Of Patience and Pride
For thousands of years in recent history, humans cultivated land around the world to produce food for their families and support their income. “We have neglected the truth that a good farmer is a craftsman of the highest order, a kind of artist,” explains the American novelist Wendell Berry, a statement that articulates an appreciation for this age-old profession.
But the characteristics and history of farming are complicated—there existed incredible economic difficulties associated with farming in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and continue today on a different scale.
A combination of overproduction (which triggered lower prices) and industrialization (which created new value chains and steps for farmers to bring their crops to market) spelled uncertainty and financial strain for many farmers.
Just to remain out of debt, farmers had to produce a substantial number of crops in order to recoup enough profit to last through the winter months. The introduction of new farming equipment and fertilizers meant that their work came with a higher cost to produce, effectively destabilizing the market while it adjusted to new prices.
Early Farming Experiences
Jan Albert and his forebears used mostly simple tools to tend their farms. There were no machines to cultivate large plots of land, nor were there extensive farms like there are today (the ‘mega’ farms that exist today in the fields of the Midwest would undoubtedly be a shock to Jan Albert and his family).
While many may argue that the farming system in the late nineteenth century was grossly inefficient, it worked well for the generations of Loomans’ who were men of the land for the past 300 years. For example, once the steel plow, invented by John Deere in 1837, became commercially successful it radically changed the level of productivity on farms nationwide given that traditional wooden plows kept breaking in the tougher soils of the Midwest.
Henry and Hannah continued the growth of the farm’s 80-plus acres and gradually diversified their crops throughout their tenure. While wheat was Wisconsin’s historically popular cash crop, soils eventually faced fatigue and needed to be restored through crop rotation and fertilization.
Some farmers turned to crops such as corn, oats, hay, rye, and barley, producing some of the largest quantities for the entire country. Other commercial crops such as green peas, cucumbers, lima beans and beets also became popular to produce in the 1880s (apples, cherries, and strawberries were the primary fruits grown in the state, but even those were hardly viable).
While it remains unconfirmed exactly what Henry and Hannah grew on their farm, current crop production on the same plats of land indicate that they likely cultivated wheat, corn, or oats, according to the farm’s current owner.
Many families in the Alto area likely farmed the same crops, however, there were probably more than a few that also raised livestock. Henry’s older sister, Jana Donkersgoed, lived on a dairy farm between the small Wisconsin towns of Hammond and Baldwin around the same time as Henry and Hannah farmed on Lake Maria Road. They raised crops to sell, but also to feed their herd of cows and the other animals that occupied the farm’s 120 acres.
The Farming Family of Henry and Hannah Loomans
Henry and Hannah’s household reared the children to speak and understand the Dutch mother tongue. Their primary source of practice outside the home came during Sunday church services at the Alto Reformed Church just a few miles from the homestead. In many ways living on the farm was an isolating experience (close neighbors were, quite literally, farmlands away).
This reality made church a primary opportunity for weekly social interaction, even though Henry and Hannah likely hurried their children home to finish the day’s chores before sundown.
By numerous accounts, life on the farm for a turn of the century child was an experience like no other. Once they were old enough to perform simple tasks, the boys helped on the farm and the girls helped mother care for the home. While we have little knowledge of our own family’s farm lifestyle, Jana’s daughter-in-law, who married Walter Donkersgoed, wrote an excellent and enlightening expose before her passing.
She writes that during the summers Walter helped his father hay and tend other crops, remembering that the family “operated two hay racks and three mowers.” One day, in a perfect example of the things that could happen on the farm, Walter was oiling one of the mowers and discovered too late he was parked on a bee nest. The result was a badly stung face.
Another story recorded by Jana’s daughter-in-law outlines a particularly scary scenario when Walter was accidently shot while hunting jack rabbits with his brother:
“He felt cheated because they spent hours looking for rabbits and couldn’t find any. When they saw a rabbit hole in the snow, Walter attempted to block both ends and worked to pack the snow in the exit with the stalk of his gun. It discharged and hit his neck. His brother took off running for Mother and Father, while Walter attempted to slump his way back to the house.
His Father (Albert) harnessed the horses to the stone boat and Mother called the neighbors asking for help. He made it only a slight distance before he passed out. The next thing Walter remembered was being bandaged by the doctor at home in bed.”
No doubt that Henry and Hannah’s children learned to do a solid day’s work by the time they reached adulthood. They probably experienced more labor in their first 16 years than most people today perform in a lifetime.
The kids developed an appreciation for the world around them mostly because it was the only space they had ever known. Maybe on a rare occasion the family would travel into the “booming” city of Fond du Lac or perhaps even travel to Milwaukee once the family purchased their first car in the early 1910s.
Aside from these intermittent journeys, the Loomans kids were contained to their corner of the world. They traveled most everywhere by foot or wagon, including a multi-mile walk to and from school where they learned the standard subjects. Given the distance to Waupun and Fond du Lac, the families in Alto depended on one another for help and companionship.
Henry and Hannah raised six successful children who continued family traditions and the lineage forward through the twentieth century. The role of the farm in their lives would not play out equally, but their memories of it and the work ethic they developed while living there played an unquestionable role in how they raised their individual families.
Farming was their livelihood and a critical thread in the fabric of the Loomans storyline.