SEGMENT: FARM WORK, NEIGHBORS, & CHILDHOOD WORK

Robert A. Taylor>UIS Collection T-Z>UIS Collection T-Z, Segment 1

SEGMENT: FARM WORK, NEIGHBORS, & CHILDHOOD WORK,

duration 13:15
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CHILDHOOD WORK
[Very hard to hear. Interviewer interjects quite a bit.] Worked in garden, fed chickens, and stayed home from school to help butcher as a child.
FOOD & MEALS
Had buckwheat cakes at home with store-bought buckwheat.
FARM WORK
Cut wheat with a binder, and before that a cradle that looked like a scythe. Cradles were used before he was born.
NEIGHBORS
Discusses Uncle Angus. People do not visit as often but they used to stay all day. Discusses neighbors and their hired help. Notes one hired person inherited some property from family as payment for years of work. Discusses new hired man called "Worms" on his own property. Sons were home but one is graduated from college and the other went back to school in Champaign.
FARM WORK
Bought an Advance Rumley thresher with a steam engine from a dealer in Bushnell. Dealer called the bank to check their account before selling them the thresher. Paid $1400 for engine and thresher. Ran the thresher with two other men. Had a good man to run steam engine who shelled corn also, but he was a drunk. Used soft local coal to build steam. Fed workers at cook's shack, a wagon they hauled around where a woman cooked all the food. Took a couple of hours to create steam in the engine. Banked the fire at night. Threshed for others mostly as a favor. Shelled in the winter and kept track of how many loads they got. Came home at noon for dinner daily. Raised white corn, but sold it and rarely made hominy.