Sod Houses

[Ms Bear]

Were there a lot of sod houses in Howard/Elk county?  I remember my father talking about living in a sod house but I think it was in McDonald County.  His parents moved from Elk County before he was three years old.

[Ms Bear]

Sorry, I need to make a correction to my post about sod houses.  My dad moved to Rawlins County, not McDonald County.  They lived in the McDonald area.

[Jo McDonald]

Yes, there was a family that lived in a sod house in the Busby community.  I will have to ask Fred the details, before I post any more on here about it.

[W. Gray]

The Elk County history book (as does the Chautauqua County history book) mentions sod houses and dug outs but neither goes into specifics. The Chautauqua County history book also mentions caves as being used as a home by some families.

According to their newspaper, the advance elements of the Communist community near Cedar Vale originally occupied a cave sealed with a sod wall and an entry door.

The federal government required a minimum fourteen by twelve foot home erected in order for an immigrant to purchase his claim. According to one author, a fourteen foot by twelve foot home would have required as much as fifty-five tons of sod bricks. The fire place and flue were, likewise, constructed from sod. It would be interesting to know how much a similar sized log cabin weighed. Sod homes did not have a very long life span as the weather took a heavy toll.

There may have been more sod houses to begin with because Howard County had only an eight percent land area containing trees, usually along the streams. Normally, immigrants could not afford framing lumber and, initially, had to freight that commodity in from another county adding to the expense. However, it was the goal of every new claim owner for his farm to thrive and he would eventually build a frame house.

Immigrants had to buy log timber from a neighbor if they had none on their claim. It was against federal law to cut timber on unclaimed county land. That probably helped increase the number of sod houses. An 1871 edition of the Howard County Ledger mentions US Marshall's investigating local timber thieves.

Local sawmills, the first known was at Longton, eventually came into existence and the cost of framing lumber went down. The sod and log cabins slowly disappeared giving way to a traditional farmhouses.

I once came across a 1950 newspaper article indicating in that year there were three sod homes left in Kansas and a new one was being built. The three sod homes though had all been enclosed years ago with lumber and siding. That same year a farmer in northwestern Kansas was building a new garage or an implement shed constructed entirely with sod.

Some early and later claim owners were able to gather enough stones to build a home.

[Ms Bear]

Thankyou for the information.  The earliest that I know my father's grandparents were in this area is 1872 on the gravestone in Grace Lawn Cemetery and then the 1875 Census for Howard County.  They went back to Nebraska and then later came back, settling in Elk County.

[W. Gray]

There are photos of sod houses in several Kansas counties at

http://specialcollections.wichita.edu/Collections/ms/95-20/95-20_Kansas.html

There are no photos from Rawlins, Elk, Howard, or Chautauqua counties, though.

[W. Gray]

There is a web site for a sod house in McDonald, Kansas.

http://www.minorsodhouse.com/description.htm

[Ms Bear]

My dad's family came from England to New York.  I haven't found any from Scotland yet.  The Draper's came to New York around 1700 and settled in Onieda County.  The Hubbards were from Stueben County, New York and I am not sure where they originated from.  The Draper's and Hubbard's were in Wisconsin and around Saunders County, Nebraska before moving to Kansas the first time.  I don't know why they moved around so much.