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Photo: A homesteader and his family in front of their sod house in Cherry County, Nebraska. C.1900 (Photograph by Solomon D. Butcher)
In a 1959 correspondence from Ollie M. Hoback to his half-sister, Mrs. Clay Jenkins, an account unfolds detailing the construction of a sod house by his father on the vast Nebraska prairie. The letter provides insights into this bygone era, capturing the essence of the laborious task undertaken by Ollie's father.
“In the fall of 1883, my father, Isaac Newton Hoback, built a sod house astride the section line, whereby one half of the house was on his homestead, and the other half on presumption land. The law said the homesteader had to make the homestead his home (and only home) for at least six months of the year.
On a presumption, one had to live on it six months and pay $1.25 an acre. By this method, one could live in one end of the house for six months, and then move to the other end for six months, satisfying the law.
Our land was about three miles from McCook, Nebraska. I watched Father plow the sod for his house. The Buffalo Grass roots held the sod together for great lengths—a mile if you wanted to plow that far. The sod would turn over just like a board.
After the first furrow was turned, the second one would lay down and fit into the furrow space left by the first one. The field would just lie there like a smooth black expanse. Any fair team of horses could pull a twelve inch plow, so the sod strips were four inches thick, twelve inches wide and cut the length you wanted to use for the width of your house walls. Father used a sharp spade and a measuring stick for uniform size.
He took the regular bed off the wagon and laid flat planks on to make a flat bed. He picked up the cut sods and hauled them to the house, building the house walls as he unloaded the wagon. He drove the wagon along side the sod strips, loaded, and pulled the wagon so near that the sod could be placed right in the proper wall location.
When the walls were about five feet high, he started standing on the wagon bed to place the sods. There was no mortar or daubing for the sod house, nor was there a foundation.
The first block of sod was laid grass side down on the grassy ground. Subsequent blocks were also laid grass side down and the grass acted as a sealant and a mortar to seal sod to sod.
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