Women's Club continues school house restoration

The Plains Women’s Club is once again picking up local projects, continuing the restoration of the old single-room school across from the Mangy Moose in Plains.

The school is a historic building to Plains, though it is not registered as a historical landmark. The building was built in 1884 and with the aid of the Plain’s Alumni in 1977 the building was moved to its current location.

Last year the Women’s Club finished its restoration of replacing the shingles on the roof, and now they have moved to restoring the outside log walls.

Due to its age, the Women’s Club wrangled the help of Kirby Matthew a retired historic preservation specialist who has also donated his time to showing the ladies and their helpers how to correctly replace the daubing.

The art of daubing can sometimes be confused with what is known as chinking; to which both actions were used for log cabins back in the day during the construction stage to help seal against driving wind, snow, vermin entry and shed the rain so it didn’t seep in through the cracks.

A variety of materials were used for chinking and daubing, including whatever was most conveniently at hand.

Generally though, it is a three-part system applied in several steps. Chinking consists of two parts: A dry, bulky, rigid blocking, such as wood slabs or stones is inserted into the joint, followed by a soft packing filler such as oakum, moss, clay, or dried animal dung.

Daubing, which completes the system, is the outer wet-troweled finish layer of varying composition, but often consisting of a mixture of clay and lime or other locally available materials.

Instead of daubing, carefully fitted quarter poles or narrow wood strips were sometimes nailed lengthwise across the log joints.

However, for the local club they were getting a lesson in daubing the outside of the structure last Tuesday as they prepare to replace the daub around the full exterior of the structure.

Beginning with the back wall, the group was able to remove what was left of the previous daub, sweep the cracks out, and oil the wood in preparation for the new mortar.

The ladies were assisted by a couple of local gentlemen who helped cut the glaze that was nailed into the remaining chinking so the mortar cement was able to hold as it cures.

President of the Plains Women’s Club Ellen Childress said she is excited for this year’s restoration project for the old building.

“We are hoping to get it done quickly, but it will take a few weeks to get it all completed,” she said.

As they work around the four exterior walls, Childress hopes the project will inspire other women in Plains to join the group.

“We hope there might be a few people in the community that would like to come down and lend a hand as we work on the daubing,” she added.

If there are any willing hands that would like to be apart of this years project, they can contact Women’s Club member Shirley Nettleton on 406-826-4659 to find out which days members will be down working on the old school room.