A toast to toasters and roasters: Breakfast with Ohio pioneers
Discover why early American coffee roasters and wrought-iron toasters are rare finds today. Columnist and early American artifacts collector Paul Locher takes a deep dive into the decorative motifs and functions of pioneer tools.
Conestoga wagon was the Swiss Army knife of vehicles
The Conestoga wagon had many tools that helped families move westward in the 1800s. Paul Locher gives a detailed description of its most important features.
Corn husking bees brought neighbors together for work, socializing
Paul Locher details one of the great seasonal traditions among settlers in the Ohio Country — the husking bee or husking frolic.
By hook or by crook, the wheat harvest was accomplished with intensive labor
Paul Locher details how 1800s pioneers in Ohio Country would have accomplished the wheat harvest and describes the tools they would have used to do it.
Lard, scrapple and cracklins complete the butchering job
Paul Locher pens a column about how early Ohio and Pennsylvania settlers would have produced lard, scrapple and cracklins to complete butchering a hog.
Corn was staff of life for settlers, but was always labor intensive
After corn was husked, it had to be shelled and processed before it could be cooked into a meal in the early 1800s in Ohio Country.
Bringing out the broadaxe and hewing to the line
Once early settlers had felled, sectioned and de-barked trees, it was time for the hewing process to begin, which required a broadaxe and a marking axe.
The wheat harvest: To winnow, grind and bag
After flailing the wheat, early Ohio settlers processed it into flour.
Cauldrons, kettles and pots were the greatest necessities for settlement
From homesteading survival to WWII scrap drives, the iron kettle, a humble pot with countless vital uses, shaped early life in the Ohio country.
From stalk to shock to fodder, harvesting the corn crop required a myriad of...
Paul Locher explains how early settlers of Ohio country would have harvested corn, detailing the tools they would have used.
