Pioneer Handbooks

Pioneer Handbooks is a free library of digitized and downloadable chapters of how-to instructions covering colonial building, farming, gardening, livestock, recipes, medicine, hunting and prospecting from rare and historic pioneer and settler handbooks.

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.