In this Book
Minnesota Historical Society Press
- The Crops Look Good: News from a Midwestern Family Farm
- Book
- 2015
- Published by: Minnesota Historical Society Press
summary
When Margaret Williamson left her family’s rural Wisconsin farm to work in Minneapolis in 1923, her mother, Olava, wrote regularly with updates about daily activities: laundry, bread baking, plowing, planting, and harvesting the crops. Sometimes she enclosed a note from seven- year- old Helen, who reported on school and shenanigans and how she longed to see Margaret again.
So begins decades of stories about a family at once singular— with personal joys and challenges— and broadly representative of the countless small farms that dotted the midwestern landscape in the early twentieth century. As Margaret’s niece Sara DeLuca weaves together family tales gleaned from letters and conversations, we learn of births and deaths, of innovations like the automobile, radio, and telephone that drew rural communities together, and of national and international events that brought home stone- hard truths. Depression- era farmers struggled to keep their land and feed their livestock; many failed. During wartime, this family made do just like everyone else.
The tale that emerges is one of fierce devotion to family and work, of a changing
landscape as smaller farms became part of conglomerates, and of the comforting daily rhythms of life shared with those who know us best.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Title page, Copyright page
- pp. i-vi
- Directly as a Stone
- pp. 5-37
- Bread and Butter
- pp. 38-65
- What One Has to Do
- pp. 66-97
- A School in Patience
- pp. 98-124
- A Thousand Thoughts
- pp. 125-146
- When Sorrows Come
- pp. 147-168
- The Beautiful Country
- pp. 169-190
- Back Where I Belong
- pp. 191-213
- Love Made Visible
- pp. 214-236
- Acknowledgments
- pp. 241-242
- Source Notes
- pp. 243-244
- Back Cover
- p. 255
Additional Information
ISBN
9780873519762
Related ISBN(s)
9780873519755
MARC Record
OCLC
902828883
Pages
240
Launched on MUSE
2015-02-05
Language
English
Open Access
No