When Horses Pulled the Plow: Life of a Wisconsin Farm Boy, 1910–1929

Preface

xxiii Preface When my sons were growing up, they liked to hear my stories about growing up on a Wisconsin farm. Some stories they asked for over and over. To my surprise, my grandchildren also liked to hear some of the same stories. In time, I came to realize that a more complete account in writing might be of interest to my family. But one professional writing commitment after another kept me from getting to the task. Finally, at age ninety-eight, I have found the time to prepare this account. Looking back, I realize how close in time I was to the early settlers of that part of Wisconsin. It was not more than seventy years before I was born that the farm was first occupied and the clearing of the forests started for farmland. The original house, a log cabin, of the original owner of the farm still stood close to the house in which I was born. Artifacts in the barn were reminders of the agricultural technology available to the original occupants. The ox yoke was a reminder that oxen, not horses, were used when the land was first plowed. The cradle was a reminder of the hard labor required to harvest grain before the invention of the horse-drawn grain binder. The scythe was a reminder that hay was cut by hand before the horse-drawn mowing machine. xxiv Looking back, I also realize that I grew up when inventions, new ways of doing things, were appearing. We got our first automobile in 1926; before that we went by horse-drawn vehicle—buggy, wagon, cutter, bobsled. The first tractor in the area was a curiosity. Listening to the radio was something new. Few farms had electricity; we did not. The sound and sight of an airplane was so unusual that we would stop work in the field to watch. Daily life was local. The country schools were located so that every child would be within walking distance. Most social contacts were local. We did not shop or go visiting any farther than it was convenient to go by horse and buggy and return home the same day. We did not have much cash income, but we lived well. We had ample production of good food for family use. We had our own supply of firewood to heat the house. The water supply brought up from deep in the ground by a windmill was of excellent quality. We were also a part of the market economy. Most of the livestock products were sold with the farmer having virtually no control over price. Looking back, I have come to understand that the adults I grew up with on the farm had important values, explicitly stated or implicit. They included hard work, independence, self-reliance, honesty, frugality, care of the soil, care of the livestock, avoidance of debt, and doing no harm to others. I thank the two anonymous reviewers of the manuscript for their careful reading of it and for their questions and helpful suggestions. I also thank Gwen Walker, acquisitions editor at the University of Wisconsin Press, for her assistance. Preface xxv I am indebted to my granddaughter Jacqueline Claire Larson for taking my handwritten, sometimes illegible draft and rendering it into a readable manuscript. I thank her mother, Debra Larson, for taking time from her busy schedule to prepare the final copy. I submitted this work for publication because of the repeated urging of my son Richard and the interest expressed by other family members and a diverse set of individuals outside the family. Preface When Horses Pulled the Plow ...