– Clarence Holm
You may have noticed the new header on my blog. It is another one of the pictures held by the Carver County Historical Society of my Great Grandfather’s Farm in Barnes County, ND. It’s nice picture of the seven threshing crews cutting grain circa 1900.
John Erickson Holm owned as many of 6 sections of land along with a Mercantile Store in Cuba, ND and farmed a few more for his cousin John Anderson. A section of land is equal to 640 acres or one square mile. All of this was accomplished with a combination of horse and manpower. His strategy was to plant till harvest began and harvest through fall and winter.
Pictured are the sons and hired help harvesting the land. My great grandmother wrote to one of her cousins “I am so glad we were able to build a bunk house, so those smelly smoking boys are out of the house!” Great Grandpa and his boys were well known for working hard, smoking and drinking a beer or two. He was also proud of the fact that he had made enough money to marry off his girls and give each child a section of land to start their life.
I’m enjoying your historical writing as well as your poetry. It’s always interesting to learn about different places and people.
Thank you for the kind words.
I really like reading about your family in the early 1900s. I have a similar history–except that my family settled in Grafton, thought the land was bottom land and moved to Minnie Lake township–where the land was also bottom land. But they farmed it anyway. Keep up the good work.