When the first Europeans came to this area, money was scarce and in many settlements, the pioneers depended largely upon each other by “swapping” work. Probably no better illustration of this interdependence can be seen that in the “log rolling”. After the settler had built his cabin, the next step was to clear a piece of ground for crop. The trees were felled, cut or burned into lengths so that they could be handled, and then the neighbors were invited to the rolling.
Almost every pioneer had a “hand-spike” – a stick of hard, tough wood, five or six feet in length, from which the bark had been removed, and the ends slightly tapered with the draw-knife. When all had assembled at the appointed time and place, the men were divided into teams. Two of the strongest men in each team were selected to make “daylight”; that is, to thrust a hand spike under one end of the log and lift it high enough for the others to get their spikes under it. Then, two by two, the others followed the “daylight” makers until ten or twelve could be seen carrying the heaviest logs and piling them in heaps. Smaller logs,, carried by four to six men, were added to the heap, so that the whole could be burned. In some areas enough valuable timber was thus destroyed to pay for the land on which it grew, even at present prices, if it could be replaced. But then a crop was of more importance to the settler than the timber.
While the men were “rolling” the logs, the women folks would get together and prepare dinner, each bringing from her own store some delicacy that she thought the others might not be able to supply. Venison, bear meat, and corn pone were the chief articles of food on the menu. “Log rolling” was a good appetizer, and when the men arose from the table it looked as if a “cyclone had struck it”; but in “swapping” work each man had his turn, and in the end no one was placed at a disadvantage in the amount of provisions consumed.
The term “log rolling” founds its way into the legislative halls, where its meaning is very much the same as in pioneer days. Bills are often passed by members “swapping” votes, just as the early settlers cleared their ground by “swapping” work.