These stories can also be heard Sunday mornings around 10 am on WILD 102’s “Look Back in Time” program. Each week’s radio story will be posted here on our website.
Weekly radio stories are researched, compiled, and read by Sheila Winstead, RCHS Board Member.
June 11, 2023
Last week I started reading from a family history submitted to the Roseau Museum, which was written by Marjorie Mortensen in 1996, called “Ray’s Stories”, Ray being Marjorie’s husband. Last week I was reading about the work being done on a typical farm in Ray’s youth in Roseau County. Marjorie was telling about all the summer jobs, and I’ll continue that story of canning and preserving berries and garden produce. We left off talking about pickles. I’ll now continue reading Marjorie’s description.
Mentioning “beet pickles” brings to mind a story about Orval [Ray’s brother]. One time during harvest at a neighbor’s farm, he came in late for lunch. There was a small dish of pickled beets set near his plate. Orval thought it was a dish of fruit sauce and proceeded to pour cream in the dish. The housewife and daughter noticed what was happening and could hardly keep from laughing out loud at Orval’s mistake. He had been taught to eat whatever was set in front of him, so he ate the pickles, cream and all.
Some vegetables, like carrots, would be put down in bins of oats or sand. Because the oats or sand was dry, the vegetables would dry and keep for later use. Eggs would be put down in bins of rock salt and be preserved for baking use later in winter. Eggs needed to be kept for later use, because the chickens did not lay eggs in winter.
Wood from poplar trees was used for the kitchen stove. This had to be cut in the summer to season and be dry for the winter’s use. About fifteen cords were needed. This would be stacked and when it was seasoned enough, a large amount would be split and make quite a big pile out the east side of the house.
One year Julia had a new camera and took a few pictures of family members around the house. One time the film was not advanced so a double exposure resulted with the next picture. It looked like Ray was chopping wood and the pile was on top of the house. The family had a bit of fun over that picture.
The wood used in the living room stove was tamarack, which would be cut during the winter as needed. This wood did not have to season as it would burn well soon after being cut and split. When Ray was old enough, he took on the chore of keeping his grandparents supplied with wood. He chopped and stacked all they needed.
Harvest was usually started by late July or mid-August. Each crop would ripen at different times. The weather also had an influence on when certain crops would ripen. The grain was cut by machine, and a binder gathered the stalks into bundles. These bundles would be placed upright to cure, and the weeds and grass would wilt down and dry. If they didn’t, the green growth would clog up the threshing machine.
Threshing time was a very exciting time on the farm. There was the expectation of a reward for all the hard work put in to raise the crop. There was always some concern of the farmer over what the weather would be like, hoping there would not be any breakdown with the machines and other things a person could worry about.
A crew would be assembled. The steam engine crew consisted of the engine man, a separator man, a water hauler, and a “straw monkey.” This was the person, usually a boy too young to work at the other jobs, who would drive a wagon filled with straw to be burnt in the engine to make the steam to run the separator machine. Orval said that was his first harvest job, and he felt very proud to be working with the other men.
Whichever farm the steam-engine crew would work, they stayed at that farm until all the crop was harvested, boarding there for as long as it took. They would be bedded down in the barn or some in the house.
Sometimes the weather turned wet and delayed the threshing. If it rained too long, the grain would start to sprout, which resulted in a bad harvest. Some years, the harvest was delayed and it would begin to snow. When that happened, the snow would be shaken off and the harvest would proceed.
The group that traded work with the Mortensens most years consisted of Lloyd Sorter, the Lees, Jensons, Williamsons, Bergstroms, Emil Axelson, and Adolph Dahlquist. This group usually did not board at each other’s farm, except for the lunches and noon meals. Emil and Adolph always said the best place to thresh was at Mortensens, because “Julia was the best cook in the country.” This group exchanged work with each other at all their farms.
The day workers usually consisted of eight bundle haulers and two or three grain haulers. Each wagon would have two men who filled the wagon with the bundles of grain. One man would pitch a bundle onto the wagon, the other would arrange the bundles to fill it evenly, then they would drive the filled wagon to the steam engine, and each would pitch the bundles into the separator to keep the bundles straight and not clog the machine. It was very important to keep the machine running smoothly at all times.
When one wagon of bundles was emptied, another wagon was supposed to be there to be emptied. The men prided themselves on keeping their team working so as not to be the cause of any slowdown of the crews.
Young boys could hardly wait until they were old enough to be able to help in the fields with the men. When a young man was given a job with the threshing crew, it was sort of a “rite of passage” to manhood for him. Ray said he felt so grown up when he could keep up pitching bundles along with the other men. He was about fifteen years old when he could first work with grown men and not let the crew down.
Before World War II, a good yield for wheat was around thirty bushels per acre; now it is forty to fifty bushels per acre. A good yield for flax was ten bushels per acre; now it is fifteen to twenty.
Next week I’ll continue reading from Marjorie Mortensen’s collection of “Ray’s Stories”.
Thank you to 
(www.roseauonline.com) for letting us share our county’s history with your listeners by donating air time, studio time, and production staff every week.