I am fortunate enough to live in a family that has kept a
lot of old family memorabilia. There are times when it’s over whelming and you
wonder what to do with it all. And to be honest some of it is just junk. But my
dad made an interesting discovery a couple of weeks ago. It is a journal that
his grandmother, known as Mom Hill to the family, kept during 1924 and parts of
1925 and 1926. In 1924 she was married to her first husband Victor and had four
little boys Ralph, Donald, Louis (my grandpa) and Eugene.
Hubby and I just got done watching Ken Burns’ Dust Bowl on
Oregon Public Broadcasting. I knew that my grandpa came from Kansas to Oregon
(via Idaho) in a wagon at the age of three in 1921. I had always assumed that
they came as part of the great migration as a result of the Dust Bowl – the
dates don’t quite follow that train of thought. So we’re not really sure why
the family came, but one thing Mom Hill mentions is that her sister sold the
place in Kansas, and there was no hope of going back (obviously she had
harbored that very hope for three years). Seeing what the poor souls on the
plains endured I think they were fortunate to sell when they did.
As I read through her year starting in August I marvel at
the stamina of this woman to spend the day picking and canning fruit and
vegetables, feed her family and then help her husband plow and sack potatoes,
cut firewood or slash and burn brush piles in the evening.
By the end of the fall I am plum tuckered out by the
canning, preserving and freezing of bounty for the winter. But this woman puts
me to shame. The last page of the journal lists her canning for the year. I’ve
copied it below. May we all be so industrious.
Fruit and Vegetables canned in
1924
27 qts prunes 40
qts butter
32 qts peaches 08
peach
42 qts pears 12
pear
6 ½ qts strawberries 11
blackberries
32 qts blackberries 05
plum
04 qts pickles 07
apple
08 qts corn
49 qts tomatoes
70 qts vegetable in all
17 ½ qts jell
5 qts piccili 6
qts apple
6 qts pumpkin 4
½ qts plum
6 qts apples 1
qt strawberrie preserves
6
qts blackberries
3
qts apple jelly
Fruit [and] vegetables canned
in 1925
19 qts peaches 14
qts beef
50 qts blackberries 3
qts pears
35 qts pears 3
qts strawberries
12 qts plums
24 qts beans
16 qts corn
4 qts beets
40 qts tomatoes
qts quinces
