Were Children Paid for Working on Their Family Farms a Hundred Years Ago?

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Saturday, October 11, 1913: Received part of my pay today. It amounted to twelve dollars. I feel quite rich now. This surely ought to help me out in a pinch.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma—

You’ve sure worked hard husking corn, and you deserve every penny you earned. According to an online inflation calculator, $12 in 1913 would be worth about $285 now.

You are extremely fortunate to be paid for doing farm labor. Your parents must have been progressive thinking. Many young women working on their family farms probably received no compensation.

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I’d like to thank Gallivanta for giving me the idea for this post. Let me share a story—

Gallivanta reads this blog and regularly makes comments. And, I’ve discovered her blog, Silkannthreads. She recently did a post on the lack of appreciation of the domestic work that women do, and on how women generally are not paid for this work (doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc.).

I made a comment on her post, and she responded:

. . . By the way, I have been thinking how great it is that Helena is being paid for her work during the corn harvest. She is not being treated as free family labour.

And, a light bulb went off in my head—

Wow, I’ve been feeling sorry for Grandma, when I should have recognized that she was incredibly fortunate to be paid.

Thank you, Gallivanta, for giving me valuable new insights.

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You may also enjoy reading a previous post that I did on teaching farm kids the value of money.

The Secrets of Sight Reading Music

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Thursday, October 9, 1913: About the same as other days.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma was still husking corn using a hand-held corn peg. She’d been husking corn since September 25.

In the past Grandma often struggled to practice her piano lessons.—even when she didn’t seem particularly busy. On the days when she “worked for wages” and had lots to do, did she somehow still manage to find time to practice the piano?

—-

I can remember taking piano lessons for six years when I was a child—and I didn’t like practicing much either. But my goal was to be able to sight read music, so that I could just play songs that my friends might ask me to play.

I never reached that goal and ended up seldom playing the piano once I quit taking lessons.

Did Grandma also want to sight read music? I can’t remember her ever playing the piano, so my guess is that she also never reached that point.

I recently was looking at an old issue of The Etude magazine and came across these tips for sight reading music. Some parts of it really resonated with me and I thought you might also enjoy it:

The Secrets of Sight Reading

Far too much attention seems to be paid to technique these days, and far too little to musicianship. There are scores of young pianists who can play the Liszt Second Rhapsody with much dash and seeming brilliance, but who cannot read a fourth grade piece at sight.

The fact is a musician is not a musician until he can read.

A knowledge of harmony is not essential to good sight reading, but it unquestionably helps very frequently a work that is peppered with accidentals will absolutely fog a student who has no knowledge of harmony, while one who has will go sailing along with the utmost abandon.

A good sight reader reads music phrase by phrase, not note by note.

There is a tendency these days among publishers and editors to avoid putting in too many signs of expression. The less gifted musician needs some signs, but too many fluster him and he ignores them altogether. Nevertheless, it is essential when reading at sight to be careful to observe all fortes and pianos, crescendos, diminuendos, rallentandos, etc. Music which has not variety of expression has no life.

Playing wrong notes is a crime in a piece that has been studied, but in sight-reading a wrong note now and then can scarcely be avoided. If you play a wrong note, however, do not stop, and do not let it get you “rattled.” Go on as if nothing had happened.

The Etude (March, 1914)

Sign. . . I wish I’d somehow learned those lessons about sight reading when I was young.

Tulip Varieties a Hundred Years Ago

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Wednesday, October 8, 1913:

10/6 – 10/8: I’ve husked about ten loads of corn by this time. My hands are sore and roughened, but I didn’t care very much. I’m thinking of what I’m earning.

Source: McCall's Magazine (September, 1913) — Source: McCall’s Magazine (September, 1913)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Since Grandma didn’t write a diary entry specific for this date, I’m going to go off on a tangent—

I found this advertisement for tulip bulbs in the September, 1913 issue of McCalls magazine. I wondered if I could buy these old varieties so I googled them. Here’s what I found:

Crimson King

Nothing popped up when I googled “Crimson King tulip”. I wonder if the Crimson King tulip and the Red Emperor tulip are slightly different names for the same variety. The Red Emperor tulips are so common today.

White Queen

I couldn’t find any place where I could buy the White Queen tulip, but I did find a photo of them on The Tulip Gallery website.

Yellow Prince

I found a picture of the Yellow Prince tulip on the Old House Gardens Heirloom Bulbs website—though I don’t think that they had any bulbs available for sale this year.

Cottage Maid

I couldn’t find any place where I could buy the Cottage Maid tulip, but I did find a photo of them on the Hortus Tulipus Old Tulips website.

Keiser’s Kroon

The Keiser’s Kroon tulip is still sold by several companies—though it generally goes by its Dutch name, Keizerskroon. One source for the bulbs is Old House Gardens Heirloom Bulbs.

Tulip.Keizerskroon — Keiser’s Kroon Tulip

Corn Stored in Corn Cribs

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Tuesday, October 7, 1913:

10/6 – 10/8: I’ve husked about ten loads of corn by this time. My hands are sore and roughened, but I didn’t care very much. I’m thinking of what I’m earning.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

(This is the second of three days that Grandma combined into one diary entry.)

After the corn was harvested and husked, the corn ears would have been stored in a corn crib. Corn cribs had wooden slats that let the air circulate to dry the corn.

Did Grandma also have to shovel the husked corn from the wagon into the crib? Corn was shoveled in through small doors near the top of the crib. Whew, I get tired just thinking about shoveling corn into the crib.

Double corn crib on the farm where Grandma lived on when she wrote the diary. — The building on the right is a double corn crib on the farm where Grandma lived when she wrote the diary. I wonder if the corn Grandma husked was stored in this exact building. (My gut feeling is that this building was built less than a hundred years ago. I think that high double cribs became popular after farmers began using elevators to move the corn into the crib.)

1913 Birdsell Farm Wagon Advertisement

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Monday, October 6, 1913:

10/6 – 10/8: I’ve husked about ten loads of corn by this time. My hands are sore and roughened, but I didn’t care very much. I’m thinking of what I’m earning.

Farm Implement Magazine (November, 1913)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Yeah, Grandma. I’m glad that you’re happy about how much money you’re earning. Ten loads sounds like a lot.

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I asked my resident expert (aka, my husband) how many bushels of corn the wagon in the picture would hold. He estimated that if it was 10 ft. long by 3 ft. high by 4 ft. wide that it would hold about 100 bushels of corn. So if Grandma husked about 10 loads of corn, she husked about 1,000 bushels.

Grandma probably actually wrote this entry on the evening of October 8, 1913. She started husking corn on September 25 (14 days prior to this entry). She did not work on either Sunday, and I think that she didn’t husk corn on the day that her father went to the fair—so I believe that it took her 11 days to husk 1,000 bushels. In other words, Grandma husked about 90 bushels a day.

Old Luden’s Cough Drop Advertisement

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Sunday, October 5, 1913: Went to Sunday School this afternoon. Am now the possessor of a troublesome cold.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma, get well soon! Colds aren’t any fun. All the corn husking that you’ve been doing on cold, damp days probably made you more susceptible to the germs.

Do you have a sore throat? Cough drops might help.

Old Halloween Costumes

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Saturday, October 4, 1913: Still working for wages.

Resplendent in a flowing costume of gauzy marquisette studded with stars is the “Queen of the Night.” The dress is the empire design, with a tulle ruffle at the low neck and a drapery of transparent material falling from the shoulders in the back. Paper stars may be bought in various sizes.

Ladies Home Journal (July, 1912)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma was still helping with the corn harvest. As she worked,maybe she dreamed of making an awesome Halloween costume.

Here are some costumes that appeared in the July, 1912 issues of Ladies Home Journal. (The pictures showed patterns that the magazine sold—and they apparently wanted to give people plenty of time to sew the costumes.)

Divested of the traditional black garments of the traditional witch, the rosy-hued costume envelopes the make-believe witch in a gown that has the power to charm that may prove irresistible. Black cats cut from black crepe paper are used to ornament a simple shirtwaist dress and a peaked cap with strips of paper or ribbon on the dress.

A dashing broncho girl is picturesquely costumed and armed with a deadly weapon and cartridge belt, and holding a lariat with which to bring into submission all potential victims.

The brilliant colorings suggestive of the aboriginal American’s war dress are strikingly developed in the Indian girl costume. The dress is a one-piece princess design and may be made of russet-brown satin, the conventional trim being either hand-painted or developed with white and colored muslin patches.

Whew, some of these costumes (and the descriptions of them) won’t be considered appropriate today. But some things never change–it’s interesting how the description of almost every costume indicates that the woman wearing it will be attractive or charming.

Note: I included two of these pictures in my October 31, 2012 post—but they are so good I just had to share them again this year.