Box and Strip House

A ranch wife refused to move West with her husband until he promised to build her a frame house above ground. She told him, “I will not have dirt over my head until I die.” So, he built her a box and strip house, which may or may not have made her happy. Although economical, these houses had no insulation. The walls moved in and out during a strong wind. In a snowstorm, streaks of snow that corresponded exactly with the cracks in the wall formed on bed quilts.

Even at the turn of the 20th century, wood was difficult to obtain in West Texas, but the railroads stretched into the isolated ranch country. With them came lumber from areas of the country where trees were prevalent. The box and strip house became a popular type of construction. It involved laying a wooden floor, then attaching a box-like frame on the floor, and placing one upright in each of the corners. Then 1-by-12-inch boards were nailed vertically to the frame. Thin, 1-by-4-inch wooden strips were nailed over the gaps where the uprights touched. Once the walls were in place, a shingle roof was added, and the house was ready for occupants.

In 1903, Charles Adams Goldsmith, a former hand on C.C. Slaughter’s Long S Ranch, needed a south camp for his 65-section Goldsmith Ranch in northwest Martin County. So, he hired a carpenter named Boswell to build a two-room structure. From1903 to 1907, E.W. “Shorty” Clark lived in the house. When he left the ranch in 1907, Goldsmith had the kitchen, dining room and cistern constructed, perhaps also by Boswell. During the winter months, the rancher assigned as many as 18 hands to the South Camp.

The cook in this small house had to provide meals for the ranch hands. Without wood for fuel, cooking with cow chips was a time-consuming task. A young man watched his mother make biscuits and later wrote: “Stoke the stove, get out the flour sack, stoke the stove, wash your hands, mix the biscuit dough, stoke the stove, wash your hands, cut out the biscuits with the top of the baking powder can, stoke the stove, wash your hands, put the pan of biscuits in the oven, keep on stoking the stove until the biscuits are done.”

Preserving fruits and vegetables was also tedious, but necessary—the supply of produce had to last for a full year. The table in the kitchen had deep, metal-lined drawers for storage of flour and sugar. The pie safe had a pierced tin front to keep bugs out and foods fresh, to the extent possible without refrigeration. A pot-belly stove provided heat. 

Most of the furniture in the house was bought by mail order and transported to depots in the West, where remote ranch families met the trains and brought their packages home in wagons. Some of the furniture, such as the rocking chair and the bed, was brought with the family when they moved. The chest of drawers could have been brought along on the move or mail-ordered. Either way, it was the place where the woman’s seldom-worn best dress was stored. Most of the time, her clothes had to accommodate her difficult chores and her maternal “condition.”

Children were important to the settler, because the extra hands were needed to provide farm and ranch labor. Often, families on the plains included grandparents, an uncle or aunt and many children. Girls helped their mother, and in the process learned how to plant, put up and prepare food, sew, quilt, do laundry, “doctor” people and animals, and in the process become educated at a local one-room school, if there was such a luxury. Boys worked beside their fathers and grandfathers doing chores, carrying water, cutting wood, filling lamps, feeding livestock and helping with the branding. Most young boys desired cattle work above farm work. Their toys and games reflected their ability to enjoy what they had. For example, a ball might have been yarn or string saved from raveling old knit socks.

Box and strip houses served as a connection between the dugouts and the more traditional architectural designs. The attractiveness of the Box and Strip included low building cost, little maintenance and the fact that it was above ground. Additional rooms could easily be built, as suggested by Goldsmith having the house enlarged in 1907. The biggest problem with the house was actually the same problem that existed across the plains—adequate water for the family, the garden crops and the cattle. The property was sold in 1918 and was occupied periodically until the 1950s, proving the simple house’s durability.