The Three Sons

The rule of three relates to the satisifaction derived from things in groups of three.  I am not sure if it a rule as much as convention.   There were groups of three for: Amigos, Musketeers, Billy Goats Gruff, Little Pigs, Bears, and of course the old television series "My Three Sons."  At the turn of the 19th to 20th century in north central Iowa there were the three Hovel boys.  A prior post on Martin and Amelia Hovel's marriage one hundred forty years ago, was followed by additional information on the early years of their marriage, which can be found here.  The "Three Cents" post made mention of the three sons of Martin and Amelia.  The three  sons would would all go on to farm, some longer than others. Separated by a span of nine years, the three brothers would farm, for about 10 years, within a few miles of each other.  This blog post will provide a glimpse into the lives of the three sons of Martin and Amelia as they aged during the early part of the 20th century.  It was a time of great turbulence, the industrialization of the nation (which began in 1870) was the lead cause of a rural to urban migration, the Great War would yield to the farm depression of the 1920's, and later the better known  Great Depression would arrive. Internationally, starting in 1939, the world would be amazed at the speed of the German blitzkrieg, and scared of Germany's desire for domination.  United States entry into World War II would forever change the map of the world.  For all the political upheaval, there was also tension caused by greater mechanization of farming and life in general.  This post will be an attempt to provide background to this turbulent time by looking at the lives of the three Hovel boys.

The Three Hovel Brothers

The three sons of Martin and Amelia were Joseph James, often referred to as J.J., born on the fresh broken sod of the Iowa plains in 1878 and who would pass away in 1953; Edward Harry, the middle child, was born, on this date (February 27) in 1881 (Happy Birthday Ed!) and would die 94 years later in 1975; the baby of the family, my grandfather, Rudolph James, was born in July 1887 and would die less than two months shy of his 93rd birthday.  Between the three, with their respective spouse, they would produce ten children among them, with nine of the ten growing into adulthood.  With differences in age, each son would begin their own farm operation in a different year.  Records vary, but it would seem that Rudy and Joe report having a tenth grade education, while Edward reports having completed eighth grade. Yet, lack of completed high school education did not scar the men.  Each were able to manage a farm, and Joe a business.  According to draft registration records for  World War I, Joseph was a tall 40 year old farmer with a medium build.  He was noted as partly bald, with some brown hair.  His eyes were grey.  Edward, 37 at the time of his registration, was both of medium height and build with black hair and hazel eyes.  Rudolph, was 29 when registered and had height, build and hair color as Edward, although he was noted as having brown eyes.  None of the three would be called to serve in WWI. While the war registration records provide a physical description of each man, what is lacking is the detailed agricultural census information available in earlier efforts.  The 1890 national census records were lost do to fire, and, by act of Congress, the 1900 and 1910 agricultural schedules were destroyed.   Nonetheless, information can be gleaned from other records.

From 1913 plat book

We know, from the 1900 census, that all three are living with their parents on the home farm just southeast of Manly, in the town of Lincoln, Worth, County, Iowa, with ages ranging from 21 to 12.  However, by 1905 Joseph has established his own farm operation, and this probably coincided with his marriage in early 1904 to Mary Hortense O'Connor, since a granddaughter says that Joe bought the land from his father-in-law, C.P. O'Connor.  The 1905 Iowa census would list Joseph as having a farm value of $10,000 and an encumbrance of the same amount.  Apparently, no down payment was required, with a purchase from his father-in-law, Charles P O'Connor providing the explanation.  The 1913 plat map of the town of Lincoln shows land near J. J. Hovel owned by CP O'Connor.  Joe farmed north of Manly, also in the town of Lincoln, but his mailing address was Kensett, IA.  Based on plat maps, his total land holding was probably about 80 acres in Lincoln and another 61 acres of adjoining in the town of Union.  Nationally, historians say it required $3,000 to start an farm in 1900, and by 1930 that amount had risen to $8,000.  However, by 1920 the average size of a new loan in Iowa was more than $11,000, which was probably a result of high commodity prices during the Great War, and land speculation.  However, given his outlay and related debt, J.J. Hovell's (see note at the bottom of the post) farm was likely at the high end of the average.

Joseph James Hovel

Historian John L. Shover, in his work First Majority-Last Minority, an agricultural history over time in the United States, comments that farms of this era, particularly in the Midwest, were "diversified units producing a little bit of most everything to meet the family's subsistence requirements, with a little surplus left over for cash marketing."  Given the agricultural schedules reviewed in 1870 and 1880, and that farm life in the era of the early 20th century was more like that thirty years earlier, then thirty years later, I suspect each of the Hovel boys' farms would follow that diversification practice.  A practice today that is highly thought of and which form pleasant nostalgic stories if not  memories.  I believe, the diversification was necessary, as large profits were not the norm. Diversification would not be putting all your eggs in one basket, and would be a hedge against disease or weather. In fact if one looks at the writings of Agricultural Economist, Curtis Stadtfeld, who was a generation younger than my father, but wrote about his parents livelihood on the Michigan farm on which  he was raised, one gets a different take of the melancholic view often described today for that era of farming.  Just one example of Stadtfield, who grew up on a farm in the Midwest can suffice:

In fact, the barn was never painted at all.  The good potato crop never came. It always rained too little to make good beans, or too much to harvest them.  We never had so many heifer calves that the herd grew large and made us wealthy.  We were always just getting by.  And then came the war [reference to WWII], and so many things were pulled apart that were never put back together again.  The fabric of that life tore, and we looked back from the other side of the rent and wondered how it ever worked in the first place how it ever held together.

This shows that sustenance of the family came first, and hence diversification was necessary to provide the meat, dairy, eggs, and other products common to living.  A garden would have also raised vegetables with food preserved through canning, or in root cellars.  Specialization would have meant dependence on one or two crops or animals, and with no diversity a failure in one could have been catastrophic to family well being. The move to dairy in Wisconsin occurred, in part, due the cinch bug having become problematic for the wheat crop.

Edward Hovel

 Life on the farm it seems was never easy. Tilling at a time of pre-tractor would have been not only time consuming, but hard work behind a horse drawn plow.  Of all the work, tilling of the land for corn and other related row crops was, as reported by Shover, the most difficult chore.  My earlier post commented on what some called the mundane nature of the work.  Shover, however, referred to the work as: "a stern regime of daily tasks and unyielding seasonal requirements" which determined the pace of activity.  All hands, but the youngest of children were involved with daily tasks.  The many hands make light work adage perhaps developed from farm work.  For some work, you need more than two hands.  Children provided free labor, which allowed the family to obtain and earn more than otherwise. By 1910, Joseph and his wife, Hortense, had three children with them on the farm.  Maurice, Margaret, and Joseph James, Jr.  Edward was married in 1907, and by 1910, he and his wife and toddler (Edward Martin), had set up a farm of 128 acres in Cerro Gordo County, just south of Worth County, yet within the Manly, IA mailing address.  Rudy, at age 22, was on the home farm.  The 1913 plat map shows Rudy owning 77 acres in Lincoln, with a house.  I believe this to be the home farmstead, created out of the Iowa prairie by Martin and Amelia.  However, this land holding is kitty-corner to another 43 acres (without a house) owned by Martin.  The 1910 census reports that both J.J. and Ed had mortgages on their respective farms.  We do know that Martin farmed the fresh soil of the prairie, Joe is said to have obtained his from his father-in-law, Ed bought his farm from perhaps Ed Murray, who had owned that site of land in 1895.  In 1905 Martin, who started farming the prairie of Iowa in the late 1870's had a debt of $1,100 on a farm value of $10,000--so a value comparable to his son Joseph's farm.  By 1910, Martin's farm was debt free.  Given the price Joseph paid, so much above the average, I hope the home and outbuildings were pleasant and strong.

Rudy and Ida Hovel

Outbuildings were important to the farm operation.  They housed the animals, provided cover for tools and machinery, and of course housed the equipment necessary for processing of food--think a smoke house.  Providing for the family required not only for sustainability, but represented a wise use of resources--whether land or buildings.  The arrangement of the farm buildings at any traditional farm was anything but haphazard.  Shover notes that the placement was the result of trial and error through generations, and developed into "an integrated and efficient craft unit."  Buildings may have had one purpose, or have multiple purposes, but in each case, was efficient and put to the use capable and intended.  The Hovel boys would have had to learn the ways of farming in the United States, and in seem to have done so quite well.  Just as in Field of Dreams where Ray Kinsella depended upon advice-and criticism-of  fellow farmers at the feed store, so too likely did the Hovel boys and their father.

JJ Hovel farm in northeast corner of Lincoln

JJ Hovel land in northwest corner of Union

It was not uncommon at the time for a state to do a half decennial census.  Lucky for a history buff, Iowa did one in 1915.  By 1915 we can see that Joseph's farm is now valued at $20,125, and his debt has been cut in half to $5,000, not bad for a ten year time frame when you consider his farm earnings in 1914 was only $745.  Edward would report a farm income of $1,200, and debt of $3,500 on a farm valued at $18,000.  The youngest, Rudy, who was married in 1913, and only a few years out on his own, reported a farm value of $15,000 with a debt of only $4,500. If Rudy farmed his and the 43 acres of his father, it would place his tended farmland at 120 acres.  As an aside, Martin, and Amelia in 1915 have retired from farming and are now living in Manly. The 1915 census reports the two as still dabbling in farm practices.  They raised fowl and harvested 100 dozen eggs with a reported value of $15.00.  They raised and sold one bushel each of potatoes and vegetables for what appears to be $5.00 each.  For purposes of comparison, $5,000 in 1915 would generally be valued at about $120,000 today.

1913 Plat Map of Edward Hovel farm, Lime Creek

Iowa being Iowa, they not only counted people, but also counted farm animals in the 1915 census.  For the Hovel boys, this can help provide an insight into their daily life.  What is common is that horse power is still important, and each own five or more horses with at least one young colt (less than one year of age).  Joseph is more diversified having lambs and sheep.  All three, however, have milk cows, and swine.  A cholera epidemic was decimating pig herds, and Joseph lost 50 swine to the epidemic in 1914, with a lost value of $250.  Edward lost 8, but did not report a value.  Rudy, reported not having lost any, but only had 4 swine. Raising of chickens and other fowl was important, although the reported product value is not high.  Joseph had 250 fowl and earned $200, while Ed had 100 fowl, with a note stating they were chickens, from which he earned $50. Rudy earned $64 from 160 fowl.   In 1913, the Worth County Index reported that Joseph lost turkeys valued at $14 to dogs, but his claim was denied due to it being filed too late.   Shover notes that farm accounting was not precise, and that is likely true, particularly with reports to government agencies.  Stadtfield, notes that in his review of his father's 1935 farm ledger that the egg earnings nearly equaled that brought in by the dairy herd.  This report is twenty years later than this 1915 data, but may still be relevant to the situation two decades earlier.  The epidemic to hit the pig herd certainly provides evidence as to the above quote from Stadtfield, and shows the need for diversification in a time before common inoculation.  While we lack crop detail, they likely practiced the traditional method of a cultivating a variety of crops, most likely wheat, corn, potatoes, oats and perhaps barley and/or rye.  Each crop followed a strict method of rotation to assist soil health.  Sustainable practices were essential to family well being.

1913 Plat Map of Rudy Hovel Farm, and land owned by Martin
Lincoln twp, Worth Co, IA

In the 1920 census, the two oldest brothers would report having a mortgage on their farm, but Rudy would report no mortgage.  Rudy would move out of Iowa to Wisconsin in a few years time, and whether or not preparation for such a move was on his mind at the time, I do not know.  By 1925 Joseph is preparing for business as a machinist, and to sell implements.  A business in which his youngest son Joe, Jr would assist.  Edward is reported as owning his farm free of encumbrance.  By 1925 Rudy is in Wisconsin and that state did not have a 1925 census.  If we move to 1930, Joseph is established in his business as a machinist, which, according to his obituary he began in 1928, having gotten out of farming that year.  Joseph's oldest son, Maurice, would take over the farm, but it remained owned by Joseph and his wife until sometime after Joseph died in 1953.  Showing the changing times and advancement of technology, the 1930 census asks a question if the household owns a radio; only Edward would report owning that device.  Edward and Rudy both report owning their farms free of debt.  In 1940 we get an idea of the work effort expended as the census in that year asks for information on hours worked in the week prior to the census.  Rudy reported working 80 hours that week, Ed, was slightly less at 72.  Joseph, in his machine and implement business reported working 60 hours.  Rudy and Ed said they had income from a source other than the farm.  All three said they worked in every of the 52 weeks in 1939.  So much for a vacation.

Hovel farmstead

The spring would see cultivation of the fields, perhaps some new born animals.  Cropped fields and the chores of summer would give way to harvest and slaughter as the daylight hours began its slow and gradual decline.  The Hovel boys would hope to have a sufficient harvest, which likely would not offset their labor, but bring a extra cash for their family.  After harvest, the work did not end.  Buildings and fences would require repair, wood cut for heat and cooking, and the shorter and cooler weather probably added difficulty to daily chores.  As the winter came to an end on the Iowa prairie, the greening of the pasture and grass would be a reminder not only of the coming spring, but of why they farmed.  For as Stadtfield also said, there was always hope, "a genuine belief that things would be better."

Part of Hovel Farmstead as it appears today

 Farming is what they knew.  There was a marked change from the way their father had farmed in the old country, and it would change again.  The Hovel boys were seeing a marked transition in the ways of the world.  If the Civil War brought about one agricultural revolution in the nation, so too would war against the Axis powers.  This war, which would be fought in both the west and east hemispheres, would change the Geo-political map of the world,   It would change how the United States was viewed on the world stage. The country from which their father emigrated would be under the iron curtain.  The changes they saw were both dramatic and subtle. The three men would continue to farm, bucking the rural to urban national trend.  During the early part of the last century, the Hovel boys would reap the benefits of an improved commodity market due to the Great War, but see the agricultural depression, and if that was not enough, the Great Depression. Living through this turbulence would indicate some level of satisfaction and success.  Joseph's move off the farm was more likely one of succession, as his son Maurice would take on the farm tasks.  One hundred years ago, the three Hovel boys were in the midst of an industrializing nation, and were at the forefront of a second agricultural revolution..  It was a time of long hours, but is today looked upon with some fondness.  It is a paradox, but really a lesson, of life that what is most difficult to undertake or achieve is looked upon with the highest satisfaction.  And, as well it should.   It was a cycle perhaps never anticipated by their grandfather Josef, or their father when they decided to leave for land and opportunity. The three sons of Martin and Amelia would find the land to their liking.

JJ Hovel Faram Animals, 1915 Iowa Census

Note:  Joseph Hovell's wife asked, and had the extra "L" added to their last name.

Author Transcription of certain items within 1910 and 1915 Census

The Long Telegram

It was on this date seventy-one years ago, February 22, 1946, that one of the longest and most influential telegrams in history was sent. Milwaukee, WI born George Keenan was the Charge d’ Affaires in Moscow in 1946 and was asked on February 3, 1946 to provide his opinion on strategy to utilize in adopting a policy of  how to deal with the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin.  It only made sense that they turned to Keenan, who was in Mosocow at the time for advice. Telegrams were usually short and to the point, at least for private individuals, but this was/is the federal government where expensive hammers, bolts, and toilet seats not to mention long regulations are the rule.  Keenan’s 8,000 word document would set forth a new policy, although one he later felt was improperly implemented. While today we view the Soviet Union as being on the historical ash heap, the United States and Russia  still continue to have a difficult relationship. This historically long and complicated relationship is perhaps best suited to an excessively long telegram. One commentator has noted that most telegrams of that era involving the State Department never really made it to the necessary levels, and were dismissed; in that way it is like our emails of today. So many emails are received, there is so much data, that no one can really recall what was said when.  Just ask Hillary, or John Podesta.

George Keenan
Wikipedia

In the fall of 1945 the Soviet Union began further tactics to further imperial expansion and territorial domination. It was looking to claim territory it saw as belonging to its own version of manifest destiny, and so would begin to put in place the pieces of what would be dominance of smaller territories, and defacto domination of Eastern Europe.  However, as I have written in the past about WWII, the Soviets had territorial ambitions masked at the Yalta Conference, and the United States, with a then dying president failed in intelligence to really fathom what the Soviets were doing. As noted, it only was a matter of weeks before the Soviets broke the Yalta agreement.  They US was warned, but failed to heed the warning of another allied head of state regarding Soviet ambitions. The fall 1945 Soviet expansions began in the Balkans, which would presage Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. The United States during the last year of the war and just after had been duped by the dictator.  So it is interesting that US State Department officials were surprised when Stalin in a February 9, 1946 speech proclaimed the end of the WWII alliance, and promoted the development of five year successive plans to build up Soviet armaments and military.  The US WWII era lend-lease act had already given the Soviets a heads-up on equipment.  The US failed to recognize the Soviets taking of German scientists, and scientific equipment, and scientific papers as Berlin fell.

First page of 19 pages of the Long Telegram
Truman Library, U of Missouri

Keenan’s opinion would be put to rest the Pollyanna views of the State Department, albeit too late for many (think of Eastern Europe). The US, he proclaimed should set a policy to contain rather than appease or roll back to the Soviet Union was noticed by those in the Truman administration. Keenan would, a year later, publish a shorter work based on his long telegram in the highly regarded "Journal of Foreign Affairs," although he did so under the name Mr. X.  He used a pseudonym as he still worked for the State Department at the time. In the article, he reiterated the need to be firm and contain Soviet expansion. It was in 1948 when the US began employing what is known as the Truman Doctrine, to assist countries, particularly Greece and Turkey, vulnerable to Soviet takeover. Hence, one reason why Turkey is in NATO. This would also see the beginning of the Marshall Plan, where the US would provide over $12 billion in aid to Western Europe, Greece and Turkey. The US knew it had to give these democracies a leg up after all of the destruction from WWII.  In particular, a food shortage in the winter of 1945 to 1946 posed a threat to public order.  A threat to public order was a threat to democracy.  Today, the Marshall Plan would be valued at $120 billion. 1948 also saw the Berlin airlift, which began after the Soviets blocked all roads and railroads to and from Berlin for the three western powers in control of parts of Germany (France, US and Great Britain).  You should recall from history that Berlin was totally in the Soviet sector, although as the capital city, it too was split between the powers.  During the course of WWII Henry Morganthau, FDR's Secretary of the Treasury, was promoting Germany to be a pastoral state and that the Allied powers should take away the manufacturing capabilities of that nation. Former President Hoover, had visited post-war Germany and noted that the pastoral economy would not work even with a population decimated by war.   Hence, another reason for the Marshall plan.

Stalin

Truman's and subsequent administrations would enact Keenan’s policies, but by sometime in 1950 Keenan believed that the Truman Administration had provided  too harsh and too overly militaristic of a response to his suggestions. He would leave the state department to work at a think tank where he would spend his long life critiquing US foreign policy. In his long telegram, Keenan would make six predictions on Soviet policies, all of which, according to some historians, came to pass. In his work Keenan wrote: “Success of the Soviet system, as an internal power, is not yet finally proven. It has yet to be demonstrated that it can survive…internal soundness and permanence of movement need not yet be regarded as assured.” It would take near fifty years from the end of WWII for the Soviet Union to fall (1991), but it fell due in part to its own weight and a promotion of prestige, privilege and patrimony;  ideas counter to the principles for the "worker paradise".   This prestige and privilege led to graft and corruption. There is no system of checks and balances in a dictatorship.

Marshall Plan map and value received
Wikipedia

Today, Russia is again in the news, with a leader perhaps eyeing addiitonal territory, and desirous of world influence.  It did not take long for Putin to fill the void left by activity in Syria and in particular the slow response of Western powers.  The Obama foreign policy of a pivot to Asia never took off, for it met the intractability of Russia and the Levant.  In his waning weeks as President, Barack Obama ordered additional US Troops to Poland to bolster NATO defenses in view of perceived Russian threats. The British geographer and explorer of the early twentieth century, Halford Mackinder, in a 1904 speech to the Royal Geographical Society identified much of  Russia as within an area he referred to as the Geographical Pivot of History. It is an area that spans central Eurasia, and south to capture parts of the Middle East.  I see the western border of Mackinder's area as a location of chronic tensions, for it staddles Western and Eastern cultures with their varied and different values.  

Mackinder Pivot of History Map
Wikipedia

Given events occurring in the world in current time--think of the strife in the Middle East, Russia's dominance of Crimea, and its continued meddling in Ukraine, Geo-politically, it still appears that what happens in the pivot will have consequences for the rest of the world.  Mackinder's general thesis may well still be relevant today.  Although if Keenan was around today in writing his monograph,  it would probably have been sent by email.  But, given the chances of being hacked by Russian operatives, perhaps it best be sent by diplomatic pouch,

Chocolate

Valentine's Day is not only associated with St. Valentine, but also with flowers and chocolates. St. Valentine is probably no longer on the radar of most people wh celebrate this day.   It is a time when a man may be able to give a significant other chocolate and they may not care.  Otherwise, it seems that women worry about  their weight.  Women seem to always talk about weight.  I overhear it at work in the break room with women discussing the diet of the day or weight watcher points.  I doubt the husbands of those women will be getting them any chocolate, unless of course they buy it for her, but perhaps really for her to allow them to eat.  Kinda of like buying your wife a drill.  One women at work complained that their family, on way up north, stopped to eat at Culver's.  Her husband's single cheese burger with fries, and a Mountain Dew, was more points than what she is allowed in a day.  It does not then take a master of statistics to realize what chocolate may do to her point total.  I suggested that perhaps her point total was too low.  I wonder what points from a chocolate bar would be?

Cocoa bean growing regions

Has chocolate received a bad rap?  This past weekend, a cooking show was on celebrating cooking with chocolate.  It was not odd that a television cooking show would celebrate chocolate, but the odd thing was it was by a women who cooks purely vegan and will not use standard sugars or even honey as a sweetener.  Christine, a vegan cook on PBS, made chocolate chunk cookies and brownies with dark chocolate, and used some type of rice sugar in place of other types of sugars.  She also had some substitute for butter.  As she commented: for many years if someone had asked if she she would like some chocolate, she would say, I suspect with the smugness of a Prius owner, that "oh, no, I do not eat that any more."  That was until she more recently discovered the benefits of dark chocolate, and the darker the better.  Milk chocolate of course, she went on, is bad, because it contains dairy (milk) and often added sugars.  Those two items would not be allowed in her diet.  She went on to "just say" that 85% of human maladies are diet related, "just saying."  Her favorite two words, I think she used them ten times in her monologue harassment preaching about the negative effects of the normal American diet.

Across the Atlantic perhaps it is no surprise that Europe, with Nestle and Lindt, would eat the most chocolate.  Of course, chocolate does not grow in Europe so the fine European chocolatiers are dependent upon import, think of the spice trade of medieval times. Apparently European guilt over colonization will only go so far.  Perhaps they can justify their purchases of chocolate (made from cocoa beans) as to how it helps the poor farmer.  At Church on Sunday they were selling fair-trade chocolate bars with the proceeds to benefit the churches in Africa.  The Swiss lead current world wide consumption with almost 10kg per person annually, while the US trails back at 5.5 kg/person.  A nutrition web site identifies the following:
100 gram bar of dark chocolate with 70-85% cocoa contains:
11 grams of fiber.
67% of the RDA for Iron.
58% of the RDA for Magnesium.
89% of the RDA for Copper.
98% of the RDA for Manganese.
It also has plenty of potassium, phosphorus, zinc and selenium.
Yet, the web site  it goes on to say that one bar should not be eaten in one day, as it is over 600 calories.  Well, shame on me! I always viewed a normal sized chocolate bar as to eat in one sitting.

The article goes on to explain that dark chocoloate, with its high level of anti-oxidants, may lower blood pressure by improving blood flow.  Blood test related, it may raise HDL, and protect against LDL oxidiation; it is said to lower the risk of heart disease.  Finally, it may protect against sun damage to skin, and best of all, although second best to men, perhaps, it can improve brain activity.  A good number o f"mays".  The article did not say if is male's best friend in improving blood flow, particularly for middle aged and older males.  My wife says that men often let their little head do the thinking for their big head, so improving blood flow may be the greatest benefit of dark chocolate to men. Christine, the vegan, found that after years of denying herself chocolate, dark chocolate may actually have benefits, and found or developed cooking methods to her taste.  She even admitted that the carob and other replacements for chocolate in the 1980's really did not cut it.

Christine would well fit in Madison, particularly in the trendy near-east side.  Once a working class neighborhood, today it is populated by everything politically correct--from persons who wear stocking hats in the summer, to the local food movement.  How chocolate can be a local food in the upper Midwest, I don't know, but this area of hipsters, hippies and hangouts along Atwood Avenue is home to a chocolatier and just two blocks away the Chocolaterian Cafe.  It is not far from the trendy bars and restaurants that will serve your mushrooms to you liking--"Is the mushroom sauteed or fried?" asked the gentlemen at the Alchemy Cafe, with more than an air of pomposity.  Obviously chocolate is in if vegan Christine and the bell-weather of all that is (in their minds, anyway) best and right in Wisconsin has not one, but two chocolate places within a few blocks of each other.  The near-east side being the near-east side, with a smugness and pretentiousness that would even surpass that of a Nissan Leaf driver, an article in the "Wisconsin State Journal" on the relocation of the chocolate place across the street to a larger space, noted it was not a cafe or a restaurant. It was more than a ding to the Chocolaterian Cafe, it was a sign that snobbishness has well settled in among the self-proclaimed elites of Madison.

My giant choclate bar, received as a Christmas present

I do happen to like dark chocolate, and received a Christmas gift of a 4 lb 6.4 oz dark chocolate bar.  I had also received several other of those 70-80% cocoa bars, not to mention over 8.5 lbs of chocolate chips, although most of those are milk chocolate.  I figure I received about 14 pounds of chocolates for Christmas, not including what was in my stocking, or about 6.4 kg.  In the end, I will do more than my share to up the chocolate intake.  By the end of the year, I will  likely be more Swiss in Chocolate usage than American. Now, if I had bought my spouse chocolates for Valentine's day, she would see through to the real purpose--which was to enrich my own stomach.

Three Cents

 Funny how today there is talk of getting rid of the penny.  However, 140 year ago a penny was rather common. A penny for your thoughts? Well, if you read this you will get some of my thoughts at no charge. In any event, in 1877 three cents could buy a first class stamp. A pound of rye flour at the time was 4 cents; a pound of corn meal was half the price of a pound of rye flour, meaning you could buy a pound of corn meal for less than the cost of a first class stamp. Five cents could get you a quart of milk, and double that value ($.10) to obtain a pound of fresh pork. In 1880 a farm laborer’s average monthly wage was $11.80 (which works out to $141.60 for 12 months), although room and board was also provided. Today, a farm laborer annually is said to make about $33,000 in wages with an additional $5,000 for benefits (Bureau of Labor Statistics). I doubt room and board is provided. This post follows an earlier post titled “One Hundred Forty,” which was about the union in Holy Matrimony on January 30, 1877 of my great grandparents, Hovel side. That post recounted their marriage and move from Wisconsin to an Iowa farm. This post will deal with a few other parts of the common day existence on the plains of the northcentral Iowa prairie in the latter part of the 19th century.

Martin and Amelia Hovel
Photo from Michael Hovel

The August 21, 1952 edition of the Manly Signal contained an article that gave a look at living conditions present just after the founding of that community in 1877. In one article, the newpaper noted that “Their simple homes portrayed a love of cleanliness and beauty.” This is generally consistent with the words of historian John Shover who described Midwestern farm homes of that time as "unpretentious."  While the grand homes of Europe were all the rage, the United States would see its grandest home construction during and following the gilded age, which began about the same year as my great grandparents were married. Back then most farm houses were of simple of wood construction.  Some would be heated by a wood stove, others by coal burning stove.   My great great grandfather, Josef Hovel, who remained in Wisconsin in 1880, sold 23 cords of wood in 1879, from which he earned $46. Martin and Amelia would build a simple white clapboard house on their farm. This house type, as described by Shover, would have had low ceilings would always seem crowded.   Water was likely from an outdoor well and cast-iron hand pump.  There also would have been an outhouse.

The farm and house would later become property of their youngest child, my grandfather Rudolph James. The white two-story home may not have been their first farm house in Manly, but I do know that both my grandfather and my father were born in the same house. If their house was decorated inside like others described in the 1952 Manly Signal article, the home would contain a handmade rug for carpet, underlain by straw. Every spring, giving meaning to the term to spring cleaning, the rug would be pulled up and patched, and the straw replaced. Obviously, you would not want this near the wood stove. The kitchen would contain a wood stove, for baking, cooking, and of course warming hands and feet.   Stover has noted that the nucelus of the Midwestern from home was the kitchen and adjoining dining room, a radius determined by the heat thown off the wood burning stove.

Hovel Farm House, Town of Lincoln, Worth County
Just south of Manly, IA.
My Dad is on a rocking horse in front of the house
Photo from archives

There was little free time. If my great grandparents had the same practice as my grandfather, only necessary chores were accomplished on Sunday, the day of rest. The rest day of Sunday was earned by the work accomplished the other six days of the week. In the home, they made their butter, baked their bread, and preserved much of their food. And of course, they lacked the wash machines and dryers of today, so if laundry, and its associated ironing, is a difficult chore today, it was doubly (or more) so in the late 1870’s. As difficult as the laundry chore was, my great grandmother would do the laundry of others in order to earn money to purchase first class stamps to correspond with her relatives in Sun Prairie, WI (this information came from Carol Ryan  in an email in which she transcribed an article from a 19777 Manly Signal celebrating Manly’s 100th birthday).  Amelia took on the chores others wished to avoid in order to retain contact with her relatives. Showing the differences of the time to present day, she was dependent upon the U.S. Postal Service for contact.

The Hovel farm house was moved to Manly, and is still present today
Obviously additions have occurred.
Photo from Carol Ryan

But, she did more. As noted in the prior post she did here share of farmwork, and she likely took care of the chickens and harvested the eggs (60 dozen in 1879).   In an August 21, 1952 edition of the Manly Signal, Martin and Amelia’s oldest son Joseph Hovell (his wife decided to have the family add the second “L” to the last name), the only child to live in Worth County his whole life, recounts “how his mother prepared the wool and spun the yarn for all the stockings, mittens and great, warm mufflers for all the family.” The spinning wheel Amelia used was on exhibit for the 75th Anniversary celebration, and is still in the family today. Amelia also sewed clothes for the family. The same article has a photo of Joseph, at what is reported to be age 17 “wearing his first boughten suit bought especially for the occasion….” The occasion being a family photo taken at the Kirk Studio in 1895.  The newspaper refers to it as "grand day for young Joe."   A copy of the studio photo from that day was loaned to the newspaper, by the JJ Hovel family, and was printed with the article.  The suit cost $8.00 and was purchased at what was referred to as the Knowles Bros. store.  That store was built by A. Harris in 1877, who was also its first proprieter. It was probably at that store where Martin and Amelia would purchase necessary supplies as they first farmed the deep rich soils of Iowa.  The news article goes on to report that the other two sons “Rudy and Ed being but little fellows, are wearing suits which their mother made.”

Spinning Wheel owned by Amelia Hovel
Still in the family
Photo from Carol Ryan

Free-time was valuable, and it was often used to offset, what the 1952 Signal article referred to as the “deadly monotony.” Perhaps they too lived for holidays. Memorial Day would see children walking up and down the rail track in search of Sweet William and other flowers in which to decorate graves. The fourth of July saw orations, milk shakes, lemonade, and of course everyone’s favorite—fire-crackers. Fathers, the newspaper reported, would often take their sons to see the circus when it visited Mason City. Lack of free-time, however, should not be associated with lack of caring and the customs of the day.  Persons would call on new arrivals, and if they were not home, calling cards would be left. The same article would go on to say that “loaves of bread and plates of cookies were taken to friends, and in case of sickness there were sympathizers and helpers galore.” This level of care harkens to the famous “frontier hypothesis” of the well-known University of Wisconsin historian, Frederick Jackson Turner which talked about the equality of the populations on the frontier. This level of equality makes me think of the comment made by the highly regarded Czech composer Antonin Dvorak who on visiting Iowa (he spent time in and near the heavy Bohemian settlement of Spillville, only ten miles from Festina, where my paternal grandmother was born) in the later part of the 19th century noticed that in American democracy the porter and the millionaire addressed each other as “Mister” with “no difference except for the millions.” As I noted in my 2010 work: “Community cooperation was important in the early communities whether it be for corn husking, barn building, or school and church building.” This time period in Manly would seem to not only help prove Turner’s hypothesis, but also follows on the observations by Alexis de Tocqueville in his seminal work Democracy in America.

1895 Photo from 1952 News Article
 (L to R) Rudy, Martin, Amelia, Ed,
wtih  Joe, in his store bought suit,  in back
Source: Newapaper archives

Papers of the past often recorded common day occurences: persons visiting or who was visited. Lacking phone connectivity, much less social media of the present, connection was often in person. For example, accodring to the Mason City Globe Gazette, Amelia was a caller in Mason City on a Monday in early May 1915. It does not say who she may have visited. The Wisconsin State Journal reported in its Sunday, May 10, 1931 paper that "Mrs. Amelia Hovel, Manly, Ia, is a guest of her son and family."  A traveling widow was she.  That same paper also reported on 13 August 1931 that Amelia along with Mr. and Mrs. E. Duscheck and Addie Every took “an auto ride into Iowa last week returning Tuesday.” It reported the group visiting friends and family in a few towns, and noted that Mrs. Hovel went to Manly, Iowa where she would be staying for a longer visit.” I would guess it to be for a longer visit, as she lived in Manly; perhaps it was her return trip after visiting the family for the summer.

Amelia and Martin by home in Manly, IA  they would purchase
and move to after retiring from farming
Photo from Michael Hovel

Of course, some visitors were not relatives or friends. We know that Indians were still present, and in an article in the 21 August 1952 Manly Signal, Marcella Rossiter, a long-time Manly resident whose grandparents moved to the area in 1871, takes the standard view and prejudice of the time and says in her article that “Though Grandfather and Grandmother were not molested by Indians as most pioneers were, they did see tribes of them pass by on their way to Plymouth….” Rossiter notes that her grandparents would also provide food to the Indians.  My Aunt once told me a story of how my grandmother’s family owned a general store, and my Aunt said that it was not uncommon for Indians to stop by and for my great grandparent Pitzenbergers (my paternal grandmother side) to provide food or other items, and sometimes a meal. She also noted that she had never heard of the Native Americans causing any trouble.  It was the least that could be done.  The Native Americans after all did not ask to be removed from their land.  Care for others was part of the way of life.

1890 Book of Saints owned by Martin Hovel

Caring and helping the less fortunate is/was a common aspect of humanity and Christianity. Care on the frontier was provided to those in need that set a standard for providing comfort. As then, it is still customary to provide food for a family who lost a loved one, although I think that custom is not as common place as in the past.  Local religious denominations were visited on Sunday, the day of rest. Amelia and Martin likely traveled to Mason City for Sunday Mass, as Catholic Church in that community was in place in 1864. The church in Manly would come later. The only item I possess that belonged to my great grandfather Martin is a book of saints printed in German. I see this book as a testament to the importance of faith in his life.

Inside of book, Martin's signature in pencil is barely visible

Bohemia, was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire when Martin departed for the United States. Martin was multi-lingual due to an Empire that demanded use of German. Say what you will about the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but unlike many others at the time, starting with the reign of Maria Theresa, education was mandatory, Martin would end up knowing not only German and English, but also likely Czech. He was multi-lingual before it was fashionable. Multi-lingualism was not uncommon for first and second generation Americans.  Immigrant labor was critical to the growth of the United States during this start of the gilded age, and one does not all of a sudden learn to write and speak a language, much less understand the colloquialisms and nuances of a learned language. It was not uncommon for the native tongue to be spoken at home and at ethnic-centered events.  After all Martin and Amelia had two strikes against them: first, the predominantly Protestant nation was not keen on Roman Catholics, and second Eastern and Southern European immigrants were also faced with prejudice.  In some corners it dies hard.  And some places still have a strong ethnic base.  It was not that many years ago when attending mass in Armstrong Creek that the priest would say some prayers in Polish.

Original Martin Hovel family farm in present time
Photo from Carol Ryan

This was the world of north central Iowa just after the arrival of my great grandparents. Martin and Amelia would raise three sons on their farm, all of whom would also go on to farm: Joseph (born on 26 July 1878), Edward (born on 28 February 1881), and my grandfather Rudolph (born 21 July 1887). Each of the three would go on to have families of their own. Joseph would remain in Worth County and the Manly area for his whole life; Ed farmed a few miles south in Cerro Gordo County, but not far from Manly. My grandfather would see his first child born in the family homestead near Manly, but in the 1920’s would move and farm in the Town of Bristol, just north of Sun Prairie. My grandfather would bring the family back to that part of Wisconsin from which his mother hailed when she met Martin.

Their Three Sons, children  of Amelia and Martin Hovel
Photo from Michael Hovel

The late 19th century is a time long gone. Cars have replaced horses and passenger trains; email is negatively affecting the postal service; and farming is more mechanized than ever before, but still can be hard and tedious. If farming practices in 1920, as Stover says, were closer to 1720 than present day, one can imagine what it was like 40 years earlier before tractors and even more mechanized equipment. Even with the difficulties of farm work at the time, those pioneer residents still took time to socialize and foster direct connections, leaving calling cards, rather than using Facebook, greeting with cookies and bread.  The pioneer plains of Iowa, in spite of or because of the difficulties of life on the prairie, fostered a sense of community and friendship. Connectivity to family was also important, even if one had to launder clothes of neighbors in order to earn sufficient funds to send a three cent first class letter back home.

1952 Article
Newspaper archives

“It’s about the meanest business I have ever experienced. It’s all fact—solemn fact – no romance, no poetry, no joke. It does seem to me that all this sort of work ought to be done by machinery or not to be done at all.” Charles H. Smith, writing of farm work in 1892.