PIONEER SETTLEMENT
Although
perhaps better known, the French were not the only ethnic
group to influence the landscape and culture of Louisiana.
Beginning in 1790, another group arrived to place its imprint
upon the land. These pioneers who settled North and West Louisiana
and parts of the Florida parishes were members of the Upland
South Culture.
Uplanders
were descended from Scots-Irish farmers who emigrated to Pennsylvania
beginning in the 1720s. Pennsylvania was already occupied
by German colonists. The two groups shared the region for
about a generation, gradually blending their experiences into
a new culture called Upland South. Eventually, the Uplanders
moved south and west, arriving in Louisiana between 1790 and
the 1830s.
Uplander
buildings are based upon log construction and the concept
of the pen (a square
or rectangular unit consisting of four log walls fastened
together with corner notching). Building types include:
the
single pen house, a one room structure with a partial sleeping
loft reached by a ladder,
the
double pen house, a two-room house with a chimney at one
or both ends,
the
dogtrot, a cabin consisting of two pens flanking a central
passageway open at both ends, and
outbuildings,
or farm support structures such as barns and smoke houses.
