EXPLORING THE LIVES OF MISSOURI FARM WOMEN AND THEIR VEGETABLE GARDENS ...

338 Pages·2007·10.05 MB·English

by  Dale Langford

POWER IN THE GARDEN:
EXPLORING THE LIVES OF MISSOURI FARM WOMEN
AND THEIR VEGETABLE GARDENS DURING
THE GREAT DEPRESSION

A dissertation
presented to
the Faculty of the Graduate School
University of Missouri-Columbia

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

by

ALLYN M. MORTIMER

Dr. Daryl Hobbs, Co-Dissertation Supervisor
Dr. J. Sanford Rikoon, Co-Dissertation Supervisor

AUGUST 2007
© Copyright by Allyn M. Mortimer 2007
All Rights Reserved
The undersigned, appointed by the Dean of the Graduate School, have examined the
dissertation entitled

POWER IN THE GARDEN:
EXPLORING THE LIVES OF MISSOURI FARM WOMEN
AND THEIR VEGETABLE GARDENS DURING
THE GREAT DEPRESSION

Presented by Allyn M. Mortimer

A candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

And hereby certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance.

Dr. Daryl Hobbs

Dr. J. Sanford Rikoon

Dr. Mary Jo Neitz

Dr. Elizabeth Barham

Dr. Catherine Rymph
DEDICATION

This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of two remarkable Missouri farm women—
Hazel Pipes Young and Mary C. Neth—whose lives inspired me to undertake this study
of rural women. Hazel Pipes Young was the epitome of a progressive farm woman. She
worked hard for her family and, during the Great Depression, for the Farm Security
Administration helping farm women learn new ways to grow and preserve produce from
their vegetable gardens and tend to their families. Mary was my dissertation adviser on
rural women’s issues, and her wise counsel helped me negotiate the challenges of
dissertation research and writing. Her untimely death in 2005 has left me with the
difficult task of producing a document that would rise to her high standards. I hope that
this work would meet with their approval.
ACKNOWLDGMENTS

The list of individuals who encouraged me in researching and writing this
dissertation is long and includes friends, family, and supporters both inside and outside
the University. A partial list of friends includes Ann Breidenbach, Christina Vasquez
Case, David Lind, Kathy Marquart, Bridget Murphy, Nancy Shepherd, and Kendra
Yoder, whose conversation and company I value. A short, and incomplete, list of family
members who helped, includes my in-laws, Eleanor and Larkin Langford, who patiently
assisted in connecting me with women to interview and with detailed information about
their parents’ lives; and Betty Johnson, who lent me her grandmother’s diary, which was
especially useful. In addition, several friends, including Beth Gold, helped me locate
several of the wonderful and talented women I interviewed for this project. To her and
the others, I am indebted. I am most grateful to my husband, Dale, for his continuing
support during this shared adventure.
I am also grateful to my committee members who guided me through this long
process and were always responsive to my questions and concerns. I owe a debt of
gratitude to Daryl Hobbs, J. Sanford (Sandy) Rikoon, Mary Jo Neitz, Elizabeth Barham,
and to Catherine Rymph, who stepped in to fill the historical vacuum precipitated by the
untimely death of Mary Neth.
The Garden Club of America’s Douglas Dockery Thomas Fellowship provided
me with financial support for my research, travel, and general subsistence. Without this
generous award and their moral support, I would not have been able to complete my
work. Travel funds for my research at the State Historical Society of Iowa in Iowa City,
the Library of Congress, and the National Agricultural Library were provided by a
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Dissertation Research Travel Scholarship award by the University of Missouri-Columbia
Graduate School.
In addition, since beginning my program in Rural Sociology, I have been
fortunate to have worked as a graduate assistant for Joel Hartman’s course, the Amish
Community. Joel’s generosity, good humor, and role model as a teacher have contributed
immeasurably to my graduate school experience.
Archivists at the University of Missouri Archives, the Western Historical
Manuscript Collection, and the National Archives-Central Plains Region in Kansas City
also need to be acknowledged for their assistance with my research. I am very grateful to
them for sharing their expertise with me. Mary Fritz provided me with a tour of and
information about the German Four Square Garden. Her hospitality and generosity were
very much appreciated.
Finally, this dissertation could not have been written without the help of the eight
women and one man who were my key informants. They were generous with their time
and candid with the information that they passed along to me. I was captivated and
inspired by their memories and hope that I have done them justice in writing about their
lives and the lives of their mothers, and other women who grew gardens during the Great
Depression.

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgments......................................................................................................... ii

Illustrations...................................................................................................................vi

Abstract .......................................................................................................................vii

CHAPTER
1 Introduction..........................................................................................................1
Women During the Depression ........................................................................2
The Active Vegetable Garden ..........................................................................7
Study Objectives............................................................................................. 10
Key Assumptions............................................................................................ 14
Preview........................................................................................................... 17

2 Method of Inquiry.............................................................................................. 19
A Feminist Perspective ................................................................................... 20
Power in the Garden ....................................................................................... 27
Summary ........................................................................................................ 31

3 Research Design ................................................................................................. 34
Historical Method ........................................................................................... 36
Feminist Approaches to Data Collection ......................................................... 37
Data Collection Procedures............................................................................. 39
Soundness of Research: Reliability, Validity, and Authenticity ....................... 49
Summary ........................................................................................................ 52

4 The Depression Era: Farm Women’s Discontent? ........................................... 53
The Country Life Commission........................................................................ 54
Depression-Era Missouri................................................................................. 60
A Focus on Gardens........................................................................................ 68
The Live-at-Home Program ............................................................................ 74
Summary ........................................................................................................ 77

5 Material Culture of the Vegetable Garden ....................................................... 79
Beginning the Garden ..................................................................................... 80
The Old Hoe .................................................................................................. 82
The Garden as a Woman’s Space .................................................................... 85
Moon Signs..................................................................................................... 88
A Variety of Vegetables.................................................................................. 89
Watering the Garden....................................................................................... 91
Fertilizer ......................................................................................................... 92
Insect Pests ..................................................................................................... 94
Saving Seeds................................................................................................... 95
The Home Orchard ......................................................................................... 96
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“Dear Folks All”: The Henry Field Seed Company ......................................... 97
Summary ...................................................................................................... 112

6 “It was to be done”: The Role of Farm Women During the 1930s................. 115
Gendered Division of Labor ......................................................................... 118
On The Farmstead: Always Plenty of Work .................................................. 121
Women’s Networks ...................................................................................... 148
Women’s Progressive Farmers’ Association ................................................. 161
Summary ...................................................................................................... 168

7 Garden Versus Relief: The Value of the Home Vegetable Garden................ 170
Every Farm Woman Can Be An Alchemist .................................................. 171
Growing Groceries in the Garden.................................................................. 175
From Relief to Subsistence ........................................................................... 182
Keeping Body and Soul Together.................................................................. 190
Summary ...................................................................................................... 193

8 Farm Women’s New Deal ................................................................................ 195
Women and the New Deal ............................................................................ 196
Rural Relief and Rehabilitation ..................................................................... 198
The Farm Security Administration in Missouri.............................................. 203
Summary ...................................................................................................... 214

9 Plan, Plant, Preserve, and Prosper.................................................................. 219
For the Betterment of Home and Family Living ............................................ 220
Home Demonstration Work in Missouri........................................................ 235
Assessment ................................................................................................... 268
Summary ...................................................................................................... 271

10 Creating A Future from the Past with the Home Vegetable Garden............. 274
Feeding the Farm Family .............................................................................. 275
Individualism and Collective Identity............................................................ 288
Food in Search of Community ...................................................................... 291
Suggestions for Further Research.................................................................. 293

APPENDIXES
1 Interview Questionnaire .................................................................................. 297

2 Profiles of Key Informants............................................................................... 300

3 Gardening Tips and Recipes from the 1930s .................................................. 303

REFERENCES.......................................................................................................... 310

VITA ........................................................................................................................ 328
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ILLUSTRATIONS

FIGURE PAGE

1. Women and children in their spring garden in southeastern Missouri.
Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, FSA/OWI
Collection, LC-USF34-014187-D, Dryden, 1934-1942. ........................................ 2

2. This map of indicates the counties where my key informants lived during the
Depression. Perry and Lawrence Counties are also highlighted because they
are the counties where the clients of the Farm Security Administration lived. ..... 46

3. Henry Field made the wheel hoe an indispensable tool of gardeners in
the 1930s. Source: Henry Field’s 1935 Catalog. Henry Field Company,
Shenandoah, Iowa. p. 2. ..................................................................................... 85

4. Completed farm homes in the FSA Southeastern Missouri project for the
rehabilitation of farm labor. Home Supervisor demonstrating the use of a pressure
cooker in a client’s home. May 1940. Source: Library of Congress, Prints and
Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF-34, Negative No.61006-D.
Photograph by John Vachon. ............................................................................. 210

5. A farm woman’s winter supply of canned produce during the 1930s.
Source: Extension Service Review. U.S. Department of Agriculture.
March 1932. ...................................................................................................... 284

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POWER IN THE GARDEN:
EXPLORING THE LIVES OF MISSOURI FARM WOMEN
AND THEIR VEGETABLE GARDENS DURING
THE GREAT DEPRESSION

Allyn M. Mortimer

Dr. Daryl Hobbs, Co-Dissertation Supervisor
Dr. J. Sanford Rikoon, Co-Dissertation Supervisor

ABSTRACT

Today, when fresh, canned, and frozen vegetables are plentiful and taken for
granted, the home vegetable garden is regarded as something between a hobby and a
luxury. But in the Great Depression of the 1930s, the household vegetable garden, which
was primarily the responsibility of the farm woman, was an engine that helped many
rural families pull through tough economic times. The home vegetable garden is an ideal
place from which to explore women’s agency, because it is not only a gendered site on
the farmstead where women, particularly during this time period, were able to develop
skills and knowledge to enable them to feed their families, but it also was a site that
enabled them to participate in the economic welfare of the farm.
This study examines the Depression-era vegetable garden and its value in helping
to keep farm families off relief rolls and remain relatively self-sufficient. It also examines
the role of the professional women—Extension home demonstration agents—who
worked with farm women to develop and improve their gardening and canning
capabilities. It documents the material culture of the Depression-era vegetable garden in
an attempt to make readers aware of the often taken-for-granted tools, skills, and
knowledge that women needed to grow groceries in the garden.
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