Pioneer Handbooks is a free library of digitized and downloadable chapters of historic how-to instructions covering building, farming, gardening, livestock, recipes, medicine, hunting and prospecting from rare and useful pioneer and settler handbooks of the 1800′s.
These books taught colonist families how to successfully clear the land, build a log cabin or farmhouse, grow food, take care of farm animals, cook meals, fight diseases and heal their injuries. They are the original colonial DIY guides.
If you are interested in….
a chemical free life,
living off the land,
living off the grid,
how your ancestors lived,
wholesome traditional recipes,
historic hunting techniques
some good old-fashioned common sense DIY instructions…
If you are interested in making what you need and being self-reliant and sustainable like the colonial pioneer and settler families of the 1800’s these books are for you.
Everything a colonist needed to know is in these books, from gardening to recipes to medicine to building.
The pioneers and settlers that explored and colonized the Americas, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand between 1600 and 1900 left civilization far behind. To survive the settler families had to know how to fend for themselves. Colonists needed to know about farming, gardening and cooking in order to eat. They needed to know about building a new home in order to live. It was the ultimate DIY life with a colonist family making or growing almost everything they needed. Help and advice were far away, as were doctors, shops and tradesmen. One of the most important things a settler family owned was their pioneer handbooks and guides. These how-to and DIY books were full of instructions that taught colonist families about selecting and clearing land, building, farming and growing food, cooking meals, recipes, making what they needed, how to use medicine, hunting – even prospecting for gold. If they failed at these things colonist families often starved. Very few of these settler guides remain. They are the rarest of rare books from the period. The information in them is priceless and was hard-earned through centuries of exploration. They have been lost to us for years but are available again at www.PioneerHandbooks.com.
The best site I’ve seen in a long time.
Why thank you Brenda!
this is a cool sight glad i fould it looking for the recipe called moss lemonade
Be sure to come back and tell us what it tastes like!
Love the vintage manuals! thanks for making them available for everyone to read.
It’s an absolute pleasure! Thank you Okbotto.
I LOVE THIS SITE! You put a lot of effort into this and this is my resource, to come to for the basic of things to get started. I am remembering stories my own grandparents have regailed to me and loving it. I continue to do the certain traditional way of doing things as explained in some of these manuals you have…amazing. Thank you so much for this site ~ going to share this with friends and family so they too can be proud of the generation’s traditions.
Thank you very much Jude. I love hearing about people who are still in touch with the time honored ways. Keeping things alive. Happy homesteading!
It’s such a shame that in the interest of mass production and consumer convenience we have forgotten that we once depended upon the earth for everything. Using only what was needed for food and clothes, and shelter – without overkill on the grand scale it became through disregard for the land and the water because of readily available, mass produced goods.
But, I rant. Please excuse me and accept my thanks for your website. It is a valuable resource, and a wonderful teaching tool. Thank You.
And a fantastic rant it is! Thank you Friar Chuck!