Fall 2007

Stories of Mt. Washington

Mt. Washington Work

by

Martha and Bill Treichler

Table of Contents

Chapter 4

Farming prospered on Mt. Washington. The country was young, and many of the richer lands to the west were not yet part of our country. In the 1850’s, New York State was the bread basket of the country. Millard Roberts tells us, p. 526, that “In 1831 Hammondsport was a rival of Chicago…The year 1831 was an era of progress and great possibilities for Hammondsport. It had become not only a great grain market, but a favorable center of trade for a large farming community.” Ruth King says one of the attractions of Mt. Washington for the old settlers was the timber, which they considered superior to that down in the valley. Later, many farmers had sheep, and the Scofields trained horses for themselves and for other owners.
Most of the work on the farms required horses, and a farmer’s horses were often his pride and joy, much as a new tractor or haybine is for a farmer of today. The settler had to clear the land with his axe, but the logs had to be moved with horses. His fields had to be mowed and worked with his team. We have no pictures of farmers and their horses working on Mt. Washington before 1900. But farmers continued to use horses on Mt. Washington well into the 1900s.

Man plowing on Mt. Washington. Photo courtesy of Carl Gardner.

Ruby and Clay Hunter and their team of horses, 1929. Photo courtesy of Pat Hutches.

The Gardner team of horses about 1920. Photo courtesy of Erma Gardner Bowdey.

Herbert and Bertha Fawcett Scofield take baby Milton for a ride in 1908. Milton was born in February of that year. Photo courtesy of Lawrence Scofield.

Even when the people were riding, the horses were working. Photo courtesy of Helena Howard.

Scofield horses pulling hay wagon. Photo courtesy of Lawrence Scofield.

Lawrence Scofield says, “The oldest pictures I have are perhaps from the late 1800’s based on an estimate of my Dad’s age in one of them. Two of them show my grandfather Scofield doing typical farm projects of the time.
“Of interest is that my Dad would never use a tractor on the farm and there was never any electricity or running water either. We did all the farm work with horses, which is probably why I have a great interest in those times. I still have the glass double-wick kerosene lamp by which I used to study during High School days. Although I wasn’t particularly happy about it at the time, I’m now glad I had the experience because in case of a catastrophe, as long as it wasn’t nuclear, I know how to live comfortably with few of the modern amenities we all take for granted.”

Horse power on the Scofield farm. Photo courtesy of Lawrence Scofield.

Horse power machine with no horses hitched to it. Photo courtesy of Lawrence Scofield.

Lawrence and Milton Scofield, ca. 1940. Photo courtesy of Lawrence Schofield

The Scofield family haying. Photo courtesy of Lawrence Schofield

Clarence Hutches and Tom Schofield (Josie’s father) butchering hogs. Photo courtesy of Pat and Don Hutches.

Butchering on the Scofield farm. Photo courtesy of Lawrence Scofield.

Marion Hutches with a large pile of firewood, all cut and split and ready for the cookstove.
Marion was born in 1913. Photo courtesy of Pat and Don Hutches.

Photo of hand-cranked pump in front of the Woodhouse house. Photo courtesy of Joyce Woodhouse Garey.

Among the great pictures we found of men and their teams of work horses, there is one of Cora Nash Schofield mother of Josephine Schofield Hutches, in her sunbonnet, with her team, driving not a smart buggy, but farm equipment. It looks like a hay mower to me.

Cora Nash Schofield driving her team of horses. Photo courtesy of Pat and Don Hutches.

We are lucky to have the diaries of two women, Bertha Fawcett Scofield and Josephine Schofield Hutches, descendants of early settlers on Mt. Washington, who kept diaries for decades. These diaries start in the 1920’s and continued for about forty years.

Josephine Schofield Hutches. Photo courtesy of Pat and Don Hutches.

In a diary, we can see what a specific family really did every day in a specific place at a specific time. But, it can give us an idea of what other farm families were doing, too. Josie Hutches’ diary of 1929 shows that she did not even remark the day of the beginning of the Great Depression. On October 10 and for the rest of the week, the Hutches took their butter to Bath to sell, and entertained neighbors for dinner. They continued to fill silo, butcher hogs, and pick up potatoes (they harvested 300 bushels in all), as they had before the crash.

These diaries of farm women for the year of 1932 in the midst of the Great Depression can tell us, I feel sure, how many other farmers were coping with this economic slowdown. The likely answer is that their lives did not vary much from the way they lived before the Depression. And, in many ways, their lives did not differ from what their ancestors had done a hundred years before. Farmers on Mt. Washington had good reasons, financial and practical, for continuing to work their stony fields with horses.

Herbert and Bertha Fawcett Scofield. Photo courtesy of Lawrence Scofield

The Scofields and the Hutches each had a scenic, productive farm and a historic old house built by their ancestors. They were able to live a good life with very little cash outlay. They were able to sell their farm products, such as hay, oats, potatoes, dressed pigs and beef, chickens, butter, eggs, and corn for cash, and they were able to feed themselves from these crops as well.

Of course, even with a good farm, and children to help, a farmer and his wife had to hustle. There was a lot of hard physical labor to be done by young and old. I compiled from the diaries a list of the jobs the men did, as well as a list of the women’s jobs.

First, let us look at the men’s work. In the Scofield family, the men were Herbert Scofield and his sons, Frederick Charles, Milton, Hobert, and baby of the family, nine-year old Lawrence. The Hutches men were Clarence and his sons Marion and Maurice. Both families did many of the same chores according to the diaries:

The women had their own jobs to do. The Scofield women were Bertha, her daughter Margaret, and her mother, Lillian Beck Fawcett, who visited frequently. Josephine Hutches had no daughter, but her mother came in times such as butchering, and her sister-in-law Clara Bell was a frequent, almost daily, helper.

Josie had a smaller family to cook for. This may be why she took more notice of nature. She mentions a rainbow, flocks of geese flying over, a beautiful winter day when it was four degrees above zero.

It seemed to me that the women had a less diverse list of jobs than their men, jobs that they did over and over:

They “did up work” daily (I think we can guess that this included washing dishes and pots and pans, putting away food, and cleaning up the kitchen, but what else, Bertha and Josie do not tell us.)

“Looked over beans,” presumably after picking and shelling them. They do not even mention the job that likely took up most of their time: cooking three big meals a day.

Josie grew flowers, if Bertha did so, she did not mention it. Josie paid more attention to the weather. Every day, she documents the weather and, when it was extreme, she gives the temperature. It was 105 degrees one hot summer day. One winter there was a run of near zero temperatures.

Bertha does not waste time on analyzing happenings, or in making value judgments. She does not even give her emotional reactions, when, for instance, her husband is hurt on November 7, her diary states, “Herb got hurt - Mar after Dr.” We are left not even knowing what happened. We know only that the doctor had to be called several times, and that by November 22, “Pop is better and walking a little” in Margaret’s writing, and by November 25, he was able to go upstairs. “Herb upstairs for the first.” She simply tells what the family did every day. The reader is left to draw his/her own conclusions. Josie was more likely to say what kind of illness a member of the family was afflicted with. In both families, feeling bad did not give one much time off, if any. Only serious injury or illness rated a doctor or time in bed. On December 26, Bertha writes, “Hob about sick with a sore throat.” On the 27th “Hob feels better.”, and on the 28th, “Hob and Lawrence got wood and we sawed in aft.”

There was some reciprocation between the men and women of the families. The men actually helped with some of the women’s work, mainly churning butter. The women helped with some of the men’s work, such as sawing wood or at times picking up potatoes, but since there were more men than women in the Scofield family, the men helped the women more than the other way around.

Entertainment was usually free. The main source of entertainment was visiting the neighbors. Neighbors and family frequently dropped in for a meal, often bringing food with them. Big celebrations were usually meals where everyone brought food. In the year of 1932, Bertha went to the “pictures” only once. They made ice cream once. Bertha cooked a ham for the big Scofield family picnic. She lists the name of every friend and family member who came to visit, and those who she visited. We do not know if they took vacations away from their farm. We do know that in 1927, Josie and Clarence Hutches spent a couple weeks in New York City with friends, sightseeing, going out to eat, and window shopping.

Bertha’s daughter Margaret wrote in the diary a few times for her mother, but we can tell only by the change in writing, and the change in reference to other family members.

Young Lawrence usually went to school, and Bertha lists almost daily, “Kids to school” or if Hob, the next to the youngest, stayed home to work, “Lawrence to school.” Frederick Charles was living elsewhere, we are not told where, but did come to visit, usually bringing food. Milton, the oldest, was old enough to travel to Buffalo by train to see his future wife, Vera. But the diary does not tell us that. Bertha simply says, “Milt to Buffalo” or “Milton took train to Buffalo.” We can guess this because family records show that Milton married Vera Dorothy Timms of Buffalo the next year, in October, 1933.

Even at nine years of age, Lawrence was expected to work. Bertha notes that “Lawrence drove a fork”. This is a complicated part of putting hay in a barn. The forkful of hay is pulled up from the hay wagon and delivered into the barn loft by a series of ropes and pulleys, pulled by a horse, and driving this horse requires judgment and skill.

I see Bertha’s laconic writing style as a result of how busy she was. I see her as a warmhearted, welcoming woman, who was always ready to welcome her family or friends with open arms and a good meal. She must have been a wonderful cook, because she so frequently had friends and family drop in for meals. She takes time to write down the name of every visitor. She documents the help neighbors give to her and to her men folks, and the help they give to the neighbors and to the community.

Both Bertha and Josie give us more than a catalog of their day-to-day work. They both picture a community of friends who enjoyed each other’s company, and who gave unstinting help to each other when they needed it.

What a treasure these diaries are for us! They fill in for us the story told by the photos of their house and farm, and they add life to the genealogy their descendants have kept.

© 2007, Martha R. Treichler

Table of Contents of Stories of Mt. Washington

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