The Bark Covered House

by William Nowlin

William Nowlin gives us an incredible glimpse into the pioneer life of wilderness Michigan. This book is an easy and fun read, that is full of stories that you won't forget.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

260 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1876

Reviews

[Avis Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. The author and his parents moved to Michigan in the 1830s, and this book tells about their early years on the new farm. It contains interesting descriptions of a storm on Lake Erie while the author is taking a canal boat, the troubles of breaking virgin soil, the coming of the railroad, and various hunting scenes among other topics. It's rather odd to see the War of 1812 called the Tripoli War, and hear about 'Dearbornville.' While the author is not the most sophisticated stylist, his plain writing gets the job done.

Available at Open Library:
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL33870...

[Brian Pait · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love history and this was a good account of it. Real pioneer life and a basic telling of it.

[Goodreader11 · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a very well-done reading on The Townsends YouTube channel. He reads it dressed in period clothing in front of a log cabin fireplace. They are reinactors and perfect to read it! May work for those who found it difficult to stick with.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bark Covered House is a fascinating look into the life of a 19th-century pioneer family as they move from New York to Michigan and settle the frontier of what is now the Midwest.

In this book, William Nowlin tells many tales of growing up on his family's homestead near Dearborn, and his stories are full of detail of description. The Nowlin family moved to Michigan when William was rather young, and in this book, he tells us all about growing up, helping his father clear land and start his farm, and eventually getting to the point where the land is quite settled and no longer a wilderness.

I felt a degree of loss and regret while I read this book. On the one hand, what the Nowlins and other families like them did was amazing and inspiring. On the other the loss of pristine forest and a simpler way of life is somewhat heartbreaking - just in the lifespan of William Nowlin, you can see the technological and cultural advances that have since changed the world.

We shouldn't dwell on the past, but rather learn from it, and above all else, I think the lesson to learn from The Bark Covered House is to live with respect for the land, for your neighbors, and for the world as a whole. If nothing else, it's worth reading this book for that takeaway alone.

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading along with Townsends on their youtube channel, only to find it was incomplete, so the last four chapters I found online.
It's interesting how we are reading the life stories of just a simple ordinary man because he thought to write it down for history and it wasn't lost forever. I think a passage in the book explains it perfectly "We cannot tell how many of the names of the good and great of the Earth's true philanthropists were engraven upon tablets of dead stone, who have long since been forgotten and the knowledge of them lost in the past". How many people lived through struggles and near death experiences only to come out of the other side and make something of a life for themselves and their children; but even the names on their gravestones are no longer there as a reminder that they once lived and lost and loved.
If not for this book none of these people would be remembered even by their own ancestors.

[Danielle Friedrich · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another book I started and then got distracted by other books. Glad I finished it. It was so fun reading true Michigan history from a first person "diary". Especially since it took place in Dearborn. Not my style, per say, but it was so cool reading what life was like and what our land looked like in the 1800s.

[Petra Gatz · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF
The style simply wasn’t for me

[Donna Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not an easy book to stay with, but I'm glad I did to learn more of my ancestors- The Nowlin lineage

[Zoya Khomyak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone interested in first person history accounts should read this book!
And reflect on the changes the country per se, and the Dearborn in particular experienced!

[Deborah Schuff · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1834, William Nowlin's father moved his family to Michigan form Putnam County, New York. In 1875, William Nowlin sat down to write this book as a memoir to his father, mother, and all other pioneers who helped to "tame" the forest and "develop" the land. It's a first-hand look at what these people had to go through. It's been an especial treat for me as I live quite close to where these stories took place. I would read of "the old telegraph road" and realize it referred to Telegraph Road and that it actually HAD BEEN a road down which telegraph messages had traveled. I knew that the name "Detroit" came from the French "de troit" meaning "the river," but hadn't realized the extent to which the French still controlled the markets in Detroit back then. There are tales of land clearings, ice storms, deer and bear hunts, sightings of Indians and hiring of escaped slaves, the first steam train in the area and, later, the first steam whistle.

I'm glad I found this little treasure of a book at the American Association of University Women's annual used book sale. Who knew history could be so personal and fascinating?

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled upon this book, while looking for some good fiction set in Michigan. It is non-fiction and considered a primary source for people researching pioneer life in Michigan during the mid 1800s. William Nowlin recounts the story of his young adult years scratching out a farm from the forest of Michigan with his father and family. He tells of logging the land to make fields for crops, how his family was the first to sell watermelons in Detroit and Dearbornville, tracking and hunting bear and deer, living among native people, finding a honey tree and more. The prose of this first hand account of pioneering in eastern Michigan is clear, concise and interesting. As I read it, I could see Michigan casting her spell on the Nowlins. Although hard and trying at times, William's life was a happy one, and by the end of the story he would call nowhere else home, but Michigan.

[Robyn Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a fun book to read. I teach at the school that was named after the author. It is his personal a count of his family migrating to southeast Michigan and carving out a homestead from the Michigan wilderness in what is present day Dearborn. All of the locations referenced in the book are well known to me, but it was interesting to find out how a lot of places and roads in the area came to be called their present names. It was also surprising to learn of the wild animals that once proliferated the area. Imagine bears and wolves in Dearborn. A great read for Michiganders and Dearbornites in particular. The only disappointment was that he gave no account of how the Civil War impacted him or the local residents. He pretty much ended the account right before the war took place even though he lived through it and many years after.

[Les Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of the Nowlin pioneer family is a story that is both enlightening and humbling. Visited by bears and harrassed by wolves, insects and Indians, the pioneers endured with little more to start their new lives but the clothes on their backs, an axe and a rifle or two.

It took an unusual drive, aptitude for hard work and sacrifice, savvy and extraordinary determination to survive in the backwoods of Michigan in the early 1800's.

The book is sprinkled with many clever and humorous anecdotes that often had me laughing out loud.

I found myself wishing that my own family had written such a legacy to pass on from generation to generation yet, at the same time, it was impossible not to feel a strong kinship with the Nowlins --well before the last page.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a story! What a read!

I read this story on consecutive nights. She enjoyed it so much, I was asked to continue reading on in it the next evening. I just finished the book. It was sad to see it end. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys complete stories. This is about a young family who leave New York state to homestead in Michigan state in the mid 1800's and follows them thru to about 1870. You will like this book.

[Willem · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting account of one of the first settlers of Michigan. It describes the struggles they had to overcome to create a new life in a place untouched by white people, but most of all it is an ode to freedom, family and the mesmerizing beauty of the country. Sometimes hard to understand for non-native speakers.

[Lisa Reit · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding personal history about settling in Michigan before Michigan was even a state. The kids and I read this together as a homeschool book, we all enjoyed it greatly. It’s free on the internet. I will definitely have the kids read this again in their own when they are older, it’s a great historical piece.

[Tome Addiction · Rating 4 out of 5]

A biographical account of a family being the first settlers in Michigan, told from the son's perspective. A great historical qualitative document, after reading you really get a good picture of what Michigan was like before the lumber industry clear cut the forests.

[Robert Tell · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible, well written biographical memoir by a 19th century New York State pioneer who moved to Southeastern Michigan and watched it evolve from a dangerous forested wilderness to a livable and developed civilization.

[Randy Carr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty interesting

Looking for something earlier. Would have liked pictures too. Maybe some maps. This had a nice story line. A o k