RURAL ELECTRIFICATION

The Julian Dobson Family in June, 1922: Shirley, Ina, Vance, Julian (Jack), Earle, Ethel, Pearl, Myrtle. The family is having a spot of fun with inept Aunt Bertha behind the camera. Except for Julian, that is.

In 1932, my Grandma Ina began to write to my dad about the impact of the Depression and diminishing markets on farm life. Here and there she mentions the age issues affecting Julian's ability to continue the strenuous work of farming with horses. Questions, such as "How much longer can we hold old on?" and "What would we do if we had to leave the homeplace?" hang unspoken in every letter. Eventually those letters would come to rest in my correspondence file. However, I don't have any record of Grandma Ina's thoughts a decade earlier when readers of "The Farmer's Wife" were discussing whether or not their daughters should marry farmers.

Here's what I do know about Ina's life in 1922: Her dream house, built just five years earlier in 1917, had no wiring, no running water, no plumbing, no central heat – in short, no modern conveniences nor any hope of gaining those. They carried water from a spring, split wood for the cook stove and fireplace, lit kerosene lamps at dusk, and bathed once a week in a wash tub set in the kitchen. Jack and Ina never had an automobile and Jack farmed with horses until he died, the horses dying shortly after he did.

Now with Jack "out of the picture," some are contrite.

I never thought the life of the homesteader / farmer was one of prosperity. Farming was subsistence living. The farmer grew crops which supposedly enabled him to meet expenses and buy seed for the next year's crop. In addition, he was able to live off the land, growing his own food – fruits, vegetables, and meat. He had the privilege of being his own boss, but only the lucky few found success in terms of money and goods. There was little left over for material goods. The farmer and his family worked hard and never got ahead – not really. And if he got behind on expenses, maybe through no fault of his own, he had no recourse except to go further into debt. A young man might sell out and move on. For an old man, the plight was worse.

Of course, it wasn't that way for all farmers, but according to my research, it was true for the vast majority. In 1930, 90% of U.S. urban homes were electrified but only 10% of rural homes. This lack of electrical power prevented modernization of the farm without which conditions were none too healthy. So most farms were behind the times in modern improvements – plumbing, running water, refrigeration, and central heat. According to the statistics I read, 90% of farmers were still without electrical power in 1935. Privately-owned electric companies were little interested in rural electrification because of the expense and inability of farmers to pay. Some farmers formed co-ops in an effort to bring in electricity but without funding they couldn't meet the expense. Passage of the Rural Electrification Act (REA) in 1936 is said to be the most significant legislation to come out of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. Through the REA, co-ops were granted low-cost loans to bring electricity to the farm. By 1950, 90% of American farms had electricity. Ina's was one of the 10% that did not. The last utility pole was at the neighbor's a quarter mile distant. In 2000, Clearwater Power Company, a rural co-op, placed the three poles that carry electricity to Ina's house.

I'm sure that the farmer's wife didn't need conveniences to love her life and see its benefits, but when writers in 1922 make sweeping statements that farms everywhere are now modernized, it's just not true of the country in general.

Even with rural electrification, we were unable to save farming in our country and stem the tide of movement to the cities, but as we became an urbanized society, I'm not sure the government was interested in the small farm anyway. I always remember my mother's words: "I hate to see the small farm disappear," she said sadly. "It was a good way of life and a good place to raise a family." Then she added, "Our government spent years convincing people to move to the farm and then couldn't move them back to the city fast enough." KW

THE FARMERS' WIVES, 1919

Farmers' wives taken at the "Cunningham Sale," June 1919, Gilbert, Idaho

I love to look at this picture, taken at Gilbert, Idaho, in 1919, as the Cunningham family sold their farm -- their homestead -- and their belongings. Yes, they sold out and moved, but I know nothing more about it. But -- someone thought to gather the ladies -- every one a farm wife -- and take this wonderful photograph. Perhaps someone recognized the end of an era. Indeed, I think we're sitting on the brink of change, so to speak, as this picture was taken.

My family is represented in the photo. The lady on the left with black umbrella is my great-aunt Bertha Dickson Dobson, and beside her is her sister-in-law, Ida Chandler Dickson, for whom the Senter house of previous posts was built. The next person in the back row -- shorter than others -- is my grandmother, Ina Dickson Dobson. Seated furthest left is Mrs. Cunningham. The rest were identified by Grandma many years ago and though I recognize the family names, I really don't know these women by face or character.

The first thing I note is their attire -- simple dresses or skirts and blouses except Bertha who is perhaps a bit overdone in a fashion from ten years earlier. (She's clearly more dressed up than the others, and I suspect she didn't come to work, as maybe the others did.) And Mrs. Cunningham's dress looks new. But things are changing and by 1930 -- another ten years -- the hemlines will have risen, making it easier and safer for a woman to do her work in house and yard.

Notice how there are no young faces -- no, not one. Ina, for instance, is 48 (born in 1870) and Bertha 51 or so. In 1919, they had been farming here in the Gilbert country for almost 25 years, and I expect that's true of the others. Ina and Bertha were young wives in their mid-20s when their husbands took on homesteads. Perhaps others were also young wives -- or even in middle age -- when a farm in this place became not only her family's home but its livelihood. Gradually the old families will sell out and fade away, and occasionally a young family will appear on the ridge, but it's not a growing community. In 1920 -- just about the time of this photo -- the post office at Gilbert closed and the official address here became Orofino.

And then I love to look at them and think of what they know. Regardless of her individual standards, each one has learned lessons as she worked with her husband to build a life in this place. Each holds within her a wealth of practical knowledge in the rural home arts, and most would be willing to share, I think. Any one of them could tell you how to make elderberry jelly, how to care for a sick child or a sick cow, the best way to whiten your laundry. Before long technology will replace the horses with tractors, make the wood stove and wash board obsolete, and bring the world to their doors in the form of the radio. The down side is that now they need money to keep up, and the farm was mostly about subsistence living.

Can you add anything to my observations? What do you see in this image? KW

[The original post included incorrect ages for Ina and Bertha, which I subsequently corrected.]