Today, I am thankful for those humble abodes that remind me of my childhood.
Nothing conjures up the American frontier as much as an image of a log cabin. As immigrants traversed the Atlantic Ocean in search of a better life in colonial America, they often built these simple homes out of logs laid horizontally and interlocked at their ends with notches. A broad range of infill materials, known as chinks, were often placed in between the logs to prevent drafts of cold air from emanating within. These chinks were originally comprised of dried clay, mosses, or small stones. The roof was often capped by logs notched into the two gabled walls, with hand-split shingles and dried moss fortuitously placed on top to avoid leaks. As settlers travelled west into the states of Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky in the early to mid 19th Century, these log cabins became a staple of rugged, American frontier.
Not surprisingly, these log cabins have carved out a nostalgic place in the American psyche. Two specific stories, both interestingly enough involving log cabins from the state of Kentucky, helped solidify this everlasting lore. Most of us who have studied American history know the story of the humble beginnings of the 16th President of the United States. Born on Sinking Spring Farm in LaRue County, Kentucky, Lincoln’s early childhood was one filled with abject poverty and bitter despair. He was born and raised in a single-room log cabin for most of his childhood, first in Kentucky and subsequently in Indiana. Like many children in the western frontier, Lincoln spent most of his days toiling in the fields. Entirely self-educated, he would succeed in becoming a lawyer, congressman, and eventually the holder of the highest office in the land. This ax-swinging ‘rail-splitter’ became an American symbol of ruggedness and perseverance – the epitome of the ‘rags to riches’ American story.
The second log cabin, although fictional in nature, also captured America’s attention and left a lasting attitude on the nation’s psyche. In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe, a Connecticut-born abolitionist author, wrote a compelling, heart-wrenching account of Uncle Tom, an elder African American slave who lives in a small log cabin on the property of a Kentucky farmer, Arthur Shelby. Although Tom’s relationship with the other slaves on the farm is benevolent and his owners treat him was respect, he is eventually sold down the Mississippi River to a ruthless, despicable owner, Simon Legree. Refusing to cast punishment on his fellow slaves or to stop reading the Bible to them, Tom draws the wicked ire of Legree, who savagely beats Tom to death. In the final scene, as the remaining slaves on the Shelby farm are freed in Kentucky, they are reminded to never to forget the cabin in which the beloved Tom lived and cared for them. The best-selling novel would depict the horrors of slave life in the United States, helping to further the abolitionist cause that would eventually boil up with confederate secession and the American Civil War.
Both cabins are symbols of 19th Century Americana. So, it should come as no surprise that in the early 20th Century, a man named John Lloyd Wright, the son of the renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright, would envision the idea of creating a toy that would permit all American children to reconstruct log cabins. Lincoln Logs consisted of square-notched miniature logs that could be laid at right angles to form small rectangular cabins, homes, or buildings. Packed alongside roofs, doors, windows, and chimneys, these redwood logs could be built into log cabin homes reminiscent of the ones where Abraham Lincoln and Uncle Tom resided (thanks to instructions included in the original tin canisters). John Lloyd Wright came up for the idea of the Red Square Toy Company while traveling with his father to Tokyo, where the duo helped construct the original Imperial Hotel in 1916. The foundation that Frank Lloyd Wright created for that building consisted of, you guessed it, interlocking log beams – a feature that the Wrights realized could withstand the notorious earthquakes of Japan. In fact, when Tokyo suffered the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, most buildings fell or were significantly damaged, but the Imperial Hotel stood strong.
John Lloyd Wright would receive a patent for his design for the Lincoln Logs toy on this day (Aug 31) exactly 100 years ago. Eventually, the toy company would be sold to Playskool in 1943 and to K’Nex in 2014, but Lincoln Logs have continued to entertain American youth for many uninterrupted decades. With more than 100 million sets sold worldwide, the toy set would eventually be inducted in the National Toy Hall of Fame along with its originator, John Lloyd Wright.
I still remember the endless hours of sheer joy and pleasant solitude I had as a child playing with the only building block toy that I ever adored. The version we have today has remained essentially unchanged from the original version issued a century ago, thereby allowing my own offspring (and hopefully their offspring) the opportunity to build a log cabin with their own hands.
Long before there were Legos, there were Lincoln Logs. Happy 100th birthday to a childhood icon!
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