The early settler house has hand hewn
beams, shakes, saltboxes, a central chimney and a clapboard.The
Early Settlers house is very much like a log cabin. The doorway leads directly into the
kitchen. This style was often the first home settlers built. They were crude shelters.
Some roofs were made of thatch.
A hand hewn beam is a large, long piece of timber cut with an ax.
Shakes are shingles split from a piece of log usually three or four feet long. A saltbox
is a frame dwelling with two stories in front and one behind, and a roof with a long rear
slope. A central chimney is a vertical structure incorporated into a building. A clapboard
is a narrow board thicker at one edge than at the other. Thatch is a plant material of
straw used for a rooftop.
This style came from England. This style started in the early 1600's
and continued into the late 1700's. People chose to build this style because they had few
tools and no machinery. They built houses for the climate's heavy snow, hard freezes and
cold temperatures. Houses were often built quickly because they had so much other work to
do. For these reasons, their homes were simple.