SEGMENT: FARMING DURING GREAT DEPRESSION, LAND ACQUISITION, & HIRED HELP
Howard Lanan>NIU Collection>NIU Collection, Segment 12
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- FARM BUSINESS
- Father read farm magazines when Howard was growing up. Mother didn't work on the farm. Father's hired hand helped ("a married man"). Sister could stop working on the farm when Howard grew old enough.
- FAMILY ACTIVITIES
- Grandmother Harriet (Lanan) liked horses, rode side saddle.
- FARMING DURING GREAT DEPRESSION
- Family weathered the Depression ok. The banks they were involved in stayed afloat. Recalls high school memories during the Depression. Farm prices were very low then. Tells about the actions of his father and grandfather during the crisis. They butchered hogs, they hauled food to friends and neighbors, rented their threshing machine (charged by the bushel).
- LAND ACQUISITION
- Graduated from college and returned home in 1938. Grandfather helped Howard borrow money ($400 from Cemetery Association at 4% interest) to get Howard started (purchase machinery, livestock, etc. for $7000) farming on Grandfather's land. Grandfather & Howard shared the crops & livestock sales 50-50. Pigs were sold "$7.50 per hundred."
- FARMING DURING WWII
- Then after Germany invaded "low countries" hog prices rose by about $3. This rise in hog prices helped get him started.
- FARM EQUIPMENT
- Lists the tractors and other equipment he had. Guesses they got their 1st tractor on his father's farm in 1918. Wanted to farm on his own, father let him.
- Got married in 1939 to Evelyn (Elliot) who lived nearby. Sycamore Grade School
- HIRED HELP
- WOMEN'S WORK
- Wife didn't have to help on farm, kept the chickens.