Last Updated: 23 June 2003
One day I was reading on one of the List Servers about the various floors some of the families had in their homes in the Banat region in Austria-Hungary and I found it very interesting. So, I went over to the list server on the German-Russians and started to ask questions about floors, walls, roofs, cellars and other things about the home in which our ancestors lived in Russia, USA, Canada and Africa.
The following are some of the questions and many of the answers. Hope you find them as interesting as I did.
FLOORS
> Many of the houses didn't have wood floors , some houses had dirt floors. How did they clean the dirt floors? If they used a broom did it kick up the dust? Did they sprinkle water?<<
In a message dated 6/1/03 11:35:40 AM, atacama@global.co.za writes:
<< ....you ask the right person here !
We in Africa are full of earth / dirt floors !
It's all very easy and simple and cheap.
The floors also have hay/straw and cow-dung flattening into harden surface like "super-glue".
It all bone-dry with no dust - its almost like 'cement'.
It is not lose-grained, gritty, dusty earth.
Vera>>
In a message dated 6/1/03 2:59:41 PM, RWheelerst@aol.com writes:
<< Here is what my grandfather told me about how those dirt floors were dealt with: first, there was a sand coating sprinkled on the floor and, when the "debris" on the floor became "unmanageable", it was swept outside and a fresh layer of sand was used as a replacement. This was the method used in the first house (a 2-room soddy) that my grandparents lived in in Campbell county, SD.
Chickens were allowed in the living quarters sometimes in the winter time before the barn was built, soiling the floor and making necessary the sweeping out and sprinkling fresh sand a frequent activity. One time, when the children were rather active and at a time when the last of the flour was setting in a jar on the table, someone accidentally knocked it off the table and the flour spilled onto the floor. Grandma had to sift what she could salvage for baking until grandpa returned from a several days journey to Ipswich, SD with more flour!
Curt.>>
In a message dated 6/1/03 11:36:31 AM, pasanoy@sk.sympatico.ca writes:
<< My Mom remembers some houses with dirt floors, plus the talk by her seniors about what it was like. She said they would sprinkle the floors with water to settle the dust. Plus if they ate had peanuts or sunflowers they would throw the shells on the floor and walk on them, this would result in a bit of oil being added to the top layer of soil. Thus settling dust too.
When I was growing up we had a wooden floor in our porch and I remember Mom saving peanut shells and when she had quite a pile she would spread them on the porch floor and get us kids to stomp on them. She said it helped settle the dust, plus the dust there seemed to cling to the shattered shells and sweeping was easy.
However I am sure that dust free did not exist in the homes with either wood or dirt floors ;-)
adeline >>
In a message dated 6/3/03 6:45:19 PM, jmeeuwig@attcanada.ca writes:
<< Heck... i'm reminded that not only were floors "dirt floors" ... the walls and roof were ...
"Sod huts" were not at all uncommon for new settlers... I have received an interesting picture , and have asked the photographer for permission to share...
Stand by for a sod hut with a grass roof...
And U betcha that the FLOOR was not tiled nor even wooden...
Did anyone on this listserver, ever visit a place like that?
;j. >>
In a message dated 6/3/03 10:28:10 PM, hasti014@umn.edu writes:
<< By way of building materials and supplies for daily living- isn't it true that at least the first settlers (after the initial settling in when they basically have nothing) received a lot of material help from the Imperial government? I think I remember reading that in "From Catherine to Khrushchev". If that is the case we may actually expect to see styles and materials that are not native to the areas settled - especially in the the early Volga settlements.
While I was in St. Petersburg researching at the Imperial Ministry of the Interior Archives, I read a lot of petitions written by the settlers to the government requesting supplies, especially for building churches and farms, e.g., wood. (They were also requesting horses and carriages so that they could travel back to Germany and recruit missionaries who would come and run their churches, however it is not clear if they actually got that help).
Again, I am not sure the extent of outside supplies that they actually received, but I do think we need to consider that there were at least a bit of outside supplies coming in from the Imperial Gov't and in the Odessa / Black Sea area we might see merchants from the south like the Greeks who had a large population in Odessa.
In addition, I would wonder where did these settlers learn how to make clay tiles for their roofs? And if they did have art / designs on their dirt floors, from where did they draw their inspiration - from Germany or they new lives in Russia?
This is a very interesting topic; it can illuminate / illustrate perhaps how much contact the settlers had with other populations.
Tiffanne Hastings >>
Judy's Notes: Some of our ancestors stopped for a period of time in Austria-Hungary where these same kind of sod / adobe houses were built by Germans who had migrated there in the mid-1700s. I suspect those who had not learned, quickly learned from others [locals or GRs who arrived earlier]..
In a message dated 6/4/03 11:36:27 AM, HANKBVO writes:
<< I remember visiting relatives in ND/SD "before the war," as they say, and being fascinated by the 'soddy' behind a nice home. It was cool, and had linoleum floors -- obviously over dirt.
Didn't know I was in HISTORY. (Scheid ancestry, incidently.) >>
------
Forgot to ask in last e-mail about the designs for floors which the subject highlighted.
I understand some of our GRs were more creative than others. Some used color sand to make designs on their dirt floors. Anyone else heard of this artist addition?
I can understand the artistic wood workers for floors which still exists on our modern floors. We have some on our wood floors. But, this was the first time I considered designs for dirt floor.
One of the e-mails sent mentioned that their family made designs with colored sand on their floors for Sunday visitors.
I can't seem to find that e-mail. If you'd like to resend me an e-mail, I'd be happy to insert your story.
Thanks.
So, from what I gather, there were different dirt floors [soft and hard].
When I spoke to my mother yesterday, she said that many houses in Borodino/Bess. had the kind of floor Vera mentioned. The straw/hay was mixed with cow dung and like a plaster was spread over the floor. This is what they used to make the blocks for the houses .... This harden like tile. Sand was used to polish it from time to time. Shelled sunflowers seeds were, also, used, and the oil from these shells made the floor gave it a waxed look.
Some houses, like her father's parents, had wood floors in all the rooms but the kitchens [summer / winter] which had tile.
Alfred Hein was kind enough to send me a photo which shows [behind their group having lunch] the interior of a building in Peterstal / Bess. . We can see the smooth hard floor, a step up at the door, and, what appears to be a cellar door inside.
See Complete Large Photo: http://www.remmick.org/Borodino.Bess.Genealogy/PagePeterstal.html
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