Doing Chores

Life on a farm has always meant hard work, with every member of the family expected to pitch in and help. Depression-era farm kids took pride in doing their share.

The 1930 U.S. Census reported a total of 10,830 children between the ages of 10 and 17 engaged in unpaid work on family farms in Minnesota, and an additional 4,989 children in paid positions on farms. Both boys and girls helped out with field work, milked the cows, fed the livestock and poultry, gathered eggs, worked in the garden, hauled wood, and carried water. Girls also helped with the domestic chores of cooking, cleaning, and doing the laundry.

Lawrence Schaub remembered life on his family's dairy farm near Westport, Minnesota, where even young children helped with bringing in the cows, butchering chickens, and haying. Mary Joy Dean Breton worked with her mother to establish a cash crop of zinnias as the family began a new life in rural Eden Prairie during the depression. Gloria Huffman Sinell recalled the excitement of threshing time, when she helped her mother and grandmother prepare feasts of wholesome foods for the hard-working crew.

The daily and seasonal chores were so important that rural children were often excused from school to help with the spring planting and the fall harvest. Many would remember the rhythm of the seasons and related chores as part of a happy childhood in the country.

Citations:

• Document: Child occupation statistics for Minnesota, 1930.
• Schaub, Lawrence, Another Time, Another Place: The Farm During the Depression. Minnesota Historical Society: Share Your Story, 2006.
• Breton, Mary Joy Dean, Living Off the Land. Minnesota Historical Society: Share Your Story, 2006.
• Sinell, Gloria Huffman, Threshing. Minnesota Historical Society: Share Your Story, 2006.