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Farmers of the Great Plains
In the late 1860's and early 1870's families began to heavily populate what was known as and is still known as the Great Plains. There were two principal methods to acquiring land. A settler could get land at no cost under one of the federal land laws, or he could purchase it from private or public owners. The second method to acquiring land was by purchase. The federal government had withdrawn large areas from the public domain, thereby denying settlers access to it. This was put under land laws.
The high point of every farmer's year was harvest time. The entire family worked from sun up to sun down picking the crops before they rotted throughout the field. Droughts were a constant threat to the farmers, also known as sodbusters. Water became scarce as wells and springs dried out. The rich prairie soil eventually dried out and turned to dust. As the prairie grass grew drier and drier, lightening or heating fires easily ignited it. Walls of flames jumped from field to field turning the farmers' hard work to ashes. The farmers periodically would have problems with grasshoppers. The grasshoppers would eat through an entire crop within a matter of hours. Families were eventually forced to burn their fields before the grasshoppers and other insects spread.
The main crops for farmers in this time consisted of wheat, corn, alfalfa, potatoes, barley, rye, and corn. Farmers also raised chickens, pigs, horses, cows and sheep. During the days there were many chores and tasks to take care of and no time for playing or resting. Not only the men worked on the fields. Woman had many roles to accomplish. They were expected to be a good mother and wife while also cooking, doctoring, canning, preserving meat, and making clothes for the family all without electricity or plumbing. Small children and older children also had important roles. The small children fed the chickens, gathered eggs, picked wild berries and searched the prairie for anything that was possible to burn. Older children plowed and planted, pitched hay, hauled water, and tended to all the animals. Both boys and girls of all ages helped with laundry and kitchen chores.
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In late 1870's life on the Great Plains changed dramatically. New farming machines, such as the steam tractor, began to make pioneer life more productive. Before machinery was invented farmers could only plant so much acreage, because the labor was so difficult. One farmer was only able to plant about 7 acres of each crop, now they are able to plant up to 100 acres a day with they newly developed machinery. Steam-driven tractors pulled huge mechanical plows, reapers, threshers, and combines. These new machines added more rest and play time and allowed more social activities for the farmers and their families, such as barn dances and horse races. The most important piece of equipment to the farmers was the prairie schooner, pulled by four to six oxen or mules. The prairie schooner was a wagon that had to be light enough to resist the weight of twenty-five hundred pounds of worldly goods and also not be too strenuous on the oxen or mules. The majority of the wagons were made of hardwood and iron. The iron was used only for reinforcement when parts took a hard pounding. The only thing that shielded the pioneers from dust and rain was a partial clothe covering. Another small tool that the farmer's used was a John Deere plow. The plow was useful in tilling the tough soil of the Great Plains.
The pioneers had their own way of dressing. Backwoodsmen wore loose frocks, also known as hunting shirts, which hung halfway down the thighs. These shirts were made of coarse linen or loose wool. They also wore leather leggings to protect their legs and a belt that suspended a hunting knife, tomahawk, bullet pouch and gunpowder horn. Women wore linen dresses with a petticoat underneath. Some women that considered themselves lucky owned a sunbonnet, a handkerchief or a bed gown. In the summer everyone went barefoot but in the winter, moccasins were the chosen footwear for everyone.
The housing and lifestyle of the great plain farmer's was much different than that of today. Most farmers live in dugouts or sod houses, and very few in log cabins. Other than windows, a door, and a few poles or rafters to hold up the ceiling, sod houses cost a little to nothing. Log houses were much harder to build and cost a lot more money. They dug wells for water. In main parts of the Great Plains water could be found at less than a hundred feet, and often as little as thirty feet below the surface. Until a farmer could afford a windmill, he drew water up by a bucket or pump. For fuel, farmers initially relied on twisted hay or on dried buffalo or cow manure. Receipts for butter sold in the local town or village and was an important income to the farmer's and their families. The income within farming was very sparing. Farmers raised much of their own food and depended mostly on the income from selling butter and a few bushels of grain or some livestock at a nearby town. It was very common for one settler to make close to $100-$00 per year.
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