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Mama June's Homesteading Grandmother
Ever wonder what it was like to have been an early homesteader? And living without the modern conveniences that we now have. We get in our automobiles, trucks, bikes and off to the store we go, anytime we want, what did they do and how did they do it? Here is what it was like in the 1870's as told to me by my grandmother.
My grandmother was born in 1872 the first child of 7, and back then it was the boondocks, no near neighbors, no towns close by, or no stores. A shopping trip was planned for weeks or months ahead, lists were made of necessities, flour, salt, sugar, etc. Now I ain't talking about 5 or 10 pounds but 100 pounds sacks, cause one did not go shopping but every few months and if you didn't have what you needed you did without.
They looked forward to the shopping trips as it was like a vacation to them, they would see friends, maybe family, camp out. When the day of the shopping trip began they were up before dawn, loading up the wagon, with food, water and camping gear that would be needed for the trip.
Breakfast might be a cold biscuit with bacon and a glass of milk if they were lucky. The old horse, or mule was hitched up, and the kids piled into the back of the wagon, some sleeping, others just looking at the changing landscape around them. Traveling was slow, the ruts were sand, no pavement, and if rained, they got wet or covered over with tarps.
Lunch time they would stop and have again a biscuit with bacon or perhaps dipped the biscuit into a syrup pail. washing down their meal with a swig of water from a ceramic jug. And then continued on their journey.
When it started to get dark they would stop for the night, the kids were sent into the woods to gather up firewood for a campfire and cooking their evening meal. The evening meal sometimes was grits with redeye gravy, maybe biscuits cooked in a cast iron dutch over, or might even be corn bread. Then it was off to sleep. Great grandma and the girls slept in the wagon and great grandpa and the boys slept underneath the wagon. Didn't have any insect repellent and the skeeters were big enough to carry you away, so many times they would light up old cloth for smoking the area down, which helped, at least until you got to sleep. Depending on the weather, determined how dry you were in the mornings. Cold weather tarps would be thrown over the sleeping area, but summer was so hot you didn't dare put up a trap, and then the dew in the morning would have you pretty wet, but you soon dried from the heat.
Breakfast was again the same as the day before and you were again on the road by daylight. Now you begin to see signs of civilization, a cabin here, a farm there, and the closer to town they got the more signs of people.
Finally the town came into view and they marveled at how it had grown, they counted 2 or 3 new stores, lunch was forgotten in the excitement of seeing other people and shopping. Depending on what was first on their list, determined where they went first. The kids always knew that if they were good, then they would get a treat, usually it was a penny's worth of candy. Well that does not sound like much, but back then it would buy a small sack full which was divided up among the kids.
Supplies were purchased or traded for with items they had brought with them. And depending on what was pressing on needing done at the farm determined whether or not they spent the night in town socializing or start on their return trip home. The wagon would be piled high with bags/sacks of things they needed and the kids on top of them and off they would go returning to their home.
What is boils down to it took a day and a half to get to town, half a day for shopping and the return trip took a day and a half. What we can in this day and time accomplish in just a few hours. That's what the early homesteaders lived with.
Enough of my ramblings, more later.
Mama June