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#19348 - 07/17/11 06:29 PM Historians
Hal Online   content
Moderator

Registered: 07/17/00
Posts: 10227
Loc: Blue Creek, Ohio, USA
I am batting around rough sketches for a novel-length story.

In sweeping terms, in will be set in the rural midwest in the era between WWI and the Great Depression ... and avoid those dramas. For lack of a better description, the 1920's.

I've done a lot of researching on line, but sometimes it takes hours to find things, if I find it at all. I have decided to prevail on the members of this forum who may have some accurate knowledge of this historical period. And/or are better at using the internet than me.

If you're just making a random guess, please don't.

If you do feel resaonably confident, don't be afraid to offer your opinion.

I'm not looking for 100% historical accruacy in this tale, but I would like it to be believeable.

Here's just a quick example of what I'm talking about. What kind of power source would a rural sawmill use in the mid 1920's?

Hal

(Edit: Spelling -- Hal)
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#19349 - 07/17/11 09:33 PM Re: Historians
ditch trapper Offline
Member

Registered: 06/08/10
Posts: 67
Loc: illinois
They had those pony motors with the leather belts.

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#19350 - 07/17/11 10:42 PM Re: Historians
jmbloom Offline
Junior Member

Registered: 02/21/09
Posts: 1
Loc: SE Ohio
Steam! I have belonged to an Antique Tractor Club for about 30 years. From talking to alot of the old timers steam was the most popular. You could burn slabs for fuel. If you had Steam Traction engine you could use it to move the mill to a different set. Hal, if you would like to get more info come to Lancaster, Ohio on August 19,20 and 21st. The Fairfield County Antique Tractor Club Is haveing a show at Alley park complete with a working sawmill.

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#19351 - 07/17/11 11:42 PM Re: Historians
Ric Offline


Registered: 07/22/00
Posts: 3695
Loc: Wellington,OH=USA
All the large mills and there were LARGE mills back then used electric if available,steam if not.Lot's of problems associated with steam. Small mills,some sort of internal combustion engine and a night-mare of jack shafts and belts to transfer power to various stations. Very small operations would use a belt drive off a tractor or independent engine. These would consist of just the head rig, edging being dome on the carriage.

I would not disagree with the steam engine as a power source except for your time frame. By the mid 20's I would suspect that most had been replaced by the more efficient IC engines

If you can find "Tumult on the Mountain" by Roy B. Clarkson it is a good reference on the logging of West Virginia during the late 1800's early 1900's

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#19352 - 07/18/11 10:26 AM Re: Historians
musher Online   content
Moderator

Registered: 07/22/03
Posts: 2376
Loc: Qc.
If your setting is The Waltons, they used an IC engine.

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#19353 - 07/18/11 01:05 PM Re: Historians
bjdm Offline
Junior Member

Registered: 04/06/10
Posts: 10
Loc: Indiana
I spent alot of time with my grandfather who was born in 1916. We walked across the farm he grew up on multiple times and he shared many stories. He are my impressions of that time in rural southern Indiana:
1)Primarily subsistence farming with excess grain/forage marketed on the hoof.(pigs and sheep).
2)Sharing of labor between farmers. Everything was a cooperative effort.
3)Only the wealthy had beef cattle but everyone had 2-3 dairy cows, 6-8 sows, and 20 ewes.
4) Large gardens with food preservation being a major activity.
5) Eighth grade was about as long as anyone attended school. Sixth grade was a common time to quit school and begin working on the farm.

Grandpa died two years ago and I think of him frequently. I think he would tell you that times were tough but they didn't know it. They were never hungry even though there were 9 kids. His father kept an English Setter and they hunted quail in the fall. Coveys were easy to find within earshot of the farmstead. Traps were used to catch weasel and mink that would get into the chicken house. Don't recall him ever saying he had a trapline proper.

Not sure this kind of stuff helps you or not. Your research had probably revealed a lot of this already.

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#19354 - 07/18/11 01:18 PM Re: Historians
Hal Online   content
Moderator

Registered: 07/17/00
Posts: 10227
Loc: Blue Creek, Ohio, USA
All of this is quite helpful.

I have a pretty good general idea of what times were like back then. Of course from conversing with old-timers, and with what I can glean from research.

I'm not sure I agree with the "times were hard" mantra. Maybe times were a little bit rough for the farmers as commodity prices fell at the close of WWI. For the rest of the economy, the 1920's was pretty much a boom period. It didn't blow up until late 1929.

Hal
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#19355 - 07/18/11 01:19 PM Re: Historians
Hal Online   content
Moderator

Registered: 07/17/00
Posts: 10227
Loc: Blue Creek, Ohio, USA
Internal combstion engines -- gasoline?

Hal
_________________________
Endeavor to persevere.

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#19356 - 07/18/11 01:35 PM Re: Historians
musher Online   content
Moderator

Registered: 07/22/03
Posts: 2376
Loc: Qc.
Yep.

I wonder what type of gas it was. Leaded for sure! But diesel?

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#19357 - 07/18/11 02:16 PM Re: Historians
Hal Online   content
Moderator

Registered: 07/17/00
Posts: 10227
Loc: Blue Creek, Ohio, USA
Kerosene?

Hal
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Endeavor to persevere.

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