Harvest Journal: Memoir of a Minnesota Farmer, Part II: 1903-1938
Sandra K. Wilcoxon & Frederick A. Cummings
Paperback, 6x9 in, 218 pages, photos, index
Hats Off Books, June 2002
ISBN:
1587361124
Description
Harvest Journal, Part I (1846-1903), introduced Fred Cummings and his family. Adopted by an aunt and uncle when his mother died, Fred moved to Minnesota from Vermont in 1855. They built a home, cleared land, and survived by farming, bartering, and exchanging labor with neighbors. By 1880, Fred's accounting records showed how he supported a family on an annual income of $100.
Fred's early journals recorded the politics of presidential elections, local news including floods and tornadoes, and international news such as the Prussian war. He also recorded his own feelings in poems marking the loss of an infant, visions of angels, and his love of the land. His children grew and started families of their own, two of them homesteading land near Lake Itasca at the turn of the century.
In Harvest Journal, Part II (1904-1937), we rejoin Fred, Rose, their children, and grandchildren. Even with the advent of electricity, automobiles, and telephones, life on a farm is difficult and an extended family is essential to survive. In addition to area events, Fred's journals document the turmoil leading up to World War I, the economic hardships of the Depression, and the shock of the Lindbergh kidnapping. In his later years, Fred struggles to deal with his own frailty and mortality.
To learn more about Fred Cummings, his ancestors, and research behind this book, visit http://www.harvestjournal.com.
About the authors
Frederick A. Cummings was born in Vermont in 1846. He moved to Minnesota at an early age, and lived on a farm there until his death in 1938. He kept journals and wrote poetry throughout his life.
Sandra K. Wilcoxon is Fred Cummings' great-great-granddaughter. She transcribed, researched, and edited his journals over a five-year period. Sandra writes poetry occasionally, and lives with her husband near Chicago, Illinois.
Excerpt
WWI
By 1916 our nation seemed on the verge of that accursed European war. It was up to Congress, and an atrocity had stirred up public sentiment to the fighting point. An Austrian submarine sank a passenger ship with hundreds of people on board--some Americans and one United States official. The tragedy occurred in the Mediterranean Sea where several such horrors had happened.
The murderous harvest began in earnest again: 60,000 killed in the first onslaught, and the battle still raged undecided. 'Twas Germany trying to break the French line somewhere on the frontier near Verdun, wherever that was. Our own United States was keeping the peace by a heroic effort. Some of our statesmen seemed to use common sense and we hoped they would keep a neutral, even temper through the raging tempest of war and insult that was being hurled at us by the crazy, blood-mad nations on the other side, and the nervous jingoes on this side who were trying to crowd us into a scrap.
Our war news continued just as meager as the censor could possibly make it. The Germans had butted against the Verdun stronghold until they were tired and exhausted with a loss of perhaps 100,000 or more men. Our Congress grew tired of the German undersea warfare of murder and piracy and at last issued an ultimatum to them that any more sinking of unarmed, defenseless merchant vessels would sever diplomatic relations with the United States. Whether this meant war for us remained to be seen--but we hoped not. As for Mexico, well, we were liable to see a nasty job there yet.
The news from Europe was too horrible to record. The bloody work still went on at Verdun and it was said that 300,000 Germans had fallen in the attempt to take that French stronghold. They were just simply tearing things all to pieces in Europe. The Germans were being beaten to a pulp and no account was made of losses anymore. The great dens that the contending armies dug for protection were literally filled with dead bodies left to rot and contaminate the air with a pestilential, sickening stench, too horrible to contemplate. How long must this go on?
By that fall, the only war news that differed from the general grind of everyday battle and slaughter told us that two more nations had joined the English allies: Romania and Greece. Then they were all in it but Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and Holland.
Now, what of the future? And what of the past year? Largely disappointment. We had hoped for a change in the management of national affairs, but missed by a "hair's breath." And as for peace in and with Europe, not yet, for their trouble grew and danger increased of our being drawn into it proportionally, although which side we were on was uncertain. Germany appeared to be the chief aggressor. Her submarine warfare was nothing short of piracy, but the other side searched every neutral vessel it met and took possession of all mail, or anything else they could, with perfect impunity.
