Historic Treasure of the Week - September 8, 1991
By Deborah Curtis Drummy
Vigo County Historical Society
Historic Treasure of the Week - September 8, 1991
By Deborah Curtis Drummy
Vigo County Historical Society
Photo reveals glimpse of history
"History celebrates the battlefields whereon we meet our death, but scorns to speak of the plowed fields whereon we thrive. It knows the names of the king’s bastards but cannot tell us the origin of wheat. This is the way of human folly." --J.H. Fabre
From this astute observation of noted French entomologist and naturalist, Jean Henry Fabre (1823-1915), historian John Schlebecker drew the title of his book, "Whereby We Thrive: A History of American Farming, 1607-1972." The book is a highly readable chronology of American farming with respect to land, markets, technology and science, including illustrations of farm machinery and implements over the years. Schlebecker’s work sheds some light on this week’s historical treasure, a photograph from the Vigo county Historical Society archives labeled simply "Farm Life: view of farm equipment in fields."
The photograph is more revealing than its title. From the clothing worn by the farm family in the picture, we can guess that the scene took place in the early 19th century. The scenery and buildings suggest a Midwestern location, and we can presume, given the photograph’s archival resting place here in Vigo County, a high probability, although undocumented, that the farm operated somewhere in this area and perhaps remains in operation today. Agriculture studies such as Schlebecker’s provide additional insight into the more interesting question of "What was this family doing on a clear summer day in Midwestern America nearly 100 years ago?"
Two wagons are loaded with bundles of grain, probably wheat, indicating that the family was about to commence a threshing operation. The large machine on the left side of the picture is a steam tractor. The wheel on the top right side of the tractor provided power take off by means of the long belt attached to the threshing machine on the far right of the picture. The thresher knocked grain heads free from the straw in a revolving cylinder ; the grain was blown through screens by a fan, separating it from chaff, weed seeds and other debris, a process called winnowing; and finally, a belt or apron system carried the straw up and away, dumping it into a haystack. By the 1880s, according to Schlebecker, the typical threshing machine had a capacity of 750 to 800 bushels of grain a day.
Near the center of the photograph there is what appears to be a steam engine pulled by two mules. On an average farm, these engines were more commonly used than the more cumbersome steam tractors, running threshers off drive wheels. These engines took less fuel to operate and were more easily transported; they could also run power saws and dairying equipment, and could thus pay for themselves more quickly. Farmers who owned steam engines often supplemented their incomes by using them to custom thresh neighbor’s crops. Custom harvesters, whose sole work was harvesting and threshing grain for pay, followed the harvest northward from Texas up into Montana, employing itinerants, called hoboes, along the way.
This photographic view of farm life is just one of many photographs under that hearing in the historical society’s extensive photo file. Dozens of subjects, including businesses, buildings, people, disasters, street scenes, schools, to name just a few, and many of which are clearly of local origin, are house in the museum’s archives. These photographs are available for examination upon request in the museum office. Persons wishing to purchase reprints of particular photographs may arrange to do so through museum staff.
The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.