The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-01-22
Work of One Farmers Wife.

New York Telegram.
Two things have been taught in my long
farm life. One is that work never kills.
and the other is that we must calculate
work beforehand in order TO save steps
and do a great amount Of work 1 am
ifty-eight years old. Have been on a
farm all my life until a year ago, when
we built new house on one end of our
farm, which opens a public road and
is retired from farm labor. Ny father
was a farmer and a minister OF the old
school who believed in working for a liv-
ing. l learned to milk when seven years
old and always did my share while at home.
was sent to school, but at fourteen COM
menced to teach a district school
third-grade license. l soon received a
second and then the first grade. 1 boarded
around L was married at nineteen and
then my farm life began in earnest. We
always kept dairy, from twelve TO four
teen mead When we were married We
did not own a foot of land Ny husband
and l bought thirty acres the day after
we We're married, Joining the old home
stead Of his people, with whom we lived.
They owned fifty acres, but there was
mortgage OF $3.50 on that We took care
or them until they died, paid the mort
gage, bought enough more to make us two
hundred acres.
three to five hundred pounds CT sugar and
a great deal of syrup every year. We kept
sheep and always worked up the wool
spun, WoYe and made full cloth for men
/ wear and for flannel sheets. We knit
our own socks and stockings. l would al
ways rise in the morning at o'clock
or 4:30, winter and summer, and have built
my own fires, MIXED from four to eight
cows. prepared the breakfast and had It
| at o'clock. Until about ten years ago
we made butter, and since then have sent
a a xyQU az nv WI
churning, and many are the books OF
| poems histories, stories and newspa pers
have read through while churning. l
am the mother or eight children, five OF
| whom are living. The others died when
| small. The oldest living is thrty-siX and
| the youngest is twelve. Three of them
have graduated from high school and been
a number of terms at an academy one
| has been for five years at Cornell Uni
| versity.. have always done my own wash
| ing and weaving of carpets, as / have
| carpets. / make my own garden and have
| helped rake hay and husk corn One fall
| alone L husked between five and six hun
| dred bushels. / had one daughter and she
was at home at that time, so | did no
| homework while husbing, although L at
| tended to the milk and butter, MIXED and
| got breakfast. One summer l piled up one
| hundred cords of wood and did my own
| homework. You will say there was no call
for this.
We were married the first year of the
civil war. In 1868 my husband was draft
ed, paid his $500 and stayed at home. That
| had to be met in hard times for the
| farmer. Not many modern wives would
| think they could pull flax, cut corn, dig po-
tatoes and do all things on a farm that
we used to do. At this time / had hired
| girl only a year and half. We made
| our own table linen and toweling, spinning
| and weaving it, and our flannel dresses.
| / did not find much time to gossip with
neighbors, but have been with the sick
| a great deal, and always went to church
! and Sunday-school and attended societies
which belonged to the church. To-day |
can walk a mile more as quickly as
any one. At the present time have two
| old people to care for; one of them is
eighty-six and the other is eighty-three.
There are five in our family, and L am
doing all the work myself, and am going
| to take the teacher to board next year.
So, you see, work does not kill, and there
must have been some calculations TO save
steps. My husband says: You helped earn
and saved more than 1 did" The boys
many times say: IF it had not been for
| your pushing and helping us to school, we
never could have done so Well. All this
time have kept up with the general read
| ing of the day. | never counted my steps
| but once, and that when l spun a
! skein of wooden yarn 1 went little over
| a mile.