The early American immigrant pioneer farmers of the 1700s and 1800s found their land, and began the arduous process of chopping down their trees with a handsaw, and hand-"hewing" (shaping) the round tree trunks into 4 flat sides using only hand tools, in order to build their essential grain and dairy barns before the heavy snows hit. 

Unlike today's construction methods of nails, screws, 2x4's and power tools, the early barns were "timber framed" using the "mortise & tenon joinery", and the beams were held together with large hand-whittled oak pegs. The barns were built a minimum of 150-years ago in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Canada, and other northern areas, and are sadly being torn down.

 

Rather than watch the 150-225 year old, hand-hewn beams be destroyed and erased from history and memory, we at Pioneer Wood Company have established relationships with the Mennonite and Amish people who live in those areas, who carefully and respectfully disassemble the barns and send the reclaimed wood to us on 18-wheelers. We supply builders and designers who fill entire homes with beams and other reclaimed barn wood, and we work with home owners to custom build console tables, light fixtures, shelves, and so on. 

 See our Gallery and Structures links photographs.   

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We also sell the complete, historical, pioneer-built barns and move them to their new home, rather than piecing them out for just beams.

 

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