In the pages for this subject a variety of topics will be presented to illustrate the daily life of the settlers in Mother Bedford during the period preceeding and during the American Revolutionary War.

  The expansion of homesteaders (and hence, the United States) westward into the North American plains and onward to the Pacific Ocean during the latter half of the 19^th Century is often romanticized as the "taming of the frontier". The idea of the "wild west", as promoted in television and paperback books, generally refers to the encounters between the white settlers and the Indians during the late-1800s and early-1900s. Despite the fact that the actors were the same (Euro-Americans and indigenous Indians), one seldom thinks of the "wild west" as a drama played out in Pennsylvania. But the region in the south-central part of the Province of Pennsylvania that was formed as Bedford County in 1771 was indeed the frontier - the wild west - from the late-1750s to the mid-1780s.

  The powder horn icons below contain links to additional pages in which you'll find information about how the early Euro-American settlers carved out a living in the Bedford County frontier.

  The Log Cabin

  Meal Time

  The Blacksmith

  The Shoemaker

  The Tanner

  The Miller

  The Cooper

  Divorce…Early American Style (When It Required An Act Of The Assembly)

  Eighteenth Century Deeds: Indented And Polled

  The Rooms We Lost

  Superstitions

  The Sowing & Reaping Of Grain