Wistful Wednesday : 1917

I always wondered who was in this old photo.  From reading the old farm diaries and from other old photos I finally have a really good guess. Sadly the diaries from the early part of 1917 are missing.

This is the old barn at the farm.

James X., Marvin (Far Guy’s Dad), Tracie, Francis, Mattie, Bill and Bryan.  Mattie and Bill are the parents of Francis, he was an only child born in 1914 the same year as Marvin. Mattie was James X. sister and Bryan was their brother.  Bryan worked at different farms in the Osage area in 1916 and 1917 ( perhaps longer than that).  I always thought Bryan lived in Iowa…the diaries are proving some of those assumptions have been in error.

Mattie and Bill lived in Harrison County Iowa until 1939 when they moved to Tekamah.

So in 1917 they would visit Minnesota from Iowa.  How would they travel?  By train?  No it looks like it was a road trip.  What an adventure that must have been.

Francis and Marvin (right) cousins born in 1914.  Francis in October and Marvin in August.  From the smiles it looks like they were fast friends!   These boys would become men who were friends their entire lives.  Francis died in 1981 and Marvin in 1994.

I am slow in getting diary entries transcribed lately.  It is a work in progress.  Here is a peek into farm life in 1917.

July 1917

19 Thursday Sprayed potatoes finished hog fence, set post west of the barn.  Gave Maurice Robinson music lesson

20 Friday Finished fence by barn, post holes in pasture fence, sawed posts

21 Saturday Set posts, hoed cabbage, plowed beans

Wistful Wednesday: January 1917

The little boy with the cute haircut is Far Guy's Dad. He was 2 years and five months old in this photograph. He is wearing knee pants and long stockings. He is standing in front of a sleigh. Do you see the buckboard seat on the sleigh? There are also two sleigh robes. In January 1917, traveling by horse drawn sleigh was the only way to get to Grandma and Grandpa's house nine miles away.

Far Guys Dad told these stories to us many times:

"Mother would get lonely for her family in town. Plans would be made for a trip. Dad would hitch up the team of horses to the sleigh and we would make the trip to town. We used blankets to stay warm. The trip took about three or four hours. Dad would unhitch the team when we got there, and he would take them over to the livery stable. We stayed overnight and would return home the next day. When I was a little older Dad rigged up a cover for the sleigh, we stayed cozy warm then because there was a wood stove in the sleigh."

Of course there is probably much more to these stories, these are only the bits and pieces that we both remember:)

Wistful Wednesday :1917

1917, Minnesota, Becker County, The Old Home Place of Far Guys Grandparents. Far Guys Dad is on the right, he was born in August of 1914, and he looks older than two in this photograph so we have decided it must be 1917. The child on the left could be a cousin. The old car probably belonged to the cousins family too.
What I found interesting about this photograph. The house, the kitchen must have been in the front part. It was a pretty large home. The woodpile and the wood cart, the water pump located conveniently outside the front door. The old car, we tried to zoom in on the license plate for a year..no luck with that. And of course the children sitting barefoot with a much loved and very patient dog:)