Firsthand Accounts of Plains Life

Transcription

1 Firsthand Accounts of Plains Life A Review Essay by Jessica Smith Carter, John E. Solomon D. Butcher: Photographing the American Dream. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985 Low, Ann Marie. Dust Bowl Diary. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Raaen, Aagot. Grass of the Earth: Immigrant Life in the Dakota Country. Northfield: Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1950 Reprint, Minneapolis: Minnesota Historical Society Press, Rikoon, J. Sanford. Rachel Calof's Story: Jewish Homesteader on the Northern Plains. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995 Woodward, Mary Dodge. The Checkered Years: A Bonanza Farm Diary, St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, Firsthand accounts of life on the northern Plains offer a glimpse into the lives of the past, without any interpretation from scholars and historians. The reading of a diary, or other primary source, allows the reader to freely observe and interpret the thoughts of early pioneers. Many people may think that the early settlers to our region were often living in a state of peril and loneliness, but the works included in this essay reveal a spirit of perseverance and hope for the future. Rachel Calof was a young Jewish woman living in Russia under heart-wrenching conditions. After the loss of her mother, her struggles only continued. So when an opportunity presented itself to Rachel, she was compelled to make the journey to America, leaving behind

2 her dear siblings to face an uncertain future with a man she had never met. In Rachel Calof s Story: Jewish Homesteader on the Northern Plains, the reader is drawn into Rachel s personal thoughts, hopes and fears as she makes a life on the prairie. Rachel reveals in her diary that she has not come to America in search of any sort of romanticized American dream. Rather, she has come to America to escape a desperate situation in her homeland. She quickly learns that life on the Plains will not be easy. She wrote that winters dominated our lives accomplishments during the warm seasons had to be directed to lasting through this one season. It is ironic that the one thing Rachel mentions repeatedly is a lack of privacy. With all the space of the prairie, she found it difficult to have a private conversation with her husband or to have a quiet moment to herself. We often hear about settlers who struggle with a sense of loneliness, but this story tells of the opposite problem. With a lack of adequate building materials, a number of people were usually housed in a small space to conserve heat and supplies. Even throughout her later years, Rachel continued to guard her privacy that had so long been denied her. Rachel Calofdoes not shy away from her challenges. She does not complain or show remorse for her choice to come to America. She conveys a sense that she is not seeking instant fortune, but, like so many early settlers, believed in delayed gratification. She trusts that her hard work and perseverance will provide her and her family with what is needed. Her biggest regret is that she is separated from her siblings, whom she never saw again after she left Russia. Ann Marie Low is another strong woman of the prairie who did not shy away from a challenge. In her memoir, Dust Bowl Diary, Low relates the difficulties of homesteading during the 1930 s in North Dakota. Even though life was not easy, Ann Marie makes it clear that she

3 had every intention of remaining on the farm. She, like Rachel Calof, is not looking for instant riches but is satisfied with the continued work of farm life. She goes into some detail about the challenge to keep her home clean during the years she refers to as a gritty nightmare. Ann Marie Low does not show displeasure with her life in the Dust Bowl. She does, however, show quite a bit of disdain for the government interference on the prairie. She makes it clear that she and her family, as well as her neighbors, would be better if the government had never intervened in life on the Plains. Low clearly feels that the government does not fully understand life on the prairie. She expresses frustration with the inadequate 160 acres policy, just as Walter Webb mentions in his work, The Great Plains, and she is particularly critical of the inefficient Civilian Conservation Corps. At times, Ann Marie writes about hardships, but her hardships are blamed on the government rather than the natural surroundings. Ann Marie leaves the reader with a feeling of resentment toward the government and a belief that the settlers would have been better off if left to their own devices and resourcefulness. The Checkered Years: A Bonanza Farm Diary by Mary Dodge Woodward offers yet another woman s personal account of life on the prairie. The difference between this account and the others is that Woodward is on a bonanza farm. It is clear from her writings that the work on the farm is much more business-like than it was in the previously mentioned diaries. Woodward is often surrounded by hired help, whereas the women in the other diaries spent most of their days with only family members. While reading The Checkered Years, one does not feel the same sense of co-dependence that members of a family homestead conveyed. Rachel Calof, in particular, has a connection with her husband, partly because they depend so heavily on each other for survival. Family

4 members on a homestead have a common goal and they rely on every family member to contribute, even from a very young age. On a bonanza farm, a sick worker can be replaced and the work continues. Ironically, Woodward had more people around than the women in the other diaries did, but Woodward is the one who writes about loneliness the most. Another glaring difference in Woodward s account is that she often refers to back home as Vermont or Wisconsin. In Dust Bowl Diary, Ann Marie Low expressed that she had every intention of staying on her farm, even when times were tough. Mary Dodge Woodward did not seem to have much regret when the time came for her to leave the farm and return to Wisconsin. It is as if she felt her time on the bonanza farm was always intended to be temporary. AagotRaaen s account of life on the northern Plains is documented in Grass of the Earth: Immigrant Life in the Dakota Country. This book is somewhat confusing as Aagot Raaen is the author and the story is about her family, but the book reads in third-person. The point of view is that of a younger sister, Kjersti. There is a definite innocence that comes through in the book. For example, the father of the family leaves for town to buy supplies but he does not return for nearly a month. He comes home without the supplies, but the money is all gone. With other clues given in the book, the reader can easily make the inference that the father has been turning to liquor to cope with life on the prairie, yet the children in the story don t seem to quite make that connection. It is a fine balance the writer makes in revealing information to the reader, while also conveying the limited understanding she had of the situation at the time. The Raaen family is obviously poor, indicated by the clothes they wore and the teasing they got from other children, but the family had a strong emphasis on education, perhaps because the father had been well-educated back in Norway. The Raaen children take turns going to

5 school and staying home to help with the farm. The children in the family never seem to shy away from hard work and they are willing to wait for rewards, just as Rachel Calof did. The belief that hard work would pay off may have been the only thing that kept these families going during the darkest times. The Raaen family did not look for quick fortune or handouts. In fact, they were most distressed when they owed money to someone. A large part of the family s life was the mortgage on the farm. Once the daughters learned of the mortgage, or the burden as they called it, they vowed to do what they could to help pay off the mortgage. They did not begrudge the person who held the mortgage, but rather they regretted that the family had fallen to such a state of weakness that they had needed to borrow. They felt a strong sense of obligation to pay back every dime, including the interest. When the family successfully paid off the farm mortgage, the entire family celebrated their efforts and their victory. The family is happy to be, once again, free of entanglements with anyone else and they enjoy the idea that they need only take care of themselves. Another form of documenting prairie life firsthand is that of the photograph. Solomon D. Butcher became a photographer after trying several other occupations. In the book Solomon D. Butcher: Photographing the American Dream, John Carter introduces the reader to a man who dedicated a good portion of his life to traveling the lonely roads of the prairie to capture everyday life. Butcher was adept at capturing in his images more than the people of the Plains, but the very way of life on the Plains. His photographs included hired hands, children, pets, livestock, furniture and buildings. There is some dispute over whether Butcher purposely arranged his subjects in the picture or if he shot the picture fairly impromptu. Some scholars speculate that the positioning of people in the scene is related to their importance to the family. In reading the background information on Butcher, the reader wonders if Mr. Butcher was aware

6 that he was a part of the very culture he was documenting. He has an acute understanding of the life and the people in his work. The introduction to the book explains that Butcher was not photographing people who portrayed desperation, as photographer Jacob Riis often did, but rather Butcher captured images of determination and hope. One interesting aspect of Solomon Butcher is that he apparently used an early form of photo manipulation. If one examines the photographs closely, it becomes clear that the artist has added certain features to some of his photographs. A photograph of Lookout Point in Cherry County, Nebraska, was edited to include trees on a grassy hill. The rudimentary process of scratching in the trees is almost comical given today s technology. Butcher was also known to restage events in order to get a good photograph. Some might say that his work is flawed, but other may justify it as art. Most likely, Butcher was compensating for limitations in technology of the time. Objects in motion, such as flying ducks, often appeared blurred, so Butcher would instead draw those objects into his pictures. Unfortunately for Butcher, his work only became well-known after his death. He spent his life trying to sell his photographs to historical societies. Most people have probably seen the work of Solomon D. Butcher without actually knowing the name of the photographer. These books are all firsthand accounts and recordings of life on the northern Plains. The strongest thread tying these books together is that everybody has an appreciation for the beauty of life on the Plains and the honest, hard-working people that are so often found in this area. By exploring the firsthand documentation of pioneer life on the northern Plains, a reader can delve into the thoughts and hopes of those who ventured out onto the Great Plains.