Farming in America

[DawnM]

Every article I read about what people ate in 1900 says, "People were farmers and lived off the land."    I thought this really couldn't be accurate.  For one thing, my parents and great grandparents were NOT farmers.  But two out of four of my great-grandparents were farmers (before 1900.)

 

So I did a little digging here:  https://www.agclassroom.org/gan/timeline/farmers_land.htm

 

Looks like in the year 1900, only 38% of the population of the US were farmers.  That means that 62% were not.

 

Curious.  How many of you came from farming families and how many of you didn't?

 

What jobs did your grandparents and great-grandparents have?

[Reefgazer]

Farming family here-paternal grandparents were farmers since the 1920s until their death.

 

ETA: I didn't read the article, but the article's definition of farmer may be very broad, to include chickens or those who had small gardens that supplied most of their produce.

Edited December 28, 2015 by reefgazer

[3 ladybugs]

My maternal great grandparents were all born to farmers from my understanding. However they didn't like staying put so I think that had something to do with my family's pension for moving (including me!). It is hard to farm when you are constantly moving. By the 1930's my maternal great grandparents were divorced and my great grandmother was having to raise 2 children on her own. So that left little room for farming. Not to mention they were living in a city by then. 

[Caroline]

Farming family. We have owned our original family farm since the late 1700's. It's has been added to since then so that my immediate family has 500 acres, and my dad's cousins also have farms of about the same size. At the moment, it is owned by my parents who pay people to work the farm as they live 1000+ miles away. It is still profitable. That is on my dad's side. My mom's family was railroad and factory workers.

[Myra]

My grand parents were farmers but lost the farm to eminent domain - a proposed airport that was never built!  I think the difference is that my parents weren't farmers but lived off of the land in the sense that they bought their produce, meat, etc. directly from the farmer.  We would head to the farms every Saturday and purchase bushels of corn, potatoes, half a cow, chicken, eggs, milk, etc. directly from the farmer's field - no middle man, grocery store. 

 

Myra

[Laurie4b]

Father's side were farmers. Farm was sold when I was a teenager. Grandfather sold milk, eggs, and produce to people in town because duh they were not farmers and didn't have their own.

 

Mother's side were urban. 

 

Any article that said that everyone was farmers has to be wrong, of course. Even people who lived in the country were not all farmers. 

[ScoutTN]

My mom's family owned a farm, but my grandfather was an engineer and worked in town. Tenants worked most of the land and my grandmother had a very large garden. They did have chickens and both beef and dairy cattle. The farm had belonged to my maternal great grandmother and great grandfather and they farmed until they were physically unable to and both of them died there. My mom lived in the farm until she was about 12 and they sold it and moved into town.

 

My grandmother was born in 1901.

Edited December 28, 2015 by ScoutTN

[Annie G]

My grandparents lived in a small town in Pennsylvania- one grandfather was a tailor and the other was a bookkeeper at a lumber yard.  No farmers there.  My mom's dad had a small garden at their summer house but it was more hobby than for food. 

 

Dh's grandparents lived in the south in the country and even though both grandfathers had day jobs, they also had large gardens.  Their wives preserved a LOT of what they grew to feed the family. Beans, peas, potatoes, onions, corn,okra,tomatoes,  fruits like figs, apples, peaches.  They raised a pig or two every year for food, and raised chickens.  

 

When I was a kid, lots of people I knew had pretty large vegetable gardens.  

 

  Dh and I spent a lot of hours driving through rural Georgia this summer and we commented on how few gardens we saw.  Gardening is a lot of work and food is pretty cheap here- I bought 50 pounds of locally grown zipper peas and butter peas this summer for under a hundred dollars.  

 

Farmers around me usually grow one thing- like corn- or they raise cattle or hogs and maybe grow some food for them. I don't know anyone who grows the variety of fruits and vegetables that dh's grandparents grew. 

 

 

 

 

[maize]

Three out if four sets of great a grandparents farmed, the other mined.

[Southern Ivy]

My great grandfathers - 1 was a dishonest business man/banker and the other was a brick mason. My grandfathers were brick masons and Air Force/construction. However, Air Force/construction grandfather still has a pretty sizeable garden. 

DH grew up on a cattle farm and had a decent garden. His dad was older than dh's maternal grandfather...so his dad was carrying over a lot from the Great Depression in regards to farming, gardening, eating, etc. 

Edited December 28, 2015 by Southern Ivy

[Joyofsixreboot]

My brother and I are the first generation not to farm. I do live in rural Indiana so that was pretty much just what people did. Dh's grandparents immigrated and worked in steel mills. I don't know if they farmed before that or not. HIs dad worked in the mill too after a Navy career. I do garden and farms are everywhere around so it's pretty easy to get fresh things.

[mom2samlibby]

Farmers here on both sides.  Maternal grandfather farmed & had dairy cows.  Paternal grandfather farmed and my father is still farming.

[kewb]

No farmers that I am aware of. Not a lot of farming in the ghettos of the lower east side and Brooklyn. Perhaps my grandfather's family from the south were farmers but no one knows anything about his family.

Edited December 28, 2015 by kewb

[Pink and Green Mom]

My mom's family didn't arrive in America until 1952 (her father became a citizen sometime in the 40s from Greece and I believe he worked in a shop here until he saved enough to bring the whole family over; he died while his wife and 7 children were en route).

 

My paternal great grandfather (and I believe his father) owned a coal company in New York City. I can find public records of them selling coal to the City as far back as 1907.  I do not know what my other paternal great grandfather did for a living but I do recall something about him helping build the Holland Tunnel.  As far as I know my husband's great grandparents were not farmers either (I know one owned a small grocery store in the Bronx in the early 1900s, I don't know exactly what the other one did).

Edited December 28, 2015 by Pink and Green Mom

[Laura Corin]

Husband's paternal great grandparents may have been sharecroppers - the family history is (perhaps intentionally) hazy.  His grandfather brought his mother and siblings to Texas on a waggon, and set up in business.

[Ms.Ivy]

Mine worked in building trades, for the railroads, or in other odd jobs like delivering milk. Most grew their own vegetables, but they weren't farmers. If I look back to the 1800s, I know more ancestors were farmers, but certainly not all.

[AmandaVT]

My dad's grandparents were potato farmers in Idaho. I don't know much about them aside from that - my dad grew up in Chicago and his parents were not farmers. 

 

My mom's grandparents were a shop owner (grandfather) and a milliner (grandmother) - my mom still has some of her hats and hatboxes. Her parents were a stay at home mom and her dad owned the neighborhood corner store - penny candy, sandwiches, newspapers, cigarettes, etc. 

[shawthorne44]

My dad grew up on a farm.   I benefited from someone else's genealogy interest and I know that all my paternal great-grandfather's ancestors at least back to his great-great-grandparents were farmers.   Except for one guy who wasn't.   He was considered uppity because he was a sheriff and married an English woman who used forks.   

Mom's paternal line was steel workers and blacksmiths before that.  

 

Hearing my grandmother talk, they did largely live off the land.  But, they still bought some stuff.  There was lots of trading going on too.   For example, I remember her talking about the standard partnering between a Rich Farm Wife and a Poor Farm Wife.   The Rich Farm Wife would pay for what was needed to raise some chickens.  The Poor Farm Wife tended to the chickens on her farm and they split the eggs and the rooster meat.   Vegetables were traded that way too.  You might agree to trade half your crop of X for half of someone else's Y crop.  

[Rachel]

My family of origin is not a farming family, however working on a dairy farm is how I put myself through my last two years of college.

 

My one set of great grandparents would not have considered themselves farmers but in reading old letters, they had a cow and raised their own food for personal use. Another great grandmother temporarily moved to Nebraska as a girl when her father decided to try his hand at farming. He wasn't successful and they returned to Texas after a few years.

 

My in-laws farm (supplemental income only until the last few years), and one set of their parents farmed after they retired from the military. My sister married into a farming family. They farm several thousand acres, much of that has been in the family for 100+ years, but my BIL has also expanded the operation significantly. My biological mom did not grow up a farmer but she is now living in a farm with her husband. They manage a ranch in Texas. Rumor has it that her great grandfather was a cowboy, but I'm not sure how accurate that is.

[zoobie]

My great grandparents were very poor tenant farmers. They probably didn't count as "farmers" because they didn't own the land.

[marbel]

My parents were born in 1916.  Their families were definitely not farmers!   My father's father worked in a factory and his mother ran a store they owned.  My mother's father was a teamster and as far as I know, her mother was a housewife/mother of 8.    My parents lived in a city until they married and moved to the suburbs.  They had a garden, but nothing like a farm.

[Carol in Cal.]

No farmers in my family--business people and a few musicians going back as far as I am aware. 

 

However, I favor growing at least some of your own food if you can.  I think that it tastes better, and is more healthful, and can be shared generously.  Plus it's so cheap, and food prices have a lot of upward pressure on them.

 

Since I have lots of allergies and DH doesn't like to garden, my solution is to plant dwarf fruit trees.  They can be kept pruned down so they don't get too big, they bear pretty quickly if they are going to bear at all (if not, pull them out and try something else), and they don't need a lot of attention.  I also plant herbs because fresh herbs are expensive but really good to cook with.

[mom2scouts]

My paternal great grandparents and several great aunts/uncles were farmers.

[Pawz4me]

My grandparents and great grandparents on my father's side were farmers.  My grandfather also cut firewood to take into town to sell.  My father was older when I was born, and a good part of his childhood was during the Depression.  He said his family was considered wealthy not because they had a lot of extra cash, but because they always had plenty to eat due to the farm.  He said it wasn't unusual at all for extended family and friends to show up right around meal time for a visit.  They knew they'd be invited to eat.

 

My ancestors on my mother's side were more shopkeepers and builders.  My grandparents did own a farm while I was growing up, but it was mostly a hobby farm.

[Word Nerd]

My parents are farmers as were my grandparents and great-grandparents on my dad's side.

Edited December 28, 2015 by Word Nerd

[lllll]

nm

Edited December 30, 2015 by w11

[Carrie12345]

One set of great-grandparents held various jobs, including managing rental units.

One great-grandmother was a pianist.

One grandmother was a dancer when she was young, and my grandfather was in the military.  They owned a tavern for many years, and my grandmother was a secretary in a government office.

One grandfather was a bus driver, and my grandmother worked retail.

 

38% may not be a majority, but it's a HECK of a lot more than the current 2%.

[Closeacademy]

My family is from the Lake Cumberland area of KY.  So technically my family is from Appalachia. 

 

Great-grandpa was a circuit preacher and farmer.  The farm is still in the family

Other great grandpas also farmed.

Grandpa was a brick mason and built houses all over the place (my mom once went to 11 different schools one year due to grandpa's moving around for work) but they always came home and had a large garden but also grew tobacco.

Other Grandparents were very poor.  They farmed but also at one time had a gas station. 

 

By farming, I don't mean large scale for profit but growing food that they ate and a tobacco for sale.  My dad did not see indoor plumbing until he was 6.  He went to a one-room schoolhouse and was one of two kids in the 3rd grade (he was 6, the other boy was 16 and didn't get to come to school often.  This was in the 50s.  My father talks about how the women of the family would cut up apples and dry them on the roof of the house to use later for pies and things.

 

My husband's grandma was married to a man who worked rarely and spent most of his time hunting and trapping.  They did not have a farm but did have a large garden.  His uncle remembers canning a whole cow over fire pits during the depression.  They also had a good tomato harvest one year and were able to use the canned tomatoes for trade for things they needed.  My mother-in-law to this day will not eat any sort of wild game because she considers it to be poor people food.

 

His great-grandparents had a riverboat on the Ohio river but we're not really sure what they did. 

 

The other grandparents immigrated here before the war.  Grandpa was a merchant marine and later worked in radio for NBC.  Not sure what the great-grandparents did.

[Ravin]

My dad's maternal grandparents were dairy farmers in California, but immigrated after 1900. He is only second generation born in the US on his mom's side and first on his dad's. My mom's father's families were farmers as far as I know, they migrated from Oklahoma and Arkansas to California during the Dust Bowl/Great Depression.

[PeachyDoodle]

Three of my four sets of great-grandparents -- those are the ones who lived around 1900 -- were farmers (not sure about the fourth). I know all of those grandparents survived the Great Depression without too much struggle, because they were pretty self-sufficient on their farms.

 

All of my grandparents left the farms for other jobs, though.

 

My paternal grandfather left his home due to abuse at the age of 13. He started washing dishes in a small-town diner and eventually worked his way up to cook. My paternal grandmother worked as a clerk in a department store nearby. That's how they met. After they married, they opened their own restaurant and were quite successful. They proudly put my dad through college (first in his family -- he later also earned an MBA).

 

My maternal grandmother left the mountains of Virginia for a cotton mill in NC after high school, just before WWII. She met my grandfather there. She

moved back home with their two small children while he was in the Navy, and they lived and farmed there for several years after the war as well. Then they moved back to NC, where he was a truck driver. Unfortunately, he died in an accident in his early 30's, when my mother was only 4. So I don't know a lot about him or his family. My grandmother raised five children on her own working as a janitor in an elementary school and a grocery store clerk.

 

A lot of people around here still have farms (mostly tobacco and soybeans) but most of them have day jobs as well.

[Carol in Cal.]

PS  Also, just in general, knowing some subsistence skills is empowering and kind of like insurance.

[Spryte]

No farmers. On one side - politics, judges, teachers, newspaper journalists. The other side - miners.

 

As an aside, not related to farming exactly but perhaps relevant, every woman on my mom's side back to at least my great grandmother has had a college degree.

[Kathryn]

Grandparents (born in 1910s and 1920s): theology professor/hospital chaplain and nurse; minister and housewife (who majored in theatre in college).

 

Great-grandparents (born 1880s-1890s): tailor and housewife; minister and housewife; dairy farmer and housewife; railroad engineer and housewife.

 

The dairy farmer and his wife's family were the only farming families among my ancestors. He ran his own farm until the Depression. After he lost the farm, he still was a dairy farmer, but for a large corporation. His wife's family, who had run the farm next door (this was in eastern Kansas), went to southern California during the depression and bought a citrus orchard.

[gardenmom5]

My maternal grandparents were born in the first decade of the 1900's.  both came from poor farming families (that farmed for at least several generations before that) in a miniscule and rural farming community.  some of that land is still owned by my mother's cousin.  even some of those cousins working "regular" jobs - have hobby farms.  many of that previous generation had minimal education.  my grandfather only had an 8th grade education. 

 

My paternal grandparents/ancestors both came from small business owners who lived in the city. my grandmother's paternal line (I have records before the 1860's) were college educated - in the 19th century.  

 

they should also differentiate between growing crops/livestock for sale/barter - and growing a kitchen garden/livestock strictly for personal use.     

 

 

eta: dh's lines are doctors and business owners.  I don't think there are any farmers - and we know quite a ways back.

Edited December 28, 2015 by gardenmom5

[MEmama]

No farmers in my family as far as I know.

 

One side is a long line of engineers, the other side were musicians.

 

Only one set of DH's grandparents were farmers.

[Annie G]

 

 

they should also differentiate between growing crops/livestock for sale/barter - and growing a kitchen garden/livestock strictly for personal use.     

 

I agree, but it might have been difficult to differentiate back then. My grandfather was a tailor but he occasionally took someone's homegrown crops or their raised chickens as payment when they needed his services.   I'm guessing people who raised crops for their own use might have also traded them when they could for things they needed.  Mom used to tell me her dad would take those things in trade even though he really needed the cash- the people who needed his services sometimes simply had no money.  My grandfather came here from Germany in 1920 so this was depression era and might have skewed things quite a bit. 

But dh's grandparents did the same sometimes- traded their home grown foods for things they needed when they had no cash.

[Truscifi]

Both sets of maternal great grands were farmers, as were grands until the 40s when my maternal grandfather sold his farm and moved the family to the city to look for work. he wound up being an electrician for US Steel for the next 40 years.

 

According to family history, which is somewhat vague, paternal great grands were bootleggers. They had a big garden though.

[goldberry]

Paternal grandparents were farmers, but very poor.  Sharecroppers who did not own their own land.  Maternal grandparents were German, not farmers obviously.  Maternal grandfather was a silversmith.

[Matryoshka]

My dad came from a Midwestern farming family.  Both his parents were born and raised in farming families, and his dad owned a farm and chicken feed business, and I think he would have been very happy continuing that way, but his wife hated the farming life and they sold the farm and moved to California when my dad was in middle school.  His dad then owned various small businesses.

 

My mother's parents owned a restaurant, but her father always wanted to farm (he was apprenticed out to learn the restaurant business at an early age - he was in Germany - so didn't have a choice as to what he did).  So he retired from that to a farm.  Bought a farm in TN and raised and bred bulls - spent my childhood visiting them there.  My grandmother's father was an upholsterer.  Not sure what grandfather's father did - he was estranged from his family, he actually left home at 12.

 

Dh's grandfather was an architect.

[Guest]

Maternal grandmother was raised by a farmer in rural Tenessee. Maternal grandfather was born in Pennsylvania but not only a farmer (I can't remember the other main family vocation).

 

Paternal grandmother was part of the family with old money and investments. Think servants. Paternal grandfather was raised by a small business owner in California.

 

My husband's family had a farmer (Michigab), grocer (Michigan), nurse/lawyer (Alaska), and pilot (Alaska).

 

So we are 3/8 on farming as a profession. We are 7/8 on farming as part of family life though - I know every one of hem had working plots of land they tended themselves except my paternal grandmother, who didn't do a day of hard work in her life until she married my grandfather.

Edited December 28, 2015 by Arctic Mama

[dirty ethel rackham]

I know that my great-grandparents lived very self-sufficiently.  I would not have classified them as farmers per-se (one was a farm equipment dealer,) but they all grew most of their own food in their large gardens, canned for the winter, had chickens for eggs and meat, and bought part of a cow or a pig from a friend who raised them.  Most of them did no live in urban areas, but usually in small towns. Also, they hunted so they had venison.  Going to the store was usually for hard goods.  They also did a lot of mail-order purchasing. 

[Anne in CA]

My parents were cattle ranchers. We had a small ranch. My father's parents were wheat farmers, from generations of wheat farmers. My mother's parents were agricultural workers. They never owned their own farm, but the worked on the farms of others and rented. My grandmother leased a restaurant at the stockyard on sale days, so even her restaurant was agricultural.

 

I lived through the 80's farming scene and could not deal with the idea of living under the debt that my parents did for the privilege of feeding people. I found it wrong. I still do, actually. Farmers should be the highest paid Americans, IMO.

 

Dh's parents were hobby farmers at different times although they now live in town. They are divorced anyway, but it is funny that both of them live in town now. Dh's grandparents were musicians and they also hobby farmed to keep themselves fed, literally.

[DawnM]

Fascinating to read everyone's history with or without farming.

 

Two of my great-grandparents were farmers.  One was a professor and the 4th I am not sure about actually.  

My grandparents (dad's parents) were a professor and a nurse.    I am not sure my grandfather on my mother's side actually worked.  I think he just ran a still and sold moonshine.  He died young.  

 

 

[Insertcreativenamehere]

My grandparents on both sides were farmers. 

[Anne in CA]

Fascinating to read everyone's history with or without farming.

 

Two of my great-grandparents were farmers.  One was a professor and the 4th I am not sure about actually.  

My grandparents (dad's parents) were a professor and a nurse.    I am not sure my grandfather on my mother's side actually worked.  I think he just ran a still and sold moonshine.  He died young.  

My grandmother's grandfather lost his Virginia plantation during the Civil War. H became a moonshiner. All his children except one died before thirty. Evidently that is not a good career option.

[Mergath]

On my maternal side (which is the side I know the most about) my great-grandparents were farmers from Norway who immigrated to northern Minnesota. My grandfather worked on the railroad and my grandmother stayed at home.

[Amy in NH]

My maternal grandfather and his brothers owned and ran a large farm in southeastern Massachusetts.  He did not have beyond a 6th grade education.  My maternal grandmother was one of 17 children.  She quit school and moved out of the house at the age of 12 to work as a servant in the home of an elderly couple.  She worked on the farm after she married my grandfather, but they both had second jobs; she worked retail year-round, and he delivered heating fuel in winter.  My mother grew up working on the farm, which was sold when I was ~10 for $multi-millions split amongst the brothers.  Grampa had been a gardener on PBS Victory Garden before they retired to Florida, and I remember him best on his hands and knees washing his lawn with a bucket of soapy water to catch grubs(?). 

 

My paternal grandparents emigrated from farms in Canada to the coast of Maine where they ran their own restaurant until it burned down.  After the fire they both worked in the shipyards.  Their backyard was just one big garden which Gramma canned.  They lived off that produce, but bought meat and dairy.

 

My mother always had a huge garden when I was growing up.  When I was very small she would pull us around the neighborhood in a wagon full of veges she sold to all the neighbors. Despite all that knowledge, no-one taught me anything about gardening; I've had to hack my way through learning to garden.  Corn and onions still elude me!

 

 

Edited December 28, 2015 by Amy in NH

[bluemongoose]

Grandfathers: One was engineer in a telephone co, the other was telegraph operator (trains and military) and a farmer

 

Grandmothers: One was a teacher, the other worked high up on an air force base but as a civilian. Not sure exactly what she did because she wasnt allowed to say.

 

Great Grandfathers: Two were farmers, one worked in same telephone co as his son, and the other was a day time plumber and a night time orchestra director and violinist.

 

Great Grandmothers: 3 were homemakers, 1 was a school teacher and continued to teach after she was married (which was rare in her day).

 

DHs side is easy...they are all farmers. They mostly still are, except DH and a few cousins and such. Edit because DH informed me one of his grandfathers was a dentist not a farmer.

Edited December 29, 2015 by bluemongoose

[TravelingChris]

My mother's parents were landowning farmers,, I guess, They didn't do the farming, their farm workers did and they had servants in the house. This was in Poland though they had extensive land holdings that included orchards in another country.  

 

My father's mother worked for the Police Department in Warsaw and I believe my father's father was a government employee of some sort too.

 

I am not sure what specific jobs dh's grandfathers had but I believe they worked in factories though one may have been a carpenter.  THey were all deceased before my husband was a teen so I never met them.

 

[VeteranMom]

My Mom's side of the family were farmers.  I've done some exploring on ancestry.com and they were farmers back to the Revolutionary War.  My Dad's side of the family were not farmers, but some did not come to this country until the early 1900s.