Background Notes

Out of necessity, Michigan pioneers used many homemade tools and simple methods to carry out farm tasks. They may have brought an iron plow blade with them from the east, but they made the wooden plow handle here. If they had no horse or ox, they pulled the plow themselves. The whole family was needed, and work was slow.

Objectives

• Students will compare living in the early days of Michigan with today.
• Students will understand that things that can be purchased in stores today, such as tools, clothing and food took more work and planning in settlement times because they had to be made or grown.

Michigan Social Studies Curriculum Content Standards

This lesson presents an opportunity to address, in part, these standards:

• 4.4.5. ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE: Explain how they act as a producer and a consumer.
• 1.2.6. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: Use narratives and graphic data to compare the past of their local community, the state of Michigan, and other parts of the United States with present day life in those places.

Materials Needed

Copy of the "Then and Now" handout [PDF, Adobe Acrobat Reader required] to each student (or 46.5k "gif" graphic of handout).

Directions

Give a copy of the "Then and Now" handout to each student. Explain: In the left column there is a list of activities people did 150 years ago; in the right column there is a list of activities people do today. Tell students to write what they think the corresponding activity might be in the blank space. (If you wish, add other items to the list. Suggestions include: Cook dinner at home/Go to a fast food restaurant; Make candles for light/Buy light bulbs at the store; Dry berries/Buy food at store; Store food in cellar to keep cool/Buy frozen food and store in refrigerator.) This activity could be used as an introduction to the Settlement Gallery or as a follow-up activity and with the study of other historical periods.

Questions for Discussion or Research

1. What are methods of farming today? If possible, obtain tractor or other farm implement catalogs for the class to examine. Visit a farm to learn how work is done.
2. What toys do we purchase today that children or their parents might have made during Michigan's settlement days? Find plans for one (e.g., corn husk dolls at a crafts store) and make your own.
3. Look at your "Then and Now" comparisons. What are the effects on the environment of the different ways of life then and now?

At the Museum

• Look for farming and household tools in the Settlement Gallery. Try to figure out how they work.
• Look at farming tools in the Growth of Manufacturing Gallery and in the Early Agriculture, 1900-1930, Gallery on the museum's third floor. Ask students to describe what they see, then compare the descriptions, looking for changes.

Vocabulary

• Pioneer: A person who goes before to prepare the way for others.
• Settler: Person who makes a home in a new colony or country.

References

• Deur, Lynne. Settling in Michigan (And other true pioneer stories). Spring Lake, MI: River Road Publications, Inc., 1992.
• Freedman, Eric. Pioneering Michigan. Franklin, MI: Altwerger and Mandel Publishing Company, 1992.
• Hampton, Charles F. Michigan Log Cabins and Hard Cider. Brighton, MI: Green Oak Press, 1983.

Michigan Historical Center, Department of History, Arts and Libraries
Use and Reproduction Information [PDF]
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