SEGMENT: EDUCATION, WOMEN'S WORK & CHICKENS

Frances Culver>UIS Collection C-G>UIS Collection C-G, Segment 7

SEGMENT: EDUCATION, WOMEN'S WORK & CHICKENS,

duration 08:02
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CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Walked 1/2 mile to school and carried lunch. First day of school an older boy called her "Frankie Rabbit" and she went home crying. Went to a country school until she went to Morrison High School. Used a top buggy and Jen, the horse, to go to high school with her brothers.
WOMEN'S WORK
While going to school her grandmother and aunt died, and there were no more hired girls, so she took on more chores like washing with a washboard and boiling and ironing with an iron on a kerosene stove. "Many, many starched petticoats and ruffles and linen tablecloths."
COLLEGE EDUCATION
Went to University of Illinois, worked as a chemist in the State Soil Survey for a year, taught science in Clinton, IL and then at Springfield High School, took a course at Cornell University in poultry and then ran a poultry farm until she married. Poultry course lasted from October through February or March. Brooder houses were an innovation. Cornell had a good poultry department.
CHICKENS
Sold eggs from farm to South Shore Country Club in Chicago. Farm was at her home. Eggs were $1 per dozen, better than some other farm products. Bought breeding stock from Purdue University. Used white leghorn chickens because they were good egg producers. Farm lasted three years. Left the farm when she was married.