Fitzgerald: Geography of a Revolution

Chapter II: The Farms Prosper

Chapter II: The FarmsProsper Farm Men and Machines 11-1 Shepherding, a most ancient Biblical labor, was still practiced on this Labor Day, 1921, on the site ot what is now the University ot Detroit. The shepherd, barely visible in the center just past the sheep, is Marion. His dog and his start ' are in the foreground. This pasture, characteristic of the Bronze Age, was replaced by, among other things, the Physics Bui/ding ot the University ot Detroit. It was constructed on the land to the far left in the picture. Permanent human change, as opposed to styles and random fashions, is best explained by the change of tools. The world over, menthat used stone tools are "stone age men", for example. Other differences, such as race, color, creed, or national origin, obviously count for comparatively little in explaining ways of life. 23 11-2 1899. The Schmidt-Hunsinger family work force on Twelfth Street (Fenkell) pick their berries. 24 If changes in tools are the great steam engine of human events, then Fitzgerald has been through four revolutions in little over one hundred years and the social pain must befantastic . The first tools were the stone tools of the Indians, followed by the steel hand tools of the white settlers. But these tools and their related skills were rapidly replaced shortly after the turn of the century by internal combustion machines made by the likes of Henry Ford. This sweep of "progress," as it is vaguely called, caused many family arguments between the old ways and the new ways. Still, the labor saved by such devices as power-driven saw mills and thrashing machines was so great that they were irresistible, particularly to the young men who loved to cluster about them. Hand labor and machine labor coexisted for a brief period, and there is still some hand labor performed in Fitzgerald, such as the ritual "farming " of mowing the grass or weeding the flowerbeds. But clearly, major hand production has almost vanished in the wink of an historic eye. I/-3 Advanced tools were used before farm machinery was introduced and, later, along with the machinery. This two-man saw, operated by Frank Phillips (left) and Lou Slotkl, was a great improvement over the eight pound hand axes ol the pioneers. The tree being felled was on the Pocherts' farm in 1918 at a place now between Stoepei and Monica on the south side of McNichols. The white shirts and ties were not a pose. The young men always wore them to show style, or pride, or individuality, just as men in other pictures wore bowlers or sported jaunty pipes. 11-4 Wence Nemechek plows the twenty-acre Livernois farm near Twelfth Street (Fenkell). This would appear to be a primitive way to farm, but it was more sophisticated than it seems. The plow and the harness may look Appalachian, but then Appalachia itself is extremely sophisticated by historicgeographic standards. The original pioneers had to use oxen, awkward if powerful animals, because the land was full of rough stumps. 25 //-5 Rudy Nemechek, proudly seated on a truly advanced piece of machinery, the reaper. This photograph was taken on Twelfth Street near the modern Glenda/e in 7909. This street is one of the oldest in the area. Farmers would use it and the old plank road on Grand River to go to market. Intense rioting occurred here In July ot 1967. 26 11-6 Men stand with a power-driven machine, Humphrey Brown's thrasher, at Six Mile (McNichols) and Lilac in 1907. The machines took their price in flesh, too, including one ot Brown's arms. How long in such a mechanical environment belore one ot the bright young men would invent an automobile? 27 28 Another myth explodes under examination. The pioneers did not live in an open egalitarian society. From the beginning, there was great social stratification on the frontier. There were class differences among individual homesteaders , and even greater class differences between homesteaders and renters. The wealthiest homesteaders, like Hurd and Witherell, possessed considerable capital, and hired others to clearthe land. Mary Basangon, a homesteader from the Twelfth Street (Fenkell) Phillips family, suggests both the superiority and the sympathy that many homesteaders felt towards the renters: / do not mean that renters were bad people, but they just were...