{"id":7834,"date":"2021-03-08T13:17:04","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T18:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=7834"},"modified":"2021-03-08T13:23:41","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T18:23:41","slug":"episode-273-freeman-farm-1914-to-1930-harsh-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=7834","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 273 FREEMAN FARM 1914 TO 1930: harsh reality"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NOTE TO READERS:  THIS STORY IS PERSONAL\u2026COULD BE TEDIOUS;  JUST REMEMBER<\/div>\n
THE STORY WAS REALITY FOR MANY.  “THIS IS THE WAY WE WERE\u201d\u2026photo records.<\/div>\n

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EPISODE 273       FARMING 1914 TO 1930 .. HOW DID THE FREEMAN FAMILY EVER MAKE A LIVING?<\/p>\n


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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
March 2021<\/div>\n

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Edward Freeman, my grandfather, bought a 25 acre farm midway between Acton and Erin, Ontario as<\/div>\n
the crow flies.  Seems about all he could afford having been burned out of his home at Krugerdorf<\/div>\n
in Northern Ontario.  He never expected the farm to make an income.  It was  a place for subsistence <\/div>\n
living in the country.  Away from the industrial city air that had affected Frank\u2019s lungs. (son).<\/div>\n

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Edward  got work in the munitions industry which was gearing up big time as the war in Europe blossomed<\/div>\n
into a  stalemate of trench warfare and artillery duelling.<\/div>\n

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We still own that 25 acre farm. (2021) but it does not look much like the farm granddad bought<\/div>\n
in 1914.  Today it is dressed in green\u2026forested.  And the swamps  that granddad tried to drain have<\/div>\n
been dammed into little lakes\u2026four of them. The house looks the same but it has been changed<\/div>\n
totally on the inside\u2026gutted.  Open plan now while in 1914 the main floor had six rooms.  The old<\/div>\n
dirt floor cellar is now cement floored with a propane furnace that provides central heating at great<\/div>\n
expense. In 1914 the only winter heat came from a big wood stove in the front room kitchen\u2026a room<\/div>\n
that also served as a dining room, living room and entertainment centre.  The rest of the house was<\/div>\n
an icebox in winter with icicles hanging from the doorframe and window ledges.<\/div>\n

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Certainly not unique.  All the houses were heated by wood stoves and every farm family<\/div>\n
lived in the only room with a wood stove\u2026the kitchen.   If I mentioned the term \u2018indoor plumbing\u2019<\/div>\n
to a Canadian  farmer between 1914 and 1924 he or she would be puzzled.  There was no indoor <\/div>\n
plumbing.   There was a back house of course.  A little building with a slab of smooth pine from which<\/div>\n
a circular piece of wood had been removed. <\/div>\n

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 The farm stayed like this until 1990 or so when <\/div>\n
we were robbed big time and had to make a major decision.  Should  we restore the farm house<\/div>\n
or sell the farm.  We restored the farm house.  if I met the thief who stole the good furniture I  would<\/div>\n
shake his hand.  He helped us rather than hurt us.<\/div>\n

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Where am I going with this story?   By pure chance I came across  some photographs taken<\/div>\n
by granddad or by my mom capturing the look of the farm between 1914 and 1930.  Compare<\/div>\n
them with the photographs taken today\u2026a century later.   <\/div>\n

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Edward  Freeman and his daughter Elsie proudly standing in from of their newly purchased house in 1914 on the Fifth Line, <\/div>\n
Erin Township, Wellington County.<\/div>\n

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The person who built this barn thought he was wise.  There is a steady flow of water that goes through the barn which means <\/div>\n
watering the livestock will be easy.   True.  But it also led to the death of the barn from 80 years of freezing and thawing.  The barn<\/div>\n
collapsed about 1957.   Today this location is verdant with trees and shrubs and he stream empties into a large pond in<\/div>\n
the foreground.  <\/div>\n

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Louisa (Bufton) Freeman around 1916 or so.  Damn good looking woman.  I never knew her<\/div>\n
in 1916 because i was not born until 1938.  By that time she had advanced Parkinson\u2019s disease. Her<\/div>\n
hands always shook. Her writing was wiggly.  Yet she persisted.  IN the late 1950\u2019s when<\/div>\n
I worked in the far reaches of northern Canada,  Grandmother wrote to me often.  Her writing was painful<\/div>\n
and awkward but steadfastly done.  She was Gentle and Tough at the same time. When she died<\/div>\n
she said, \u201cBoys, I give you Scottie, please care for him.\u201d  Scottie was a scotch terrier. Marjorie remembers<\/div>\n
that he growled when she tried to kiss me in our car in 1959.  Protecting me.<\/div>\n

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Two calves being fed skim milk maybe. The rich cream was skimmed off for human use\u2026butter.   Since there were two calves<\/div>\n
in 1916 they must have been at least two cows.  Mom spoke of one cow in 1914.  How does a farmer with two cows ensure those<\/div>\n
cows get pregnant?  No bull.   Often farmers took their cows\u2026walked them\u2026to meet a bull kept by a wealthier farmer.  There must<\/div>\n
have been a cost.  Not sure how much.  Later , much later, in the 1950s my cousin Ted Freeman became an A.I. man.  Artificial <\/div>\n
Insemination.  Ted would go from farm to farm carrying his vials of bull sperm to be hand delivered to a cow from the rear.  Amusing<\/div>\n
to watch.   Ted often carried a short length of 2 x 4 in his spare hand. Why?   \u201cBecause some farms had dogs ready<\/div>\n
to bite strangers.  I cooled them off with a good swipe of my 2 x 4\u201d<\/div>\n

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One of the greatest jokes I have ever heard was told by my aunt Lucinda\u2026told in the 1950\u2019s. Must be shared.<\/div>\n

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\u201cDear, I must work in back field today. The A.I. man is coming. Tell him<\/div>\n
to service the second cow in the third row in the stable. There is a big<\/div>\n
nail in the beam above.\u201d<\/div>\n
(His wife came from the city\u2026new wife\u2026not worldly wise)<\/div>\n
\u201cWhere is the cow?\u201d asked the A.I. man.<\/div>\n
\u201cIn the stable\u2026third row\u2026there\u2019s a big nail in the beam above.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat is the nail for?\u201d <\/div>\n
\u201cI do not know.  Probably to hang your pants.\u201d<\/div>\n

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I will always laugh at that joke. Earthy.  i laugh because I can hear my Aunt Lucinda telling <\/div>\n
the joke over and over.  At their golden wedding party at the church in Acton, I reminded<\/div>\n
Lucinda of her joke.  So she told it again.  In spite  of church crowd or maybe because of<\/div>\n
the church crowd.  Her laughter will never be lost.<\/div>\n

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Mom, Elsie Freeman, wearing her farm clothes\u2026baggy, oversized. torn\u2026not clothes meant for Vogue magazine.<\/div>\n
Punch\u2026the pit bull\u2026seems well fed.  He was loved\u2026never used as  a fighting dog.<\/div>\n

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Aunt Annie feeding the chickens.<\/div>\n

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Frank Freeman at his farm just a hop, step and jump up the road.<\/div>\n

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Granddad was proud of his team\u2026just purchased around 1914 or so.  These are old horses\u2026<\/div>\n

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THE BINDER: These were years when grain was  cut and bound into sheaves which  were side delivered for field labourers like Eric and me.  The stukes<\/div>\n
had to be set vertically so the sun could dry them in preparation for threshing.   Every task on the farm involved heavy human labour reduced<\/div>\n
somewhat by horses.<\/div>\n

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Edward  Freeman persuaded his sister Annie to migrate to Canada along with two of his brothers, Cliff and Chris.  He wanted <\/div>\n
all  nine to come including his mother.  But he did not want his father, a miserable abusive alcoholic.   I never met Uncle Charlie. Look at<\/div>\n
the field.  Tho whitish thing are stones.  The best crop was stone.  A new crop came up every year and had to be picked and hauled<\/div>\n
to the fence rows with horse and stone \u2018boat\u2019\u2026i.e. a wood or iron slap with slightly up turned front.   Now in the year 2021 stones<\/div>\n
remain our best crop.<\/div>\n

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I remember when Aunt Annie died.  She was living with us in our rented rooms at 19 Sylvan Avenue.  Mom said. \u201cBoys, aunt<\/div>\n
Annie would like to see you today\u2026to talk to to you\u2026she has something for each of you.\u201d<\/div>\n
Such a sad room.  She was in bed\u2026dying of cancer.  I barely remember her but I still have her gift.<\/div>\n
\u201cAlan, I would like to give you this little piggy bank that I brought from England.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAnd Eric, here is little tinware globe of the world.\u201d  Aunt Annie had so little\u2026all in one suitcase.<\/div>\n
Aunt Annie died shortly thereafter.  I never really knew her but still have the piggy bank.<\/div>\n

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Bleak House and barn\u2026March 1916.   <\/div>\n

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Granddad, Frank and Uncle Charlie are resting on a pile of new mown hay.  Each year they could only keep enough animals<\/div>\n
that this hay could feed.  The barn was small.  In 1916 the Freemans had one or two cows, a team of horses, a flock of<\/div>\n
chickens, and maybe a big fat sow (but I never heard they kept pigs)    Getting by was difficult.  Work at some place off the<\/div>\n
farm was a necessity.<\/div>\n

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This  picture was taken in 1916. Two years after the Freeman farm was purchased.  The land was cleared.  Few trees\u2026.more sunshine\u2026better chance<\/div>\n
of something marketable.   How to keep the house warm? See the pile of tree trunks all of which had to be hand sawn into blocks unless Angus <\/div>\n
McEchern  came by with his tractor and circlular saw.  The need for wood fuel kept farmers clearing land whether they liked it or not.<\/div>\n
This farm in 1916 \u2026 winter \u2026looks dreary.   The front door had so man cracks that snow piled up inside the house.  The only<\/div>\n
livable winer room was the front right kitchen.   Under the kitchen was a dirt floor cellar that smelled  of aging potatoes and sour milk.<\/div>\n

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\u2018<\/div>\n

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Somehow Uncle Frank was able to purchase a car in 1922.   How could he do that when his farm only had about 60 acres tillable.?<\/div>\n
Frank and Lucinda certainly did not go to town for Coffee, chips and a Big Mac.<\/div>\n

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Keeping the Freeman farm neat and tidy was not easy.  Just cutting the grass with a push<\/div>\n
mower would take hours and if the grass got ahead of the mower\u2026i.e. got long\u2026then forget<\/div>\n
about the mower\u2026get the scythe.<\/div>\n

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Grandmoher Louise (Bufton) Freeman in her Sunday best.  Ed must have been a family friend.<\/div>\n
The Freemans had lots of friends\u2026because they were so musical and welcoming I believe.<\/div>\n
They were surrounded  by Scottish immigrants who had arrived in the 1840\u2019s, many of whom were childless so<\/div>\n
Elsie and Frank were warmly received after the Scots got over their anti-English prejudices;<\/div>\n
And decades later, in the 1940\u2019s and 1950\u2019s my brother Eric and I were also warmly received<\/div>\n
by the Macdonalds, McLeans, McEcherns, Kerrs.  Today only the Kerrs remain.  And the<\/div>\n
Skeochs (our family) now own the McLean farm.   Cousin Ted Freeman and Shirley still own their<\/div>\n
farm. <\/div>\n

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DIGRESS HERE:   Why so few farmers today?\u20263 to 4% of Canadians. Most of the land on the Fifth line is now tilled and harvested by the Anthony Brothers\u2019<\/div>\n
who rent several thousand acres which were once individual 100 acre farms.  They pay $90 an<\/div>\n
acre which is market value.   If a 100 acre farm is 80% cleared then the yearly income would<\/div>\n
be  $90 x 80 acres which equals $7,200.00.  If a new John Deere tractor costs $100,000 then<\/div>\n
tell me how quickly a farmer would go bankrupt.  Those big combine harvesters must cost<\/div>\n
$150,000 or more.  How many of those could a farmer buy with his or her $7,200.00?<\/div>\n
What about food? A car? Kids  education? Copies of Playboy Magazine (if they sell exist)?<\/div>\n
Now that is  \u2018tough sledding\u2019\u2026better to sell  the farm and get the hell to a better place.<\/div>\n

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This picture was taken from the air by an enterprising photographer who photographed farms for a living.  Used  an old WW One biplane likely<\/div>\n
\u2026could fly low enough and slow enough to capture the Freeman farm around 1930 or later.  Big changes.  Compare this picture with<\/div>\n
early pictures in 1914 and 1916\u2026see the impact Granddad had on the property.  House enclosed by a manicured cedar hedge.  Huge berry<\/div>\n
patch,  apple trees, weed free garden freshly plowed  and  harrowed\u2026the stony ground is obvious.    The big white pine tree still remains<\/div>\n
\u2026much larger and much stressed as it was struck by lightning big time in the 1940\u2019s.  The lightning bolt followed the telephone line<\/div>\n
into the house but did  not set it afire. Note the lone telephone pole beside the big white pine. Granddad made the Freeman farm look a neat and manicured as the Eywood Estate had been<\/div>\n
back in England.   He was, after all, a \u2018head gardener\u2019.   What is missing?  Electricity.  House wired around 1950. How is the house roofed?  Cedar shingles.  How<\/div>\n
is it heated?  Wood  stoves\u2026three chimneys.  Where is the back house?  Hidden in a lilac bush at back of the house.  Later this became<\/div>\n
the site of a grand  walnut tree which still exists. Grandma claimed I planted the walnut beside the back house around 1945.  I doubt that.<\/div>\n
Fencing was always a problem.  Split rail cedar fence rails surround he farm aligned as straight as a Temperance persons mind.<\/div>\n

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Every farm had at least one team of horses along with a buggy and  set of bob sleighs.   This team seems to be old\u2026has seen better<\/div>\n
years\u2026so was likely purchased as such. The fate of one of these horses is recorded below when Elsie headed for a job in the big city.<\/div>\n

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Frank Freeman, mom\u2019s brother, wearing his best clothes.  Late 1920\u2019s I estimate.  Uncle Frank became a major part of<\/div>\n
our lives as did his wife Lucinda whose laughter still rings in my memory.  They were great church goers\u2026United Church<\/div>\n
members after church union of Presbyterians and Methodists.  Grandma  and grandma were Anglicans but church  was never<\/div>\n
as big a part fo their lives as it became for Frank.  <\/div>\n

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One of the great mysteries happened in the decade of the 1920\u2019s.  Granddad managed to buy the Maud farm\u2026north of our farm.  How he did this<\/div>\n
I have no idea.  Perhaps Mom provided some cash as the 1920\u2019s were boom years for sweatshop workers  in the \u2018needle trades\u2019.  Maybe granddad saved<\/div>\n
 money earned making munitions.   The Maud farm was no hell as a farm\u2026too many hills and swamps\u2026too little good soil\u2026but it<\/div>\n
was a real farm of 100 acres.   In the picture above Frank and neighbours are building a second barn for hogs<\/div>\n
underneath and machinery above.   Uncle Frank and Aunt Lucinda moved here and farmed  the land for the rest of their lives.  How they<\/div>\n
managed to make a living selling shotgun cans of cream I will never understand (but try to understand  with the help of <\/div>\n
their son Teddy, my cousin, who now lives on that farm in happy retirement with his wife Shirley (Awrey) Freeman.<\/div>\n

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MOM, Elsie Freeman, helped run the farm with Frank and Grandma during the war years but by 1920 she decided to leave the farm<\/div>\n
to see if she could help out more by being a \u2018domestic\u2019 in Toronto Rosedale.  Terrible job.  She hated the person she worked for and<\/div>\n
quit\u2026homesick and disillusioned\u2026returned to the farm for short time.  The \u2018domestic\u2019 that replaced her, a young Scottish immigrant,<\/div>\n
had no such  escape so committed suicide by jumping from third floor window.  Mom had the guts to know when an employer was<\/div>\n
lousy for the rest of her life.  <\/div>\n

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Her trip to catch the train in Acton in 1920 was a warning if you will.  Partway to town the horse died in the shafts. Granddad had <\/div>\n
to borrow another horse then get Elsie to town in time for the train.  And then the dirty part.  He had to return to the skin the dead<\/div>\n
horse and arrange to bury the body or find someone who wanted dog food.   Could you do that?   All of us can do unpleasant things<\/div>\n
when there is no alternative.  I believe that.<\/div>\n

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Grandma and granddad as I knew them.  They were contented in their lives.   That is apparent in their faces.<\/div>\n

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SAME FARM TODAY<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NOTE TO READERS:  THIS STORY IS PERSONAL\u2026COULD BE TEDIOUS;  JUST REMEMBER THE STORY WAS REALITY FOR MANY.  “THIS IS THE WAY WE WERE\u201d\u2026photo records. EPISODE 273       FARMING 1914 TO 1930 .. HOW DID THE FREEMAN FAMILY EVER MAKE A LIVING? alan skeoch March 2021 Edward Freeman, my grandfather, bought a 25 acre […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7834\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}