Day Two- Frontier Life

Life was hard on the frontier of Southwest Virginia.  Everything was done by hand. Lacking access to manifactured goods, settlers made what they needed or did without.  Food was cooked over a fire in poorly ventilated fireplaces leaving the cabins smokey.  Water was brought by hand from a well or nearby spring. Crops from the fields or trade for were dried or preserved with salt and stored where rodents could not get to them.




Any furniture the settlers had would have had to been brought with them, traded for, or most often built by hand.

Beds were a rarity. Often fronteir families slept on the ground or straw spread out on the floor. Even if a family had a bed it was often shared by the entire family. These beds featured rope slats that would have to be tightened occasionally, giving us the phrase "sleep tight." Again straw was used to make the mattresses
 

Food was sparse and the settlers diet consisted of what could be grown, traded for, or hunted.  In Southwest Virginia that meant mostly corn and few vegetables. Lacking proper nuetrients settlers often suffered from tooth loose, and bones breaks