Viral YouTube channel 'Early American' features couple bringing American history to life
AUSTIN, Texas - A young couple is bringing American history to life with a viral YouTube channel. It chronicles their journey as an 1800s-era couple living inside a log cabin, and it has millions of people hooked on history.
Inside their cabin, in historic St. Genevieve, Missouri, Justine Dorn and Ron Rayfield are showing millions of people what it was like to live in the 19th century.
"I've always been a fan of history," said Rayfield. "It's like there's another person as weird and fun as I am."
"We actually fell in love on camera. I met him about a week before he was in my first video," said Dorn.
That was two years ago. Since then, they’ve uploaded more than 100 videos to the Early American channel.
"I just get ideas for what my life is like today," said Dorn.
Things like putting on makeup and getting ready for the day, or doing laundry, which involves collecting water at the creek, washing and wringing clothes by hand, then using a paddle to dry them.
"So the way that we learn is from books, books and more books," said Dorn.
In some of the videos, they’re celebrating holidays like Christmas, Halloween, the Fourth of July, even Valentine’s Day.
Not surprisingly, a lot of the videos involve cooking, from churning butter to making cherry pie, even comfort food like onion rings and mac and cheese.
The more popular videos on the couple's channel involve cooking.
"Not only did they have it, but it was extremely popular," said Dorn.
7.8 million people have viewed the mac and cheese video.
"You know, I think people can relate to that," said Dorn.
Millions of views, and more than 700,000 subscribers.
"We've had subscribers from India, from Germany, from Brazil, from Mexico, you name it," said Dorn.
"I'm amazed at how many young people are fans of the show," said Rayfield.
A young couple is bringing American history to life with a viral YouTube channel. It chronicles their journey as a 1800s-era couple living inside a log cabin, and it has millions of people hooked on history.
Dorn says as long as people keep watching, "We're definitely going to continue with this."
The couple says they’re now able to make a living being 19th-century content creators. In addition to the real-life videos, they’re also doing a drama series set in the 1800s on their channel as well, based on actual historical events.
"50% of the time we do live like this. 50% of the time we don't," said Dorn. "We do own cars. We have a phone. We're not that crazy."