Chapter 7: Work on the Farm

With so many brothers in our family, we girls never did have to milk cows as most farmer’s daughters did. Esther one year helped stack the oats, that was before shock threshing was started. Once her hand was pierced through with the tine of a pitch form. A poultice of salt pork was put on it and it healed without trouble.

I don’t know when the above photo was taken, or who is in it. All I know is that it was taken by the Walline photography studio of Gowrie, Iowa, from the embossed logo in the lower right corner of the heavy board upon which the photo is mounted (see below). A Google search turned up the following information at this website: 

WALLINE, ANDREW LARSON

Walline had a studio in Gowrie, Webster County, in the early 1900s. He used a curved mount format. He may have also worked in Des Moines. From the Gowrie News, May 7, 1936: “A. L. Walline, Gowrie photographer and prominent member of the Congregational Church here several years ago, died Monday morning in a hospital at Hampton, where he had been a patient since January 17. Mr. Walline moved from Gowrie twelve years ago to open a photo studio in Clarion. Funeral services will be held here this afternoon with the Rev. W. L. Patterson of the Methodist Church in charge. Andrew Larson Walline was born in Willinge Malmohus Lan, on November 27, 1865, and was baptized the same year. He learned the cabinet making trade and worked at that trade after coming to the United States in 1888 and locating in Des Moines. While working in Des Moines he attended night school and became a naturalized citizen at that time. Later taking up the photographic business, he conducted studios at Harcourt, Stratford, Boxhold, Ogden, and Gowrie. He was united in marriage to Miss Anna Dahl of Harcourt on January 16, 1898 and they made their home in Gowrie. To this union three sons were born; Lawrence who died in 1916; Paul, of Crookson Minnesota; and John of Hampton. Surviving Mr. Walline are his sons, Paul and John, and a granddaughter, Phyllis Walline, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Walline.”

There are ten examples of this photographer's work in the SHSI collection.  Several are of towns near Gowrie.  Some are Sweden views, pirated comic or views from Eastern states.

Corn picking in those days took many weeks and we girls were called upon to help with this work. For those weeks we, so to speak, turning into boys, though we never did wear overalls or jeans as women of today do. Mother never required us girls to help with the house work as long as we helped in the field. At the start of corn picking time a large bolt of heavy husking flannel would be bought. With two sizes of patterns, large for men and small for boys and girls, we cut out and sewed a large supply of mittens; then at the close of a day’s work in the field we would sew patches on where needed.

When it was dry and not too cold, husking corn was fun. There were cold frosty days when our mittens would get wet and our fingers tingle with cold no matter how busy we tried to be. Serenus and I used to be partners at one wagon. Though younger than I, being a boy he could pick his row as fast as I did mine. How well I remember with what pride of achievement we would ride home on a big load of corn, and how good our meals tasted. Father, though he had withdrawn from active farm work, stood ready to scoop the corn into the crib for all of us. This task, and the pumping of water from the deep well for the stock, he considered his work as long as he was able and neither of these tasks was easy work.

We considered ourselves lucky (or smart) if corn picking was completed by Thanksgiving Day. It often took longer. When the last load was in we celebrated with a feast of “kropp-kakor” or potato dumplings, a rare treat.

Father never was interested in new modern ideas of farm equipment, but after he retired and the boys took over, many ways of farming were changed. The greatest change perhaps was that after the county drain went through, tile was laid to drain the ponds so that all the land could be tilled.Tiling also did much to improve the roads. One wet summer both grades half way to Gowrie from our place were under two or more feet of water and for weeks we had to drive around to the east adding 2½ miles to our driving distance. On all roads the sticky Iowa mud would at times make driving next to impossible. Gravelled roads were not known until after the automobiles began coming into general use. What a change in the last 35 years.

As years went by many changes took place in farming ways and equipment, and so came the time when the steam engines of the threshing rigs, gave way to gasoline engines. Brother Carl bought the first gasoline engine in our part of the country. One night we never can forget is when his big new Hart Parr slipped off a grade as he was going east from our place. Those old Hart-Parrs made a terrific noise, and as he worked most of the night to get it back on the road, the exhausts sounded like the world might be coming to an end, or like cannon fire! For some years Carl really went into the threshing business. At one time he owned three rigs and hired crews to run them. There were as many as five of those big Hart-Parr engines on the farm, two he bought second-hand to use for spare parts.

Mother’s work on the farm was “never done.” After the rest of the family were in bed, she would sity for hours by the dim light of an old kerosene lamp, knitting or sewing. Mother had to provide long knitted wool stockings for so many; not only stockings, but for the school children also long leggings, scarfs, and mittens, all of which she knit of woolen yarns. One time she knit several pairs of stockings for Mrs. Lennarson, as pay for a good dress that she had made for Esther. Though not skilled in fine sewing, Mother had a sewing machine and made the every day garments for the whole family, even Father. I do not think in his whole life on the farm he ever bought any ready-made overalls of shirts. Not only did she make the countless shirts, dresses, pants and outer garments for us all. She also made all the undergarments. There were no rib-knits in those days.

For summer wear there was always a plentiful supply of flour sacks for panties and vests. For winter she bought a large bolt of gray outingflannel for long drawers for everyone. It required some skill to fold the bottoms of these snugly under the long woolen stockings so as not to show an unsightly bulge. We didn’t like these undergarments, but they did keep us warm.

Mother had a love for pretty things and enjoyed knitting and crocheting lace in her “spare time.” I’m quite sure there were no untrimmed muslin petticoats for her babies and girls. As we grew larger, there would be voluminous flounces on the petticoats edged with beautiful wide lace. I still treasure my baptismal dress which has a front panel of crochet and rick-rack and 4 inch wide edging at bottom of both dress and slip of the same pattern. As Esther grew older she shared this love for fancy work. So also did Ruth. Esther began to design new patterns, wrote detailed directions, and sold these to various women’s magazines to get money for thread.

The cooking of meals was relatively simple in early days, but much food had to be prepared for the growing family. There were large semi-weekly bakings of bread, rusks, and cookies for no baked goods was ever bought at the store. A large kettle of potatoes disappeared at one meal. As fruit (apples, plums, and cherries) became plentiful, the dessert was most often canned sauce, which meant hours of canning fruit. At first Mother used some small mouthed earthenware jars for canning plums and tomatoes. She bought these from Mrs. Woodard when they moved to Dakota. The were seals by several strips of muslin dipped in hot rosin and pressed over the top. In later years Mason jars were purchased though the old jars were still used, for glass jars were costly to buy.

Even fuel was not plentiful, for as yet there were no trees to cut for wood. Father hauled coal from the mines near Lehigh. Hauling one load was generally considered a two day trip with his slow team. There were cobs, but not too plentiful a supply, since Father hauled the ear corn to town. The first year on the prairie, Mother has told of how she would pull the long wild grasses and twistit into bunchesto burn in her little cook stove.

As for water, for many years this was carried from a well almost a quarter of a mile from the house. Mother often said she thought that the hardest work of washing clothes was done after the water had all been carried to the house. It was hard water which had to be heated and “broken” [softened]  with lye. There were no detergents as we now have that could be used in hard water. Of course, in summer there was some rain water in a large barrel but this could not be stretched for all needs. When in winter there was plenty of snow, it could be carried in and melted but was often black and unsatisfactory.

There were two factors that made it possible for Mother to accomplish all this work, which we of today would consider utterly impossible. The first was that there weren’t the many outside activities of modern day living. There were occasional visits to neighbors, but these visits were rare; for the most part all the family stayed home and worked. And the second factor was that as the family grew each one learned to help in various ways.