excited for the cabin/homestead project. I'm looking forward to more great videos documenting the journey.
I've been watching your videos for some time on the roku -- I love them!!
I live in Virginia and have lived in a couple of log houses. That V-(v top and bottom) notch around here is called, a "Scotch notch." The 1804 two-story log house I lived in had that. It was made of huge, hewn, American Chestnut logs, not a bit of rot.
One old house I lived in was built on the corner stacks of rocks, like you mentioned, and a rock pile as the base of the chimney stack which was pretty stable: both sides of the floors were falling downhill away from it. It was built in 1912, two rooms up, two down, a mile up a mountain hollar. One of the children long ago had written everyone's name and ages in pencil in the upstairs window well.
When someone needed a house, the whole community would come together, like as with a barn raising. This is why everyone's house in an area is the same: everyone knew what they were doing.
There was a fella not too far from here (I'd have to go to my notebooks) who wanted his house to be different and he couldn't get anyone to come and help with it. He somehow got it done, but it points to people's mindset.
I saw your episode on battered, deep fried, hard boiled eggs. That looks wonderful. Maybe a little powdered mustard added to the batter. I have chickens and will be trying that recipe before too long
This video is so cool. To know cabins 350 years old are still standing.
I live in a 1841 cabin currently. It's fantastic and in really good shape. Of course, the outside is sided now with board and batten for longevity. Inside is gorgeous!