My father had rented a house near the Mississippi River that divides the two cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul. Oscar and I began school again in September. It was a large city school and had a limited enrollment above the eighth grade. Most students above the eight-grade found work and began planning for families. It took Oscar and I some time for both of us to adjust. We were no longer in the same room, with the same teacher. We played with the children in our neighbored, but we felt that the association was temporary, we would have no lasting friendship. One thing we learned was that baseball was the most popular national sport; we learned to throw and catch balls and to bat when our turn came at home plate. My mother adapted very well, due to the fact, that she established friends up and down the street we lived on. There were many Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes living in Minneapolis that had proceeded our family moving to the city. My father's regular work did not last more than about a year. He then found work with a cabinetmaker.
In 1921 there was a recession in the U.S. and again dad had to look for work, and we were soon bound for western Minnesota near the South Dakota border to be tenant farmers near a small town called Elkton. Farming here in the U.S. was different to those in Canada. Here there were vast acres of land that could be plowed and planted. In Canada near Edmonton, you had to clear the trees and brush first. The open areas in Canada could not match those here in Minnesota. The arrangements between the owner and my father were similar a share profits from the crops when they were harvested. The milk, eggs and vegetables saw us through the times until the crops were harvested.
The towns were usually established along the railroad track. Most farms were 160 acres; there were usually four farms in a section of land. Some farms were larger, 320 acres and a few were a square mile each way and contained 640 acres. I drove through this area in the 1980's and there were a few more house, garages, and motor cars, but still the farms were wide open spaces.
Elkton had a population of about 500 people. It was approximately three miles from the farm. A railroad ran through the town, and it had a couple of large grain and corn elevators near the railroad tracks. There was a general store, a blacksmith shop, a church and a saloon. The general store had canned goods, clothes,. dresses, and a lot of hardware items. It also had a small number of drugs for the people and about as many for the horses and cows. We traded milk, eggs, etc. for the things we needed.
Flandreau, South Dakota (between Brookings and Sioux Falls S.D.) was about fifteen miles away and its population was about 2000. It had a variety of stores including, hardware, grocery, ice cream parlors, drug store, clothing stores and was a mecca compared to Elkton. A trip to Flandreau took all day. We took a team of horses hitched to a three-box high wagon with a spring seat and rarely did we get back before dark.
Another new experience was added here. There was a creek running through our farm, in the spring it was loaded with fish. We had never seen anything like the swarms of fish that came up the creek to spawn. The ones we didn't eat my mother canned in glass jars and stored for the next winter. We had a large garden, and, in the fall, we stored potatoes and all kinds of vegetables in a cellar (called a root cellar) which was dug in the ground to keep them from freezing.
In the fall we also butchered a pig. We had fresh meat for a few days then the balance was salted so it would last until spring. We had an occasional chicken for a change in our menu. We had milk, we skimmed the cream off the top and churned it into butter we needed. My mother baked bread. We, kid's clothes were made by my mother, how she got all these things done, I don't know, as I have said earlier, she was a remarkable woman.
I can remember one unusual instance that occurred on this farm. We had a few horses and during the winter one of them while walking on the icy pond fell and broke his leg. My father had to shoot him. Before burying him dad, who had heard of horse meat being eaten, cut off a hind leg and hung it up in the barn where it was quickly frozen. We at horse meat until the leg was gone, as I remember the meat was a little sweeter than beef, but that was the last of any horse meat in our house.
In September, Art, Oscar and I attended school. It was a one room affair with a single teacher; she taught all the grades up to the eighth. I learned there were area school districts run by a school board. The board hired a teacher, usually a female. If the teacher didn't live in the area, she usually boarded with one of the board members. In addition to teaching, she also had to sweep the floors and wash the windows. In addition, in the winter she had to lite and keep the heater going during the school day. The teacher usually assigned these chores to some of the older students. However, you were given some of these jobs when you were punished for any violation of the rules.
The school was one large room with desks, black board, the ink for our pens was located on each desk. The boys who had girls sitting in a desk in front of them usually managed to dunk strands of their hair in the ink well. The teacher began usually with one of the lower classes where they read paragraphs from books, added sums she had wrote on the blackboard, etc. for a period. Then she would move on to the next class.
There were usually approximately twenty pupils attending school. Those of us not being heard were supposed to be studying until our classes turn came to answer questions, do sums, etc. There were not always members for all eight classes.
There was a period during the week when we met as a group for lectures by the teacher. Most of the schools we attended had small libraries furnished by the school board. I was a pretty good student but occasionally I would get into trouble because I was reading a novel from the library when I was supposed to be studying a lesson. I loved to read, a habit I continue to this day. I usually read all the books in the library by the end of each school year, if we returned to the same school for the next term, I just began to read the books over again.
Oscar didn't aways stay out of trouble, and I remember the teacher calling him up to the front of the room where she rapped him across the knuckles with a ruler for punishment for a violation of some rule. The school was about two miles from our farm buildings. We would cut across the fields to shorten the distance rather that follow the road. On the day Oscar was punished the three of us agreed not to tell mother or dad about the rap on the knuckles. We figured he would get a licking if they heard about the instance.
We were almost home when we saw the teacher coming down the road headed for our house. She explained to my mother why she had to discipline Oscar. We stayed away from the house about an hour before we went in. I don't remember if Oscar got a licking or not.
The next spring we moved to another farm about fifteen miles away. The place was a little larger with more cows, horses, hogs and chickens. I do not know why we moved as we had after one season on the farm, but it may have been over the split of the crops at harvest time. My father had quick temper and was not bashful if he thought he was not being treated fairly.
We enjoyed life on this new farm, and everything went well during the year. In the fall I got my second job, you remember my first job was taking care of the cook's baby at the lumber camp. A neighbor talked to my father about me working for him a while in the fall. I would be driving five horses pulling a two-blade plow to prepare the fields for the following spring planting. Driving five horse hitch was a new experience. My horses and plow followed the farmer who was ahead. One of the first things I learned was how to plow a straight row. The job lasted about a month and half. I didn't know what I received in wages, it was paid to my father. I finished with the job about the first of October, so I start school late.
My folks didn't want Oscar or Art to go to school until I could go. The school year was a repeat of last year except we had moved up one year in our classes, also I had a new library from which to read. The year was 1922, and I was fourteen years old. During the fall of the year my father got work in his trade in the village of Pipestone, Minnesota a short distance away. We moved to Pipestone where I finished school the next spring. I graduated from the eighth grade. It was the final year of my regular education.
That spring I got a job as a hired hand for a farmer named Hennesey; his farm was about twelve miles away. I was to live on the farm and be paid $20.00 a month and my keep. This farm was larger compared to the farm we had occupied. It was more than three hundred acres. The largest crop was corn with some wheat, barley and oats fields. They had twenty-five cows/caves, ten horses, some hogs, a few sheep and chickens were also part of the farm.
Mr. Hennesey was a good farmer and respected in the community. He worked hard and expected me to do the same. My skill in handling horses, milking cows and feeding/caring for the hogs were upgraded. Mrs. Hennesey took care of the chickens; there were two young children. We arose at 5 AM, the first job was to milk the cows, I never learned to enjoy milking. Some of the people liked to milk, it gave you a chance to sit down for a while. They didn't mention how the cows switched their tails that slapped you in the face while they tired, to get rid of the flies that were always presents.
I might mention that milking machines had not been perfected and there were very few, if any, on the farms in the area. After milking in the morning, the cows were turned out into the pasture for the day. We would feed the hogs and sheep and then headed for the farmhouse to have breakfast. For those of you who only have coffee and a roll etc. in the morning our breakfast was a full fledge meal. There was meat, potatoes, bread, butter, coffee or milk and on special occasions there was flapjacks with syrup or honey in addition.
After breakfast we harnessed the horses and headed for the fields. In early spring we plowed the fields where the grain had been grown the proceeding, year. We would pull a harrow over these fields to break down the large chunks into smaller pieces of soil and to loosen the ground.
Therse fields were almost always planted with corn the year after they had been with grain, it was called rotating the crops. Most farmers in this area grew more corn so some fields did not get rotated each year. The corn fields of the previous years did not need to be plowed in the spring because they were tilled with a cultivator four or five times during the growing year.
In the spring instead of plowing the corn fields we used a machine called a disk. This machine sliced up the ground and cut down last year's corn stalks. The disc covered about twelve feet on each pass; it was usually pulled by two horses. The fields were prepared for both the grain and corn crops.
During each spring there were mares folding colts, cows with calves, hogs with piglets and sheep with lambs. Mrs. Hennesey was busy taking care of the new chicks that arrived on the scene. The boss spent many nights in the barn during this period. Some days he slept late, and I was alone in the fields after breakfast. Mr. Hennesey was respected farmer by others in the area. I learned a lot about farming which help me concluded that I did not want to be a farmer. I would like to mention work was six day a week.
The Hennessey were Irish Catholics, they attended church regularly and, on some occasion, they took me along to church on Sunday. The church was a part of a small town named Woodstock. The farm was about two miles from the town. About once a month the family would climb in a wagon pulled by a team of horses and head for the town. It was a real treat for us all. The men would gather, sometimes there was a drink or two involved. To the best of my memory there was no saloon or bar. I don't remember any arguments or big fights taking place.
Women would gather the general store for the groceries not grown on the farm, for cloth that became dresses, shirt, etc., in the hands of the wives. There was a drug store with an ice cream parlor where the young people gathered. In the fall, particularly, there were an occasional dance or theater play for those who were so inclined.
Of particular interest to me was the weekly paper the Hennessey would buy either on Saturday or on Sunday after church. The paper would come by train from Sioux Falls, about hundred miles away and sometimes from Minneapolis or St. Paul to the east. Hennessey had only a few books, so the papers were my reading material. I usually made them last the entire week. I sometimes lost a part of the paper that had food recipes or descriptions of the newest clothes being worn in the cities. (Note: I need to remind those who read these remarks that radios had not appeared on the scene yet, also no one had heard of or even imagined anything like a TV set.)
Some homes had pianos, or banjos, but the most common machine were gramophones with a limited number of records. We did have telephones but especially in the rural areas the phones were on party lines. Each farm on the party line had a distinct ring, such as one long and one short, two long rings, one short, a long and another short ring etc. When the phone rang it rang on all the phones of the party line. Courtesy required that only the intended party would answer the phone call. However, news hungry people all along the line would pick up the phone and listen in on the call. If you were the one receiving the call, you needed only to listen to the clicks as others lifted the receivers to release how many others had turned in. Talking on the party phone line was no way to keep a secret.
During the summer months there were Chautauqua. A group would arrive, raise a large tent, then each evening for a week or two there would be learned people talking each evening. These were popular because there was usually no admission fee, only a free offering. (Note: Chautauqua, was cultural and social movement that started in upstate New York in the 1870's and flourished until the mid 1920's.) Various church denominations also held revivals where area sinners were urged to confess their sins and return to the fold. The success of these ventures usually depended on the ability of the principal speaker.
I have strayed from my farm life during the last few paragraphs. So, getting back to the farm. The haying season came first after we were almost through with the corn cultivating. The hay was left to dry after the cutting for a time before it was gathered into large racks pulled by two horses. The racks were then gathered into haystack. Many haystacks were placed up near the barn, but others were in the fields a distance from the farm buildings.
Next came the harvesting of the grain, wheat, oats, rye and barley. These were harvested with a binder machine that cut the grain stocks and tied them into sleeves and threw them out in the field. The hard work was getting the bundles and building five or six sleeves into a small stack so the sun could dry them. This enabled the grain to be shaken from the hull when the bundles were placed in the thrashing machine.
Thrashing equipment was rarely owned by a single farmer. It was too expensive to have one for just a single farm and then after the harvest just park in the field until next fall. The practice was, who ever owned the large steam engine, and the separator would contract eight or ten farmers in the area and agree to separate their grain from the stock. (Note: The thrasher was usually paid by the bushel; a price per bushel negotiated by the thresher and the farmers prior to the harvest.)
The farmers would get together and help each other to get their grain harvested. The farmers and hired men would gather at one farm with their hayracks and horses to gather the bundles from the field and bring them to the separator that was driven by the large steam engine. The separated grain was then hauled to the farmers storage buildings.
While this was being done in the fields the farm women were preparing the dinner for the whole crew at the farmhouse. These where usually good meals as one farmers wife tried to out due the other wives cooking.
For the young people they had a ball, as the big machine moved from farm to farm until all the harvesting was completed for each group. I have been told many young couples who met at these events later started families and continued the harvesting practice.
The harvesting of the grain usually took place in late August and early September. In October the harvest of the corn crop began. This was a different kind of job that the thrashing of grain. Rows of corn were usually planted about three feet apart.
There was no machine in those days to pick corn ears from the stock, it was picked by hand with each ear exposed cleared from the husk, broken loose from the stock and thrown into a wagon. It was nearly impossible for the farmer and I to pick all the corn from two hundred acres he had grown. It was common practice for farms like ours to hire roving corn pickers who were paid on the bases of the number of bushels picked.
The pickers carried their own bed rolls and slept in the barn; they ate their meals with the family. The two men hired by Hennesey were in their 30's. I don't believe I even knew where they made their homes. I really enjoyed the stories they told of their travels and experiences. They stay with us lasted about three weeks.
Each day the men were given a box wagon with a high back board on one side of the wagon and a team of horses. Each man had a glove with steel hooks, he used to clean the hunks from the corn ear, the ear was then broken loose and tossed onto the wagon. The reason for the one high side backboard on the wagon was to prevent the ears from being tossed over the wagon. On a cool autumn morning you could hear the ears hitting the backboard all around the farm.
It had been my expectation to go back home after the conclusion of the corn picking but Mr. Hennesey talked to my dad, and it was arranged for me to spend the winter on the farm. My twenty-dollar monthly wage was reduced for the winter, but I did get my board.
I was also to attend the local high school as much as possible. This part of the agreement didn't work out well. I didn't attend school for more than a month. I did have the opportunity to spend a part of each day reading library books, papers, and magazines received by the farm.
In the spring of 1924, we began the crop planting and corn plowing. My father was called back to his work as a mason by the construction company in Minneapolis. The company had been contracted to build homes in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and then later a new courthouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
In June my dad sent for the family to join him in Kenosha. Mr. Hennesey want me to stay on the farm for the remaining summer, but I persuaded my mother to let me go to Kenosha with the family. About the middle of June, we arrived in Kenosha where my dad had rented a house. We were a whole family again. Looking back, I had to work hard on the farm, but I had learned to preform my duties, earn a living and the discipline to do both.