Searching for the “Chicken of Tomorrow”

Farming Ancestors, ,

As part of my presentation for the course “Not Just Farmers” at GRIP, I’ll be talking about inventions and ingenuity in agriculture over the years. Inventions and enhancements made the life of the farmer easier, improving labor conditions as well as yields of crops and animal products.

Prior to World War II, chickens were mostly bred for large eggs and large numbers of eggs. This was helpful during the Great Depression because farmers could get a protein source without sacrificing the hen. However, after WWII, chickens began being bred more for meat production, larger breasts, and better tasting meat. Howard C. Pierce worked as the “Poultry Research Director” for A&P Food Stores started the “Chicken of Tomorrow” contest, organized by the USDA and backed by A&P, aimed at breeding a better chicken.1

Indeed, there were advertisements and articles about the contest.2 The contest was seeking a “bird with a broader body and meatier drumsticks” with the ideal chicken having been determined by “months of research by leading poultry scientists and geneticists.” The prize would be a $5,000 cash award to the “poultryman who succeeds in producing the nearest equivalent to the ‘Chicken of Tomorrow'” specifications, within three years.

The Van Tress Hatchery of Maryville, California, was named the winner of the contest in June 1948. They developed a Cornish-New Hampshire crossbreed.3

The selective breeding boosted poultry yields that benefited the farmer’s sales and the food supply. Innovations and improvements have been a key part of agricultural life that we will discuss in the course.

1. Maryn McKenna, Big Chicken (Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Partners, 2017), 150-151.↩

2. Here is one example of an article seeing the “Chicken of Tomorrow” (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-alexander-city-outlook-poultry-leade/145311611/)↩

3. Here is one of many articles that announced the winner (https://www.newspapers.com/article/fort-worth-star-telegram-chicken-of-tom/145312527/)↩

Grist Mills

Farming Ancestors, , ,

My ancestor, William Long, was killed in a terrible grist mill accident at Gilboa, Putnam County, Ohio in 1861. The newspaper reported that his clothing got tangled in the belts and he was drug into the machinery, breaking every bone in his body.1

I will be talking about grist mills and this incident in my lecture on “Historical Side Hustles” in the “Not Just Farmers” course that this taking place at GRIP (virtual) in June. As part of the lecture, we are going to watch this video I found on how grist mills worked and thought I’d share it.

This video makes the grist mill look quite slow. However, grist mills were not just used for making flour. They also utilized the water-powered shafts to spin grinding wheels designed to sharpen tools. That’s what William was up to when he got caught in the machinery. He had gone to the mill “for the purpose of grinding his scythe; and while arranging the belt to the grindstone, his clothing was caught by another belt, and he was whirled around the shaft, which was making about ninety revolutions a minute…”

I then started looking at who owned the grist mill in Gilboa, where it was located, whether it was operated by water or not, and I came across an entry in the Putnam county history that stated that the first gristmill in Gilboa was opened by Elisha Stout in 1837.2 Gilboa is located on the Blanchard River, which also runs into Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio, where William Long lived.

Rereading the news article about William’s death, there is a section of the print that is hard to read, but now makes sense… “He went into Stout’s mill…” The news article print is faded:

Two lessons here… First, check YouTube for short videos on how things worked to better understand what our ancestors were doing and seeing everyday. Second, as you learn more, go back an reread the materials you’ve already collected. New information will pop out at you, and old information will make sense that didn’t before.

And a third, don’t wear loose-fitting clothing when working around fast-spinning belts. It can result in a “sad accident.”

1. “Sad Accidents” William Long obituary, Hancock (Findlay, Ohio) Courier, 23 August 1861, p. 3, col. 1.↩

2. George D. Kinder, History of Putnam County,Ohio: Its Peoples, Industries, and Institutions, (Indianapolis, Indiana: B. F. Bowen, 1915), p. 116; available on Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/historyofputnamc01kind.↩

One Tough Lady – Carry Nation

Farming Ancestors, , , ,

As I was reading about Prohibition and the Temperance Movement and it’s impact on agriculture, I came across a tough-looking woman, Carry Nation. She was a fighter for the cause, gaining a reputation for entering saloons and bars and breaking the liquor bottles with a stick or an axe. The axe then became her signature weapon and she posed in photos with the axe although it is claimed she more often used a lead pipe.

Carry Nation, photo from the Library of Congress.

Carry Nation grew up with an alcoholic father and a mother who suffered from mental illness. She felt that alcohol and drunkenness were a scourge and she wanted to save people from its effects.

You can read more details about her life all over the internet, but the account from History.com is one I recommend. Interestingly, a YouTube channel I follow for quilting this week added a tutorial on how to make a “Carrie Nation Quilt.” You can watch that video here if you are a quilter.

This will be part of a lecture I’m giving during our “Not Just Farmers” course through GRIP in June 2024. I hear that the course is sold out! (Thanks to those who have signed up!)

Black Cowboys

Farming Ancestors, , , ,

We will be discussing Black Cowboys in the ranching lecture of the farming course I am coordinating for GRIP called Not Just Farmers: Records, Relationships, and the Reality of Their Lives.

Historians estimate that one in four cowboys was Black. During their enslavement, many learned the skills needed to handle cattle herds (riding, roping, blacksmithing, leather-working, etc.) After emancipation, these skills were needed, especially in Texas where the longhorn herds were largely out of control after the Civil War. Cowboys were needed to drive the cattle north to markets where the prices were higher.

Of course, Black cowboys faced discrimination such as being banned from restaurants and hotels. Reportedly, most found respect among their white counterparts working the cattle drives together, respect that most Blacks found elusive. They sought the “largely unhindered outdoor life, fair treatment, and decent pay” that the life of the cattle drover offered; they sought a life where skill and hard work would matter more than skin color.1

Ned Huddleston, aka “Isom Dart,” Brown’s Hole, Wyoming, 1890.

As most cattle drives ended by the early 1900s with the growth of railroads for moving cattle, the invention and use of barbed wire to parcel up the previously open range, the need for cowboys dwindled, and so did the opportunities for Black cowboys. However, the lore of the Black cowboy lived on in popular culture. From rodeos to western movies and books such as Lonesome Dove which featured Black cowboy Bose Ikard, the cowboy lifestyle lived on, as did the Black cowboy. Black cowboys had a heavy influence on cowboy ballads and music; the song Home on the Range was first recorded by a Black saloon keeper and cowboy.2

Here’s a list of movies featuring Black cowboys if you’re interested:

  • Buck and the Preacher (1972) starring Sidney Poitier
  • The Harder They Fall (2021) starring Idris Elba and Regina King and a mostly Black cast
  • Django Unchained (2012) starring Jamie Foxx and directed by Quentin Tarantino
  • Joshua (1976) starring Fred Williamson
  • Surrounded (2023) starring Letitia Wright

Watch these movies at your own risk. For example, Django Unchained is a Quentin Tarantino movie… if you’re familiar with his work, I need not say more. Enjoy!

1. William Loren Katz, The Black West, (Golden, Colorado, Fulcrum Publishing: 2019), p. 149.↩
2. Dom Flemons, “Black Cowboy Songs,” American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, 16 September 2020, video available online at https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1819161024888703. ]↩

GRIP: Digging Deeper

Genealogical Education, ,

Another course offered at GRIP Genealogy Institute this summer is coordinated by Paula Stuart-Warren, CG, FMGS, FUGA. It is called “Digging Deeper: Records, Tools, and Skills.” I am one of the instructors for this course and am looking forward to it!

For the complete details and to register, visit this link.

Paula is a fantastic instructor. She does an excellent job with hands-on experiences in addition to the lectures. This course is great for anyone wanting to expand or polish their genealogical skills.

I’ll be teaching two classes, one on PERSI (Periodical Source Index) and one on Probate Records.

Paula is also teaching in the “Not Just Farmers” course I am coordinating and in “Midwest Family History Research: Migrations and Sources” coordinated by Jay Fonkert. She wrote a blog post about this here.

There are a lot of educational opportunities coming up this summer. This class is one you should consider if you haven’t taken it already!

For the complete details and to register, visit this link.

Virtual Seminar with Cyndi Ingle and Cari Taplin!

Announcements, ,

Coming up at the end of April, an all day seminar with Cyndi Ingle (of Cyndi’s List) and myself hosted by the Tacoma-Pierce County Genealogical Society. This is a VIRTUAL seminar so you can join us from the comfort of your own home! There will be two lectures by each of us.

Cyndi’s Topics:

  • Smarter Searching: Refining Search Parameters for Genealogists
  • Off the Shelf: The Unexplored Potential for eBooks in Genealogy

Cari’s Topics:

  • Using Timelines to Analyze Your Research 
  • The Heart of it All: A New Hampshire to Ohio Migration Case Study

Seminar Schedule – Pacific Time, so convert for your time zone:

08:30 – 08:45 Enter the Zoom meeting
08:45 – 09:00 General announcements; troubleshooting
09:00 – 10:00 Presentation 1
10:00 – 10:30 Break & chit-chat
10:30 – 11:30 Presentation 2
11:30 – 12:30 Lunch break & chit-chat questions
12:30 – 01:30 Presentation 3
01:30 – 02:00 Break & chit-chat
02:00 – 03:00 Presentation 4
03:00 – 03:15 Q&A with the Speakers

Click this link to get the full details and registration instructions.

We hope to see you there!

Not Just Farmers…Ranchers Too!

Farming Ancestors, , , , ,

One of the topics I’ll be teaching in our “Not Just Farmers” course at GRIP Genealogy Institute is on ranching. both cattle and sheep. We really want to cover as many agricultural pursuits as possible, and ranching and farming are interconnected.

One topic I’ll be discussing is “Texas Fever,” and unlike “gold fever” “Texas Fever” was a bad thing.

St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 28 August 1855

“Texas Fever,” or “Texian Fever” as the above article called it, sometimes also called “Spanish Fever” was a disease that Texas cattle carried. They thought the disease was tick-borne and spread in southern cattle because the weather was not cold enough to kill the ticks or disease. The cattle would carry this disease on the long cattle drives to the north. Reports in newspapers in towns all along the famous cattle drive trails reported on this disease. The Texas cattle seemed to be immune to it but when they intermingled with other breeds in the north, the northern cattle died from it, causing farmers and ranchers to lose thousands of dollars in their businesses and livelihoods.

The problem was so harmful to northern herds that vigilante groups took action on their own until laws were passed to stop the importation of Texas cattle. A law was passed in Missouri 1855 that made it illegal to bring diseased cattle into the state with a penalty of a fine and killing of the cattle.1 In 1861, another Missouri law was passed attempting to control Texas Fever. The law appointed “three competent and discreet persons”  in each township to serve as cattle inspectors with the power to “examine all Texas, Mexican, or Indian stock” driven into the township. They could order the owner to removed the cattle and if the owner did not comply, they could call the sheriff to kill the cattle.2

Cattle tick fever is still a problem. “The pathogens that cause Texas cattle fever are transmitted from infected to non-infected cattle by two closely related tick species known as ‘cattle fever ticks.’ There are no vaccines or drugs available to prevent or cure Texas cattle fever.”3

1. Revised Statutes of Missouri, 1855, Volume 2 (Jefferson City, Missouri: 1856), 1104. ↩
2. Laws of the State of Missouri Passed at the Regular Session of the 21st General Assembly (Jefferson City, Missouri: 1861), 26. ↩
3. See “Eradicating Cattle Fever Ticks” from Texas A&M.]↩

Blogging has Taken a Backseat to Farming

Farming Ancestors, , , , , ,

Hello friends. You may have noticed (or maybe not) that my blog went a bit silent there for a bit. That’s because I’ve been in writing overdrive preparing for my newest course “Not Just Farmers: Records, Relationships, and the Reality of Their Lives” that will occur at the NGS GRIP Genealogy Institute (formerly the Genealogical Institute of Pittsburgh), virtually, June 23-28., 2024. Registration is now open. Of course, I’m not the only instructor. I am being joined by Cyndi Ingle and Paula Stuart-Warren as well.

I get tired of hearing genealogists of all kinds say “oh my ancestors weren’t that _____ (interesting, important, etc.) because they were ‘just farmers.'” There is a commonly held belief that they did not lead interesting or important lives, and that they just didn’t leave many records. So, this course is designed to defy all of those misconceptions. There is nothing more important than providing food and other necessary supplies to your family and community.

The focus of our course is on North American farming and agricultural ancestors and their families. The course will dispel the myth that our ancestors are “just farmers” without a rich and documented life. Farmers have often been dismissed by the assumption that there is not much to find or to learn about their lives and the issues they faced. The variety of records–often underused or undiscovered–give depth and breadth to the lives of our ancestors. Understanding the history of farming and learning about the unique records of the people, products, and land, will give a deeper picture of what hearty families we descend from. Students will build an “agricultural profile” for their farming ancestors by the end of the week. This profile can help to craft a robust background of their “just farmer” ancestors.

My Grandpa Karl Miller on His Tractor

The full breakdown of the courses and who will be teaching those can be seen on the GRIP website. My topics include:

  • Inventions and Ingenuity: Advancement in Farming Over Time
  • Get Along, Little Doggy! The Agricultural Contributions of Ranches
  • Historical Side-Hustles: Other Income Streams of Our Farming Ancestors
  • Farming Outside the Law: Squatters, Tax-Evaders, and Bootleggers
  • Female Farmers: Women’s Issues in Agricultural Families
  • Taking Care of the Farmers: Social Programs Benefitting Our Farming Ancestors
  • A Case Study – Building Your Ancestor’s Agricultural Profile

I am going to share tidbits that I’ve been writing and collecting for this course on my blog over the next several months. So, break out your bibbed-overalls and work boots, and hang on to the tractor’s steering wheel and let’s go for a hay ride through farming lives and their records. (Did I get enough farming metaphors in there?)

Happy New Year! 2024 Style

Genealogical Goals, ,

It’s that time of year again where we think about the past year and plan for the next. 2023 had its ups and downs, but I’m looking forward to 2024 and have a lot of plans, both personally and professionally. Here’s just a few things going on for me in 2024. Some of them you can join along with me!

  • NGSQ Study groups are starting up again. Cyndi Ingle (of Cyndi’s List) and I each run two groups. We read an NGSQ article and discuss it each month, and we come up with unique discussion questions to lead us through some of the important points of each article. This is one of my favorite activities each month. No matter if I “liked” an article or not, I ALWAYS learn something I can use in my own research and writing. Two of the four groups still have space. Check out the details and register here.
  • I hosted a writer’s group last year as a trial. It went really well so I am doing it again this year. This is a working group, participation is required. But we go over different aspects of writing and then trade pieces with a different partner each month to give/get feedback. It was very helpful for me and I heard the same from other participants last year. If you want to do more writing in 2024, consider joining this group.
  • Cyndi will be leading the Mastering Genealogical Proof and Mastering Genealogical Documentation groups this year. These are study groups based off of the books by Dr. Thomas W. Jones and are fundamental for any genealogist looking to advance their knowledge and skill. Consider one or both if you want to up your game this year.
  • I will be attending SLIG this year and am looking forward to taking one of the courses that has been on my list for several years: Course 3: Exploring Their Life: The Social History of Your Family with Gena Philibert-Ortega.
  • I have several online webinars planned for the year and more to come. You can follow my speaking schedule here.
  • I am also working on a couple of projects I hope to get published so stay tuned about those!

I hope you have some great plans for 2024, especially as it pertains to your genealogical education and practice.

Happy New Year!

2024 Study Group Schedule

Genealogy Program, , , , ,

Cyndi and I have finalized our plans for 2024 and wanted to share the schedule with you.

2024 NGSQ with Mastering Genealogical Proof Principles – There are four session times to choose from (limit of 25 per session). This course runs for 11 months (January – November) and we study one National Genealogical Society Quarterly (NGSQ) issue per month. Due to copyright, we cannot provide copies of the articles. You need to be a member of NGS or be able to make copies at a local public library. We read the articles ahead of students and create a list of unique questions for each article to discuss along with some standard questions we ask of all NGSQ articles. We don’t have the article list yet, but will post it as soon as it is available.

2024 Dates for NGSQ:

  • Jan 15 & 16  
  • Feb 12 & 13  
  • Mar 11 & 12  
  • Apr 8 & 9  
  • May 13 & 14 
  • Jun 10 & 11 
  • July 8 & 9 
  • Aug 12 & 13  
  • Sep 9 & 10 
  • Oct 14 & 15 
  • Nov 11 & 12
  • No class in December

Registration is open! Click here to see the options and to register: https://genealogypants.com/studygroups/ngsq-study-groups/

Writer’s Workshop Group 2024 – This writing group will work together to improve a piece of your own writing over 8 months (we January through August). The meeting times will be on usually the third Thursday of the month at 7 pm Eastern. Our overall focus will be genealogical writing. We will be mostly focusing on writing aspects but will also touch on genealogical issues such as meeting the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS), looking at Genealogical Standards that are relevant to writing, and using citations. This is a participation required group. We will work on a piece of writing over the 8 months. You will be paired up each month with a partner to give feedback on that month’s topic. Participation is a must, and if you are looking for a hands-on writing group, this may be the one for you!

For full details and to register, click here:https://genealogypants.com/studygroups/writing-group/

Mastering Genealogical Proof (MGP) – a seven-week beginning principles course. There will be two sessions, Wednesday daytime at 3pm Eastern and Saturdays at 1pm Eastern (so adjust for your time zone). This is for those who have never studied this book before. We will be studying this from a beginner or slightly intermediate level. If you’ve done one of these groups before and want a refresher, that’s ok too! We will take 25 students in each class. This year, all classes will be taught by Cyndi Ingle. This is for those who have never studied this book before. We will be studying this from a beginner or slightly intermediate level. If you’ve done one of these groups before and want a refresher, that’s ok too! We will take 25 students in each class.

2024 Dates for MGP:

  • Wednesdays, February 7 – March 20 – Noon Pacific/3 pm Eastern
  • Saturdays, February 10 – March 23 – 10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern
  • Wednesdays, August 7 – September 18 – Noon Pacific/3 pm Eastern
  • Saturdays, August 10 – September 21 – 10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern

Registration will open 4-6 weeks before the class begins.

Mastering Genealogical Documentation (MGD) – a seven-Week beginning principles course – There will be two sessions: Wednesday daytime at 3pm Eastern, and Saturdays at 1pm Eastern (so adjust for your time zone). Each class will be about an hour. This is for those who have never studied this book before. We will be studying this from a beginner or slightly intermediate level. It is recommended that you have studied the book Mastering Genealogical Proof, but not a requirement for taking this class. If you’ve done one of these groups before and want a refresher, that’s ok too! We will take 25 students in each class.

2024 Dates for MGD:

  • Wednesdays, February 7 – March 20 – Noon Pacific/3 pm Eastern – Coming Soon
  • Saturdays, February 10 – March 23 – 10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern – Coming Soon
  • Wednesdays, August 7 – September 18 – Noon Pacific/3 pm Eastern
  • Saturdays, August 10 – September 21 – 10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern

Registration will open 4-6 weeks before the class begins.

Visit the Classes and Study Groups page at any time for most recent information. We hope to see you throughout the year!