Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving time again, a time for family get-togethers. I hope that your time together might allow for some story-telling by the elder family members, maybe a look at some photos, or a chance to interview someone who knows a great deal about our ancestors.

We shouldn't waste these precious times with parents and grandparents for many reasons. But how I wish I had talked with my grandparents about their early years, what they remember about their own parents or grandparents, who was in the photo on the piano, why a particular vase or bowl was always seen during the holidays but otherwise put away, why anyone would want to eat lutefisk.

I'm particularly thankful for my new and renewed connection with family members. Cousins I haven't seen or talked with in years, uncles and aunts, first cousins once removed, and second cousins. I'm thankful that, for the last couple of years of her life, my mom read this blog and was able to contribute when I had a question. I appreciate the comments and questions that always kept me thinking and doing more research.

But I think that the time has come to close the blog. I've written about most of our direct-line ancestors, a few famous people, tragic deaths, lost ancestors, soldiers, long, difficult travels, and more. I've learned so much more about my family from writing this blog, but I've exhausted most of our unique people, along with the places in which they lived and the travels they took.

Instead, I'm going to try to clean up my office, organize the rest of my files, scan more photos and documents, and enjoy writing small stories that I probably will post on my Ancestry.com page.

My family, you know how to reach me. You have my email and/or phone, and I hope you will reach out. I'd hate to see our reconnections stop. And for those who have found this blog and enjoyed it, I'm happy to hear from you through a comment on these last few pages. Maybe we can find a way to share information about our common ancestors.

If you have an ancestry.com account, please visit my page: ancestor footprints. There, I've included details about my ancestors, information that will stay up for you and future generations to enjoy.

I'm not quite done yet. Look for a few more posts to take us to the end of another year.

Giving thanks for each of you!

Diane

Randy, Diane, Marcia, Myron

Mom

Max, Colton, Penny

More on the Litchfield Property

On October 31, I wrote about the differences among renters, tenant farmers, and sharecroppers. I asked you to think about which category my family would have been in, as well as Grandpa and Grandma Linn, on the Litchfield property.

Today, I'm going to present a few documents that were in my mom's genealogy papers that might shed some light, or continue to confuse us all, about the nature of our agreement on the 160-acre farm just south of Dayton, Iowa. 

First, is a letter written to my parents on 28 November 1952 on the Litchfield letterhead and signed by their attorney, Kingsley M. Clarke.

You can see that this is a statement, based on an agreement between Litchfield and Rolland Linn for the cost of seed, nitrogen, and 0-62-0, and the rent to be paid to Litchfield for the use of alfalfa, the meadow, and the pasture land. The total owed to Litchfield was $230.93. Because of our payment and our sharing in the red clover, this can be interpreted to be support for something between a tenant farmer and a sharecropper. Undoubtedly, we had little, if any, choice in what to grow or how much, but we did share in the result of those plantings.

The next three documents are receipts for grain taken to the Wolf Grain Elevator dated 29 December 1952, 7 May 1953, and 12 August 1953. 

Two of the above receipts were for OATS; the other was for CORN. The amount shown on each receipt was to be divided between Litchfield and Rolland Linn. If you go back to my October 31 post and see the CROP RENTAL section in the agreement, you will read the following:

Tenant is to deliver at Dayton or Wolf Station free of charge, in elevator, crib or car, one half of all corn, two-fifths of all oats and soy beans, and one-half of all other grain raised on the leased premises, as lessor may direct. 

The tenant paid for half of the seed corn and ALL seed for other than corn, thus all of the oat seed was paid for by Rolland Linn. The tenant pays cost of threshing or combining oats and soy beans. Each party pays one-half of all other threshing. This means that we paid the entire cost for threshing the oats and half of the corn but received just a portion of the grains.  

But was this a tenant farmer or a sharecropper? The profit for the grain was SHARED, the cost of the seeds was either shared or fully paid by the farmer, and threshing and delivering the grain was totally paid by the farmer. All of this helps me lean more toward a combination of tenant and sharecropper, but more toward sharecropper.

Remember that the terms tenant and sharecropper were often used for the same purpose; each contract between Litchfield and the farmer was individualized to make certain that Litchfield would always make a profit before the farmer would.  

Anyone I talked with about the Litchfield name had nothing good to say about them. If it were a fair arrangement, if the farmer truly had a say in the agreement, I'm quite certain the negative talk would not have been universal. I believe that the farmers who had contracts with Litchfield had little, if any, say in what was grown, when, how much, or how the split was made. They paid for much of the grain, all of the threshing and delivery, they rented pasture and meadow land, they had to maintain their own equipment and the house in which they lived with no support from Litchfield. If they were truly renters, there would have been some support for the farmer and his family.

What are your thoughts?

A Letter from Peter Linn for Veterans Day

My grandfather, Peter Linn, served during World War I, spending time in the trenches in France. He wrote several letters home, and I'm happy to be in possession of one. In his own handwriting, Peter wrote a letter to his family, written on YMCA letterhead with a stamped "On Active Service With the American Expeditionary Forces". Please use the link to see Grandpa's handwriting. Below that, I've transcribed his letter for easier reading.

Thank you to our family Veterans and all Veterans during this time, originally known as Armistice Day in honor of the end of World War I on November 11, 1918. Grandpa's letter was written just two months before then.

Peter Linn Letter Home 2 September 1918

TRANSCRIPT:

Dear folks,

Wrote you a letter some time ago but thought I would write again as it takes a long time for mail to go across. I received your letter and also the one Frank wrote to you but haven't heard from you direct from home since I came here but am looking every day for some mail from someone back there. Haven't heard from Frank yet and haven't wrote to him for I thought maybe he had moved by this time, so will wait till I hear from him. My address will be the same as it is all the time. 

I am over here and feeling fine and hope you all are the same. I have heard from Elsie. I have got four letters from her. She says she has my sweater made so you can tell her I will try and fix it so she can send it to me. I will write to her as soon as I find out.

I suppose you are all through threshing by this time. You ought to see how they thresh over here. They seed by hand and the machine is run with one horse so they don't thresh any faster than I could carry the grain away in my cap.

So I heard you say that you sold Cannon Ball to Charley Lundgren. Tell him not to drive too fast with it. Ha. Ha. Has he sold the Maxwell or has he got two? I suppose he took C.B. to haul gas home with. Well, I don't know of much to write about but thought I would write a few words anyway. 

I have my helmet now and an automatic rifle and everything to make a soldier of me, so am ready to go after the Germans anytime. I can hear the big guns and see several air battles every day. To see an airplane overhead is just like looking at some birds over there. I am sitting in the YMCA writing so you will have to make out my letter some way for it's hard to write for it's so many writing that someone is always shaking the table all the time, so I have to watch my chance to write a word and then wait for another. 

Well, when you write to Frank, tell him to write to me and tell me how he likes it; and tell him I am having a good time over here. Tell him I don't think he will ever get this far for I think we will soon finish the Germans up. 

Tell all the folks hello around there, and don't forget my girl also. 

Write soon. Your son, Pete 

American Expeditionary Forces, APO 795

P.S. We get all the wine and beer over here, so we will be fat when we come home again. Ha. Ha.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wasn't that just a great letter? I have just a few comments and hope that you might let me know your thoughts.

• Grandpa does seem lonely, doesn't he, and eager to receive letters from home. He wants to hear about his brother Frank and also to assure him that Frank won't be sent as far into the conflict.
• Grandpa seems to know something about how the Allies are doing, speculating that the war will soon be over. And, of course, it was just two months later.
• Cannon Ball must have been a car that Andrew Linn owned, maybe not a very fast car from Grandpa's "ha ha". 
• Grandpa still has his sense of humor, writing about Cannon Ball and the wine and beer he is drinking.
• And finally, his "girl" is most certainly Maude Olofson, his future wife and my grandmother.

Always love you, Grandpa!