Hans Jørgenson Lium Homestead

One of, if not the first cabin, located on East Ridge. 

Original 1850s log cabin with 1870s kitchen addition on the left.

From the 1884 Illustrated History of Vernon County, Wisconsin

In regard to the furniture of the pioneer’s cabin, it may be said that it varied in proportion to the ingenuity of the occupants, unless it was where settlers brought with them their old household supply, which, owing to the distance most of then had to come, was very seldom. It was easy enough to improvise tables and chairs; the former cold be made of split logs; the latter were designed after the three-legged stool pattern or benches served their purpose. A bedstead was a very important item in the domestic comfort of the family; and the fashion of improvising them as follows:

A forked stake was driven into the ground diagonally from the corner of the room, and at a proper distance, upon which poles reaching from each side of the cabin were laid. The wall ends of the poles were either driven into auger-holes or rested in the openings between the logs. Bark or boards were used as a substitute for cords. Upon this, the wife spread her straw tick; and if she had a homemade feather bed, she piled it up into a luxurious mound and covered it with her sheets and bed-quilts. Sometimes sheets were hung against the wall at the head and side of the bed, which added much to the coziness of this resting place — the pioneer bedroom. The sleeping arrangement was generally called a “a prairie bedstead.”

If the settler arrived in the early part of the season and had not time to plant, or had no fields prepared for that purpose, he could, at least, have a truck-patch, where a little corn was planted, also a few potatoes and turnips, and some other vegetables were put in the ground. Of course this was only to make his small supply, which he had brought with him, reach as far as possible. His meager stores consisted of flour, bacon, tea and coffee, but these supplies would frequently be exhausted before a regular crop of wheat or corn could be raised, and as game was plentiful, it helped to eke them out, but when the corn was raised, it was not easily prepared for the table. The mills for grinding were at such distances away, that every other device was resorted to for making meal.

Some grated it on an implement made by punching small holes through a piece of tin or sheet-iron, and fastening it upon a board in concave shape, with the rough side out. Upon this the ear was rubbed to produce the meal. But, grating could not be done when the corn became so dry as to shell off when rubbed. Some used a coffee mill for grinding it; and a very common substitute for bread was hominy, a palatable and wholesome diet, made by boiling corn in a weak lye till the hull or bran peeled off, after which it was well washed to cleanse it of the lye. It was then boiled again to soften it, when it was ready for use, as occasion required, by frying and seasoning it to the taste. Another mode of preparing hominy was pestling. A mortal was made by burning a bowl-shaped cavity in the end of an upright block of wood. After thoroughly cleaning it of the charcoal, the corn could be put in, hot water turned upon it, when it was subjected to a severe pestling by a club of sufficient length and thickness, in the large end of which was inserted an iron wedge, banded to keep it there. The hot water would soften the corn and loosen the hull, while the pestle would crush it.