Settlers House facts for kids
The Settlers' House is a special building at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont. It was built in 1845 in East Charlotte, Vermont. This house helps visitors imagine what life was like for people living in the 1700s. Next to the house, there's a barn that was built in 2001. It shows how barns used to work.
Contents
History of the Settlers' House
Building the Cabin
The Settlers' Cabin was likely built around 1800 by French Canadian lumberjacks. These were people who cut down trees for wood. The cabin was made from strong beech and pine logs. These logs were "hand-hewn," meaning they were shaped by hand. They were also "dovetailed," which is a special way of joining wood pieces together without nails.
This type of cabin was common for early settlers, loggers, and trappers in Vermont. It was often a temporary home for them.
Moving to the Museum
The Shelburne Museum got the Settlers' House in 1955. At that time, the log walls were covered with "clapboard." This is a type of wooden siding often used on houses. The museum carefully moved the house's outer walls to its grounds.
They gave the house a new foundation and a new roof. The museum also fixed up the inside. It has one main room, a stone fireplace, and a sleeping area upstairs. The house, along with the barn built in 2001, now shows how early Vermont settlers lived. It's the only living exhibit at the museum.
The Sawmill at the Museum
Why Wood Was Important
In 1959, the museum built a sawmill next to the Settlers' Cabin. Long ago, wood was needed for almost everything. People used it to build ships, houses, and even barrels. Cutting down trees and selling the wood became a very important business in America in the 1700s. The sawmill at the museum shows how this valuable wood was prepared for sale.
How the Sawmill Works
Moving water can create a lot of power. The sawmill used this power to make its saw blade move up and down. This allowed it to cut through large logs. When it was working at full speed, the saw could cut two times every second. This meant a worker could cut a 10-foot board in about eight minutes!
The word "sawmill" can mean both the building and the machines inside it. The Shelburne Museum's sawmill was built to hold equipment from an old sawmill. This equipment came from South Royalton, Vermont. Jeremiah Trescott and Captain Stevens ran that mill in the late 1700s. Later, the Shepard family, who were Trescott's relatives, kept the mill running until the early 1900s. They eventually gave the sawmill's parts to the museum.
