The Homestead Act of 1862 in the United States offered free farmland to settlers who built a dwelling and cultivated the land for five years. Signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln, the law required three steps: file an application, improve the land, and file for deed of title. Anyone could file and obtain, free, a quarter-section (160 acres) of government land - public domain - and, by paying $200, claim and preempt another.
Building the Soddy
The new bill caused many early settlers in the late 1800s to rush to the Great Plains to claim their property and start a new life. The land was abundant and free, but the rolling hills and flat plains also brought all kinds of weather. The spring season presented dangers of tornados, summers had prairie wildfires, and winters could produce blinding snowstorms. A new home had to be set up quickly to escape the elements. Since timber and stone were scarce,the settlers found the prairie land yielded miles and miles of grass with a thick, tough root structure, very opposite of the present-day yard grass. They carved 6-inch thick slabs of the sod about 2 feet long and 1 foot wide to use as walls for their new homes. These sod slabs were stacked, grass side down, and slathered with mud to hold them together. The structure became known as the sod house, or soddy (soddie) which was well-insulated and very inexpensive.
Sod-covered boards made up the roof of the structure. Heavy rains caused mud to drip into the dwelling. One settler said that if it rained one day outside, it would rain two days inside. Waterlogged sod also presented the threat of caving in the roof. A center post was often placed in the center of the dwelling to help support the roof. Later, they discovered a piece of muslin or oiled paper on the boards beneath the sod prevented leakage a little better.
Sod homes were meant to be a temporary dwelling until a more permanent construction could be built. They were quick, cheap and easy to build. They were a safe haven during summer tornadoes or prairie fires and from the chilling winter snowstorms of the Great Plains. Soddies were cool in the summer (although they dripped when it rained and very damp), but warm in the winter.
Inside the Soddy
Some early settlers complained about mice or even snakes living within their sod walls. 'Painting' the inside walls with clay helped keep the vermin out as well as insulate and keep the walls dry. The floors of trampled-down clay and had to be watered down nightly to keep the dust down. Furniture was scarce, and may have only consisted of a bed and maybe some wood boxes for a table and chairs. Their beds may have been only a rough trough filled with hay-filled mattresses. Bed legs were placed on pieces of wood to prevent them from sinking into the dirt floor. A fire pit made of sod slabs was usually built in one end of the small dwelling. It was thickly covered with mud with a makeshift chimney stuck out the roof. The fire pit was fed meadow muffins (buffalo chips) and slough hay to warm and feed the few living within.
Dugout Soddies - Modern Cave-Dwellers
If a family were lucky enough to find a hill on the normally flat prairie, the soddy was constructed partially underground, or built into the side of the hill. This provided improved thermal insulation, although it was very dark with no windows. One Nebraskan estimated that his 1872 dugout cost $2.78, which included lumber, $1.79, latch and hinges, $.50; stovepipe, $.30; and nails, $.39. A disadvantage of the 'cave-type dwelling' was that cattle could roam over the roofs or wagons or horses could pass over the top of the dwelling causing the roof to cave in. Dugouts also presented a danger of being snowed-in during the winter blizzards.
It has been estimated that in the United States and Canada during the period 1903-1913 there were some 1,000,000 sod buildings in use. Few soddies remain as most have melted into the prairie.
References: www.nathankramer.com/settle/article/homestead.htm
http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/soddies.html
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/natbltn/600-699/nb666.htm
Candy Simonson - Experienced in writing user-friendly instructions on a variety of topics for various venues for many years.
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