My aunt, Ethel Dobson Robinson, identified the photo as follows: Ross Pratt, Junius Dobson, Julian Dobson, Frank Dickson, Perry Chandler, Charley Boehm, John Boehm, Clarence Chandler, and Marshall Brooks.
Aunt Ethel adds: "No machinery was used on this bean crop. The beans were pulled by hand and later threshed on the barn floor with 'flails.'"
Mike and I think the location is the field north of the house. KW
6 comments:
What a great photo! And so nice to know who each person is which is usually not the case. They worked so hard!
Well, I had to think that no one, including me, remembers those people. But you make such a great point that they worked so hard! As the beans were growing, they hoed them by hand, too. It was hard work -- all of it.
Another point -- the homesteaders got 160 acres of free land, but they didn't see it as a hand-out because they had to "prove up on it." Again, it was hard work, and it didn't make them rich.
Kathy, do any of the people in the photo still have descendants on the neighboring farms?Boehm sounds familiar.
I know of four more or less original families still living in the general area, but none are represented in this photo. The Boehm place, as I recall, was the old dilapidated house about a mile from the farm that Mother dubbed her "summer house." Mrs. Boehm died around 1932, and Bertha wrote that if she'd only done what the doctor told her, she'd still be alive. Ina then referred to Mr. Boehm as a "poor lonely soul." And I know Daddy referred to the Boehm's and maybe the Pratts from time to time. Of course, Frank Dickson was Grandma Ina's brother, and he moved away early on. The Chandlers were homesteaders, too. Their daughters, Ida and Mabel, married Ben and Frank Dickson respectively. I think the early homesteaders helped one another with their harvests.
I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but my dad's first big paying job was hoeing beans on Central Ridge when he was 14, which would have been the summer of 1937. He made 35 cents an hour and worked ten-hour days. He slept in the barn using a couple of old quilts and the farmers fed him his meals. He also said that there were grown men waiting along the edges of the field hoping to be hired and if those hoeing weren't working up to the owner's standards, he paid them off on the spot and picked someone from the edge to take his place. Depression and tough times.
I appreciate your bringing this to our attention, Chris. It's a piece of history and the way that things were done in that era. And $.35 an hour constituted high wages for the farmer. Thanks again.
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