Download Sod Houses and Similar Structures: A Brief Evaluation

RESEARCH NOTEBOOK
Sod Houses
and Similar Structures:
A Brief Evaluation
of the Literature
Allen G. Noblq,::,:.,..
University of Akro I.?. :I.
Akron, Obi&- ..
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Although colonial settle& often resorted to dugouts and caves for.
shelter in the initial period of European settlement in North America.
the use of dwellings composed of earth sods awaited the expansion of
settlement onto the largely treeleas, prairie plains of the continent. The
use of sod largely died out as soon as the railway net was .dense enough
to sufliciently lower railway freight rates to permit widespread delivee
of low cost lumber to these areas. Its use qs a building material of the
plains, thus,is largely restricted to the latter half of the nineteenth and
the opening decade of the twentieth centuries.
Two distinct sod buildii traditions can be identified iq the
can prairies. The earlier one is associated with Russian-German
who brought sod building techniques to the plains of North
directly from Russia. This tradition is not well documented.
ing also was employed by migrants from the eastern states
arrived settlers from western
continue to follow earlier building
the widely available sods. None of these groups on
coimection with. earlier peoples of the American
tenones, a form of adobe sod constmction
ences to terrones are not included in this bibliography.
The literature on sod buildings is not extensive. Sod houses were not&<:'
viewed as objects worthy of study when they were being built on the
North American prairies during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Some settlers did describe them in letters to family left behind i~+iz'?:.,, :j
eastern North America (Ruede, 1966). Others provided often vivid diary@ -::r=I':
acc9uuts of the problems encountered in the building and continued
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PIONEER
AMBRIC~
tinson, 1973). During the s h e period the frontier and pioneer
settlement had receded sufficiently to permit sod structures to be examined, with detachment, as architectural features (Dick, 1937; Gates,
1933; Osborne, 1937).
Very little research was undertaken and few studies were published
on sod structures throughout the 1940s, 1960s and early 1960s. The
chief exception, however, signilicaktly provided the initial investigation
of the German-Russian origins of sod housing (Francis, 1954).
The latest stage of research and publication about sod structures
has been characterized by careful scholarship and professional writing.
Robert Welsch opened the'new phase with a comprehensive volume on
sod houses in 1968 (Welsch, 1968). Hudson, however, has offered the
most analytical study of sod housing and its relationship to other typea
of housing on the frontier (Hudson, 1975). Petersen completed the &at
fully detailed account of G.erman Russian sod houses in 1976, while
Moe has provided us with the first exact measurements and floor plane
of non-German sod houses (Petersen; Moe, 1977). Clearly by the end 01
the 1970s the place of the sod house as a fitting object of enquiry by
cultural geographers, folklorists and social historians studying the material settlement landscape had been establiied.
This literature review is thefirst attempt to collect the scattered
references to sod building and to provide a preliminary evaluation of
Vol. 13 (1981),No. 2
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house in detaiL Conteins. reminisGiiiees by an .-ate
observer &d includes inforimtion on coqstruction practices.
BUTCHER,Solomon D. .
1B@4 Sod 'Houses .or the- Dwelopment of the Great American
Pluins, Western Plains Publishing Co., Kearney, Nebraska
and Chicago,
A contemperary account of the building of sod houses, ac.
,
companied by anecdotes, historid vignettes and extensive
photographic coverage.
DICK, Everett
1937 The Sod-House Frontier; I&54-I&9, D. ~ ~ ~ l e t o n - ~ e n t t h y
Co., New Y6k.
Embedded &thin this social history of the northern Great
Plains is brief >d&ckiptionof sod h o w s arid dugom in
Chamr '8. Several useful and &temting.&taila and bits of
not found elsewhere.
information ar6 included here that. ate
.
FRANCIS, E K.
1954 The ' ~ e & n i t a Farmhow
Manitoba. Mennonite Qunrterljl&view' Vol. 28,. pp. '&-9.
Very brief mention 'of both the- semlb, the Ruasian sod
house, and the sorai, thb Russian dugout.
GATES, D o d d S,
1933:The Sod H q s e , Jourwl if Geogmphy, Vol. 32, pp. 353-59.
considerable information on construction.
.
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HENKES,Rollie
1976 Where the Soddy Survives, Furrow, VoL 81, No. 6, pp. 30-1.
Contemporary article with information on some sod houses
preserved in parka and museums. Also briefly discuseee the
org@&atitiOn known as the S o u and Daughters of the
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8
A brief review of both dugouts and sod houses. P&~..and
ink
s
~ hcla&ng
~ one.of.lthi?
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greeshopperpl@w
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.which was
used to break sods.
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,OSBO~&&;M. 3.
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.of . w 8 & ~ f W , Toronto,
pp. 63-87.
.
Contains a brief sketch of the type of sod house built by pio-.
neer settlers in Manitoba. &nstrudion details lueincluded.
PETER~EN,
Albert J. Jr:
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1976 The Germqn-Russian House in Kansas: A Study in Pasisten- of Fa%, F%om&Atfiericq Vol. 8, No. t, pp. 19-27.
Inclu&e&
'a brief diicus~~ion
of the semljanken, &.semi*dugout sod hotise of the Germ&-Russim settlers. This i6.a condensakion of his Ph. D. dissertation which contains additional
hfodi(111.
..
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1970 German-Russian catholic' Colonization i.%i~@te$
A Settkment G e c g ~ e hPbD.
,
&@atiqp,. Department of
Geography, Louisiana State ~nivemity,m n Rouge,
See above.
ROBENS,
Ellen . .- . . . .
..
1968 Alberta Homestead: Chronicle of a 'F%oneer.~amily,
Univer,sityJTJ?~P&.
P~sE~.Aw*... :.:.,:.
. Typid ef a.,lerge~.am&x:ofi~&Prdi&,a&ep6ntidy the
diaries of early settlers. Contains descriptions i f how to build
a sod house, li& to make a prairie 6re break, ahd .how to
prepwe aod blocks.
. .
-ROE, Frank Gilbert
1W7 The Sod. House, Albert0 Hist~$cplReview, VoL 18,'No.3, pp.
\.
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as:
,
.1-7.
~omey&r&d8h.~GGo&t
06 bui$&& a sod ,dla&t. Contains
numerous small details about construction andrepair not
.fqund.eCpphere.
RUm,Hwhrd .
.
1966 Sod House Days, Cooper square ~ublishers,New York.
. PwBzlMy @e .Best of #e :pionser..apuntS of the *'.house.
Well-miw. with$:w~frJ1:dwcri~tjon,a.,
OJ sqcl stwctures.
-. Muohdetaittw&pimyerlore. T&$oduct
of g keenand sensitive observer.
STEAD, Robert J. C.
1933 The Old Prairie Homestead, Canadian Geographical Jour~.
.wl,Vol. 7,. Nq,1, mt 48'21. .
Contaka s veqvybrijef dewription of sod house c6ns&tion.
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of Early Pioneers, 'saikotchewan ist tor^,
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Val. - Ik, No. 3, pp. 81-93. ..
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A combina$iop ifc o m w f i \&&&,eijld m bj
:
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&.&
&structures..&
@me fine photographs,
includ,
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,: ~wm~&,.m@3r
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1967 ~
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a!,.
P Sock&,
J eN e~ b ~~ htor^,,.
~ . Xd:
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a&,
of the technicpea involved
,
tr.
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pp. 335:
.:I
in building.
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ontaim a wealth of detail
19&& ?&6eFYal
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he 'hehatwe woik on sod&m$w~q thur, far. ddhtaina
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ye x d e. n t pLotograpbs and carefdy detailed dra,yings
--with
.
an attractively writte&text. Includes., some
of thi folk: . - . :. . .
.1. I;.~rtue
asso~la
.,te# with sod ,-d
1969 Sbd ConstruQtion.on the Plains, Pioneer America, Vol. 1,
. , ~ ,.
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,.,
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y..l.
:
fJo, 2-pp1:.07.
Places the b ding of sod ho-
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in their proper context as
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#i.&f%% de tlement prooesa oMwring in the Great American Desert
' 4 . 9 : G r.d
, the nineteenth century.
197% m
5
i h e m of Folk Architecture: The Sod House Fixam:
ple, .&?y&qkd Rdlklore Qvarterly, Vol. 21, No.. 2, pp. 34-49.
Web& at&+&
to interpret the sod house by refating it ta
paesa$e5' fouqd in a number of works of fictionwith varying
succeee in thi$looeely written study.
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1 9 7.KPTP~Pyyyywr;it~li
7 b ~ ' &&e
~ ~Plains,
~ ~knnt
~NaZural
~
~ i s t i iVqL
- ,-.,--. 86, pp 48-53.
.- weEnga m a y containing materials included in hie earlier writings on the
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