Peering at the Past – They Ate Wild Meat, But Not the Tender Beef

In the southeast corner of Houston County, the southeastern-most county in Minnesota, proximity to the Mississippi River and Winnebago Creek allowed some of the earliest white settlers to make a living from fishing, trapping and hunting. But like elsewhere in the county, agriculture provided a living for most.

Land records indicate that there were more land renters than landowners. By the early 1900s, a half-century after settlement, several farms had attained substantial prosperity, much due to livestock. Those larger farms hired workers. Many in the 1880 Census were identified as “farm laborer,” many living on the large farm where they worked or on their nearby home farm. Unmarried, young adult women might work in what the census described as “domestic service,” who were not wives or daughters. Wives were usually identified as “housekeepers.”

The Kubitz farm had three large barns – one for the milk cows, one for the beef cows and one for the horses. The Donahue farm had two – one for horses and the other for cows. At one end of the horse barn were six stalls with an “island” in the middle for hay. The calves were in the other end of the barn. They owned a lot of pigs, the primary source of income. They had 15 brood sows and about 150 or more hogs in all. Feeding them until they weighed about 200 pounds made for a quick crop, selling them in the autumn.

That farm might have had as many as 14 milk cows at a time. There were about 70 to 90 head of beef cows in the pasture, which reached quite a distance. The cattle would be gone for two or three days and then they would return all at once down the bare hill to drink out of the spring.

The Frank Hurley family, in addition to cows and pigs, had many turkeys and geese, which were profitable as well.

Early on, between floods, the Winnebago Creek Valley was mostly pasture for cattle and horses. One former resident said they did not even consider planting crops there. But later, it would all be cropland. Wheat was the first primary cash crop, but even small farms set aside an acre or two for tobacco.

Horses were essential to agricultural success, even after tractors were introduced. Horses were not always available for pleasure. If the horses had been worked in the field during the day, they were not ridden in the evening.

Many Winnebago Creek Valley residents were of Irish descent, including the Kenney family. One day a non-Irish neighbor lady walked down to retrieve a wayward calf. The Kenney women just watched as the neighbor opened the gate and called out in Norwegian. Her calf came right away and accompanied her home.

Back in Ireland, where farms were small, most of the small family gardens were devoted to potatoes, which were inexpensive, easy to grow, store and boil on the stovetop. It was a tradition the Irish immigrants brought with them to North America.

In the 1920s and 1930s, every valley farm had an orchard with 10 to 20 trees with plums and varieties of apples along with grape vines for family use. Brothers remembered how, back around 1910, their family would use the plentiful wild grapes to make wine and store it in fruit jars. Some evenings, the boys would sneak a jar out of the basement and drink it all before going to bed.

Only crops, cream and livestock were sold for income. Meat was a weekend treat, and even then, only old or sick livestock was slaughtered. Tender meat from young stock was too commercially valuable for the family to enjoy. Meat went into jars and boiled in a double boiler. Families raised almost everything they ate. When you were hungry, you went outside for berries or an apple. Grocery shopping was for sugar, cereal and baking supplies.

Hunting was not for sport or recreation; it just added sustenance for family meals. One resident told of her childhood when her father talked about eating “rats” and how good the young ones were. He meant muskrats. They ate what they hunted and trapped, such as squirrels and rabbits. Raccoons were delectable, especially the young ones. They ate everything.

Cream and whole milk was kept cold in the springhouse. As soon as the milking was completed, the milk went quickly into the cream separator. The skim milk was then dumped into troughs for the hogs. Drinking milk for the family was whole milk that had not gone into the separator. For family milk, there was a large 10-to-12-foot tank (trough) with a lid in the spring house. To prevent it from floating away, there were cement blocks and rocks in it and also a rock atop of the lid. Spring water ran continuously, cooling the milk. In later years, whole milk would be sold, too.

However, not all livelihood came from a farm. The 1870 Census from the village of Jefferson listed occupations of clerk, harness maker, merchant, lumber dealer, blacksmith and saloon keeper.  A year later, many businesses moved to nearby New Albin, Iowa, the railroad’s choice for the new depot. Her remaining buildings were demolished in 1940 to make way for Highway 26. In the village of Winnebago Valley, the 1880 Census enumerated three blacksmiths, two millers, two shoemakers, a hotel operator, a schoolteacher and a midwife. The 1885 Census for both Winnebago and Jefferson Townships included a carpenter, stone masons, wagon maker, surveyor, shoe maker, school teacher, blacksmith, merchant, butcher, doctor/physician, teamster, brewer, clerk, several millers and “sells machinery.” The post office in Winnebago Valley closed in 1906.

There was also employment at mills, where corn and wheat were milled for flour to make wheat bread and cornbread. But even those working in town or at mills were likely to have a few acres on which to grow their own vegetables. And full-time farmers might earn additional income during the winter by cutting ice or harvesting wood.

Source: “A Creek Runs Through Me; A History of the Winnebago Creek Valley in Southeastern

Minnesota” by Barbara Scottston and Terry Atherton, 2013.