1976 September 29

Introduction

Segerstrom Farm
Scope and Content Note: Located in township of Naples near Mondovi in Buffalo County. RS now retired, worked same farm since 1922, lives in original farmhouse.

Background Of Margaret Segerstrom Before Marriage
Scope and Content Note: MS born about two miles from present Segerstrom farm, oldest of six girls and one boy. Parents farmed about eighty acres; “didn't have much,” no conveniences, but always plenty to eat. After completing education at one room Pace school, hired out to neighborhood farmwives. In 1920 RS came to work on her grandfather's farm and they were married June 15.

Background Of Rangnar Segerstrom: Education And Employment
Scope and Content Note: Born October 1896, in township of Troy, near River Falls (St. Croix county). Attended one room schoolhouse one mile from home. Terms eight months long; spent eight years in school, graduated in 1911. Recalls winning school spelling contest; placed fifth in areawide contest at Hammond. Attended River Falls Normal School; in 1916 graduated in class of 110 from agricultural department. Decided against teaching because pay only $65 per month without board. Took job as shipping clerk in Minneapolis paint firm, and enlisted in U.S. Navy July 1918.

RS Family; Youth On Father's Farm
Scope and Content Note: RS believes grandparents came to River Falls area from Sweden about 1880. Settlers in Mann Valley area mostly Swedish and Bohemian. Nine children had to work on forty acre farm. RS recalls working for uncle, and staying home from school to watch sheep. Also recalls helping plant potatoes in area where much cabbage and potatoes grown.

MS Parents Farm
Scope and Content Note: MS grandmother came from Norway. Margaret Olson Segerstrom born in March 1903, raised on farm father had taken over from his mother.

MS Work As Hired Girl Before Marriage
Scope and Content Note: Began hiring out age 15-16; earned $1 per week working in farmhouse and barn. Recalls milking cows, churning butter, and baking bread. Neighbors mostly Norwegian, though MS worked for people of mixed ethnic backgrounds. Used earnings to buy clothes for herself and other children in family.

RS Enlists In U.S. Navy,
Scope and Content Note: “Liked the idea of the Navy,” and would have soon been drafted by Army. Trained at Great Lakes and recalls drilling ten hours per day. Many sailors with farming backgrounds.

RS Attitude Toward World War I
Scope and Content Note: Believed the war would make “our country safe for democracy,” but ”of course, that was drilled into us, too“ in recruit training.

RS Reaction To La Follette's Anti-War Position
Scope and Content Note: Never thought much about it at the time. Recalls hearing La Follette speak in U.S. Senate while stationed at Baltimore. Parents strong La Follette supporters.

RS Duty Assignments In Navy
Scope and Content Note: Trained aboard old battleship USS Massachusetts. Sent to Europe on English ship; served aboard troop transport USS Santalina, reconverted German ship.Had duties as fireman shoveling coal, and as water tender.

RS Recalls Storm At Sea
Scope and Content Note: USS Massachusetts encountered serious storm; “the water came in, and everything was moving.” Most sailors became seasick.

RS Mustered Out Of Navy,

End Tape 1, Side 1

Introduction

RS Comes To Naples Township,
Scope and Content Note: Came with friend to work in Naples township on farm located two miles from present RS farm. Came by freight train with machinery and horses in April 1920 in time to plant crops on 320 acre farm. Cultivated and seeded 280 acres with gang plow and walking plow. 110 acres of corn mostly fed to steers.

RS Wages Paid On Share Arrangement
Scope and Content Note: Owner received half, RS and partner split other half. Soil quite sandy, didn't make much money.

Marketing Steers
Scope and Content Note: Took to River Falls for finishing.

Family And Neighborhood Politics
Scope and Content Note: MS family originally Republican, became La Follette Progressives, and then Democrats in 1940's. Neighborhood tended to support progressive Republicans, especially after World War I.

Courtship
Scope and Content Note: RS courted with white horse and buggy; when horse needed for work, they walked.

MS Rarely Leaves Farm Before Marriage
Scope and Content Note: Family occasionally took horse and buggy to visit nearby relatives; MS recalls walking five miles to Eleva for short-lived music lessons.

Road Condition In The 1920's
Scope and Content Note: Roads poor until FDR elected and Works Progress Administration (WPA) began repair and construction work. County did nothing to maintain roads; individual farmers took responsibility until township patrolman appointed to grade roads. People drove cars in summer and sleighs in winter; spring bad because cars became stuck in mud.

Buy First Car In
Scope and Content Note: Purchased Ford Model T because cheap. Financed $360 cost with Mondovi dealer on $28 per month installment plan.

Beginning To Farm During Post World War I Recession
Scope and Content Note: Prices began post-war drop in 1920. “Quite a recession” in 1921-22 with little improvement during rest of decade. Recalls crash of 1929 and beginning of bank failures in 1929-1930.

Low Commodity Prices During Depression
Scope and Content Note: RS recalls selling hogs for $2.75-$3.00 per hundred during 1930-1932. Good cows brought $5. Eggs sold for 6-7 cents per dozen.

Impact Of FDR Presidency Beginning In 1933
Scope and Content Note: Roosevelt created WPA, fed people, and “started the ball a rolling so that everything got secure again.” WPA employed many to build good roads with firm rock base.

Segerstroms First Live At Ms Grandfather's Farm
Scope and Content Note: Lived on MS grandfather's farm during first year of marriage. MS recalls farm had nice springhouse, but inconveniently located up a hill.

Segerstroms Move To Present Farm In 1922
Scope and Content Note: RS brother-in-law purchased farm as investment from owner unable to meet payments. RS rented it from him for about ten years and in 1932 RS and MS purchased the property.

Farm Depreciation During 1920's-1930's
Scope and Content Note: Farm sold for $23,000 during World War I; RS brother-in-law paid $14,000 in 1922. In 1932, Segerstroms purchased for $6,500 with help from Federal Land Bank.

RS Farm Management During Brother-In-Law's Ownership
Scope and Content Note: Brother-in-law a railroad man who knew little about farming; RS made day-to-day decisions.

End Tape 1, Side 2

Introduction

Changes In Farmhouse Since 1922
Scope and Content Note: House approximately same size since Segerstroms came to farm, although remodeled extensively.

Wood Heating And Wood-Cutting Bees
Scope and Content Note: Before central heating installed in 1961, house warmed by wood stoves; RS bought standing timber, and with father-in-law cut timber with two-man saw. Took two-three days to cut down trees for winter supply of wood. Occasionally got hired help. Sometimes neighbors had wood-cutting bee followed by oyster stew supper and dance at farmhouse.

Farm Electrification
Scope and Content Note: Used gas and kerosene lamps until Rural Electrification Administration (REA) electrified area farms.

Changes In Barn And Silos
Scope and Content Note: Barn built in 1905; two large cupolas; originally had wood stave silo destroyed by “twister” in 1930's. Rebuilt wooden silo with steel reinforcing rods; built concrete silo in 1942.

Separating Milk On Farm And Storing And Marketing Cream,
Scope and Content Note: Milk originally separated in barn, with place outside for washing separator.Ran water through cement tank to cool cream and butter; butter stored in earthen jars. Windmill provided power to raise water, with gasoline engine for emergency. MS took cream to Mondovi Cooperative Creamery by horse and buggy once or twice per week. Skim milk fed to calves and pigs.

MS Parents Take Milk To Cheese Factory.
Scope and Content Note: Parents kept milk overnight in stock tank. Hauled whole milk every morning to Norden cheese factory; fed whey to hogs. Earliest to arrive at cheese factory got whey with most fat content.

MS Task Of Hauling Cream Typical Woman's Task
Scope and Content Note: Women typically brought cream to creamery because of labor shortage; continued to do so after trucks substituted for horses. Provided women opportunity to shop, though small amount of egg money needed mostly for groceries. In fall egg money supplemented by profits from chicken sales.

Marketing Whole Milk Instead Of Farm-Separated Cream
Scope and Content Note: Began marketing whole milk to Mondovi Cooperative Creamery about 1940.

Development Of Guernsey Dairy Herd
Scope and Content Note: Herd mainly pure-bred Guernseys; bought first ones from neighbor with registered show stock. Produced consistent 400-500 pound average. Usually kept about 35-40 head, though housed some in horse barn because not enough room in main barn. Herd auctioned in 1958.

Acquires Milking Machine
Scope and Content Note: Purchased milking machine about 1940, three years after farm electrified.

Water Supply In Barn And Farmhouse
Scope and Content Note: Got water in barn in 1940. House water supply stored in holding tank filled by windmill.

Raising And Marketing Hogs
Scope and Content Note: Generally kept 7-8 sows which produced from 50-60 hogs per year. First marketed in Mondovi to private buyer from Eau Claire. Later, shipped to Equity Cooperative Livestock Shipping Association at Milwaukee; shifted to South St. Paul after Farmers Union got organized.

Horses On Farm
Scope and Content Note: RS originally brought several horses from farm where he formerly had worked. Recalls especially good team of seven and eight year olds.

End Tape 2, Side 1

Introduction

Continuation Of Discussion Of Horses On Farm
Scope and Content Note: Discusses technique for hitching horses to gang plow. Still had one team in 1951 to plant corn and haul manure in wintertime. Good corn-planters not available yet in 1951; tractor used for plowing, followed by horse-drawn machinery for planting corn and seeding grain. Could plant 12-15 acres of corn per day with horses.

Buys First Tractor
Scope and Content Note: Bought second-hand steel lug tractor in 1938 for $325 from Farmers Union Central Exchange at South St. Paul and trucked back to farm. Before 1938 used steam engines exclusively for belt power, for filling silo and shredding corn. Threshed and filled silo cooperatively with other farmers.

Ideas For Changes And Improvements
Scope and Content Note: Some ideas from River Falls agricultural course; one of first in neighborhood to plant alfalfa in 1928. County agent and employees of cooperatives came to local Farmers Union meetings and explained use of lime and other methods; recalls buying bulk lime cooperatively in Mondovi and shoveling it onto wagons and sleighs. Information from several farm journals: Wisconsin Agriculturist and Hoard's Dairyman, though didn't always agree with editorial policy of the latter.

Membership In Organizations 1920's
Scope and Content Note: Member of Mondovi Cooperative Creamery, Farmers Cooperative Lumber Company, and the Equity Cooperative in Mondovi.

Comments On George Nelson, President Of American Society Of Equity,
Scope and Content Note: Good judgment, understood problems of farmers and common people, very cooperative. Forceful, sensible speaker. MS doesn't recall that his Socialist politics in 1930's had much impact on area farmers.

Early Opposition By American Society Of Equity To Farmers Union Organizing Efforts
Scope and Content Note: MS feels Equity feared Farmers Union would disrupt or swallow older organization.

How Segerstroms Came To Join Farmers Union
Scope and Content Note: Farmers Union representative, accompanied by neighbor of Segerstroms, came to farm in winter of 1928-1929, and gave “sales talk.” Segerstroms joined, agreeing it was time for farmers to unite and use power to influence national legislation. Had heard previously of activities of Northwest Organizing Committee; 1929 crash added to farmer uncertainty. Paid high initial membership fee, $7.50, and “don't know how we scraped it up.”

Farmers Union Organization In Wisconsin
Scope and Content Note: Segerstroms and others in area influenced by Benny Olson, a neighbor. Members organized into locals; recalls first state convention in Menomonie, October 1929. Hard times resulted in large turnouts of discouraged farmers. Telephone important in getting 80-90 people at a local meeting. Recall Congressman Merlin Hull and Governor Phil La Follette speaking at quarterly meetings at fair grounds.
Note: The first state convention of the Farmer's Educational and Cooperative Union of America, Wisconsin Division, actually was held in October, 1930.

Farmers Union Membership Trends,
Scope and Content Note: Though nearly every township in Buffalo county organized, membership fell when conditions improved and other organizations competed for members. Now two large locals in Buffalo county.

RS Attends State Conventions While President Of Naples Farmers Union Local
Scope and Content Note: Recalls attending second state convention at Chippewa Falls and third convention at Madison.

Segerstroms Members Of Farmers Holiday Association
Scope and Content Note: Joined Farm Holiday Association for one dollar membership fee.

Local Farmers Union Prevents Foreclosure
Note: Farmers Union members acted in these cases under the auspices of the Farmers Holiday Association.
Scope and Content Note: While RS president of Farmers Union local, members helped prevent foreclosure of neighborhood farmer with ten children by writing and calling Madison officials. Farmers Union members also helped stop other foreclosures.

Penny Auctions
Scope and Content Note: Don't recall any penny auctions in area, although RS remembers helping to stop farm sale.

End Tape 2, Side 2

Introduction

Major Issues At Early Farmers Union Local Meetings,
Scope and Content Note: Main concern with how to get more money for produce; improve standard of living. The first state convention of the Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America, Wisconsin Division, was held in October

Procedure At Early Farmers Union Local Meetings
Scope and Content Note: Farmers Union state office gave instruction on meeting procedure and suggested discussion topics on national legislation. Outside speakers included George Lewis of Trempealeau County, assemblyman Arthur Hitt of Alma. State president A.N. Young and state secretary Bill Sanderson often attended county meetings.

Comments On Kenneth Hones
Scope and Content Note: Many in area liked his straightforward approach, though he had difficulty controlling his temper. Recalls Farmers Union state convention at Madison where Hones, then vice-president, shamed hecklers of A.N. Young, led by Fritz Schultheiss from Prairie Farm (Barron County). Incident put Hones in favorable light among Farmers Union members.

Comments On Fritz Schultheiss
Scope and Content Note: More radical than most Farmers Union members, but a radicalism more of behavior than of political philosophy. Seemed to have chip on shoulder; argumentative and unwilling to compromise. No idea why he was named a state commissioner of agriculture.

Comments On Arnold Gilberts
Scope and Content Note: “Left-winger” on about same order as Schultheiss. Always critical of existing Farmers Union setup.

Farmers Union Builds Central Exchange At South St. Paul
Scope and Content Note: Segerstroms attended early Central Exchange meetings at South St. Paul; later helped organize busloads of farmers to visit Farmers Union cooperative facilities.

Comments On Walter Singler, President Of Wisconsin Cooperative Milk Pool
Scope and Content Note: First met Singler at joint meeting of Farmers Holiday Association add Milk Pool at Marshfield in 1932. Singler “looked like a big cowboy.”

Why Segerstroms Joined Farmers Holiday Association
Scope and Content Note: Joined to help farmers get “a few dollars”. No strings attached to the one dollar membership fee.

Antagonism Between Farmers Union And Farmers Holiday Association
Scope and Content Note: Farmers Union didn't approve of methods employed by Farmers Holiday Association under Milo Reno of Iowa. Farmers Union feared Farmers Holiday Association picketing during Madison State Farmers Union convention would provoke violence.

Segerstroms Withhold Milk During 1930's Milk Strikes
Scope and Content Note: Joined neighbors in withholding milk. No violence; both Mondovi creameries shut down. Farmers separated milk on farms, made butter, and fed skim milk to stock. Withholding actions short-lived, “didn't hurt us too much,” but needed “to help get things straightened out.”

Comments On Milo Reno
Scope and Content Note: Impressed by speaking ability of Reno; recall large crowds turned out to hear him at Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls.

Low Prices During Depression
Scope and Content Note: Recalls during period 1928-1929 eggs sold for five to seven cents per dozen; hogs sold for $2.75-$3.00 per hundred, packing sows as low as $1.50 per hundred.

Area Voter Support For Roosevelt In
Scope and Content Note: Estimates Roosevelt received from 95-98 per cent of his Farmers Union local's support. Election of FDR “turned it around”: banks reorganized, WPA created to build badly needed roads, lime program begun. Recalls program which employed local men to crush rocks for road improvement. WPA program important because men had to work in order to eat. Mondovi city building constructed with federal funds.

End Tape 3, Side 1.

Introduction

WPA And CCC Programs In Segerstroms' Neighborhood
Scope and Content Note: WPA built many crushed rock roads; not graveled, however, until later. CCC little effect in immediate neighborhood, but kept young boys busy building fences and planting trees in towns of Maxwell, Nelson, and Waumaundee.

Soil Conservation Service,
Scope and Content Note: RS member of township “Triple-A” committee. Encouraged farmers to lime soil and grow alfalfa. Committee stressed strip-cropping, advised farmers on maximum corn to grow on acreage allotments. RS concerned in 1976 that many conservation practices begun in 1930's have been discontinued; MS states that Republicans are responsible.

Rural Electrification Administration (Rea)
Scope and Content Note: Little electricity in area until REA. Northern States Power Company's installation rates prohibitive. RS active in organizing farmers to sign up for REA; got required three farmers to a mile from town of Naples to beyond Trempealeau county line. Some farmers unwilling to participate either out of habit or skepticism. Wisconsin Farmers Union strongly backed REA and educated members to support it. REA charged minimum of $3.50 per month for forty kilowatts; some people not ready to use current after electricity turned on. Northern States received little business although its rates dropped drastically.

Electricity Turned On
Scope and Content Note: Turned on electricity March 1938, by which time Segerstroms had purchased refrigerator and radio. Limited use of household electricity at first; if milking machines operating, little “juice” left for the house.

Anecdote About RS Reaction When Electricity First Turned On
Scope and Content Note: RS in barn when lights came on unexpectedly. Ran outside in surprise; found Arthur Hitt of Alma who had just alerted MS electricity about to come on. Neighborhood pancake suppers to celebrate; proceeds went to Farmers Union.

Importance Of Persuading Community Leaders To Support REA
Scope and Content Note: Certain neighborhood leaders the key to convincing most others to join REA.

RS Signs Up Farmers For REA In Trempealeau County
Scope and Content Note: Also signed up many farmers in nearby Trempealeau county to join Buffalo County Electric Cooperative. REA couldn't recruit members in Northern States area. Recalls one woman who hooked up to electricity lines without paying.

Family Gives RS Time To Sign Up Farmers For REA
Scope and Content Note: MS and oldest son did milking at night to free RS to recruit members for REA. Women very influential in getting men to support REA, especially once cost saving and safety features understood.

Farmers Union Support For Rea
Scope and Content Note: REA a “Farmers Union baby.” Farmers Union instrumental in getting Congress to pass REA legislation. Recalls special support of Arthur Hitt, Alma, George Lewis of Trempealeau county, and Orland Loomis of Mauston.

RS Absence While Organizing For REA
Scope and Content Note: Family glad when RS completed REA organizing work.

End Tape 3, Side 2