Hazard: Road Work

Note

Image via Wikipedia

King Rd. Drag in Operation

The 2 Day Books (which are really farm account books) of Pearl's have mostly all their pages. The oldest one has the 1st four pages missing and some pages missing from the back.  They are mostly in chronological order, especially when expenses are listed.  However, road work, culvert work, egg accountability, loan information, farm animal placement, and the like are scattered throughout, which leads me to the first page that is intact.

Page 5, Road 1924

Put 2 horses in Teed's pasture May 5th 1915

[Line drawn underneath the above entry.]

Work in 1922
Aug 15 worked 1/2 day at school
   "   16 worked 1/2 day at school
$5.30
[The word "Paid" is written on top of the listing of work above & a line is drawn underneath this entry.]

Twship 1 Road Drag 1924

Mch. 12     2 3/4 mi. 
   "     13     4 3/4  "
  "       27    7 1/2  "
Apr.   4      8         "
  "       14   5 3/4 1 1/4 " [mi.]
  "       28   6                 "
May   22   5
  "       26   9 1/2
June  6     5 3/4
  "       9     7 1/4
[The word, "Paid" is written across the above writing and a line was drawn underneath the above last entry.]

June 23     7 3/4 mi.
  "      30     6 1/4  "
July  15    11 1/2  "
  "      22     5 3/4  "
  "      25     5 3/4  "
Aug    1      6 3/4  "
  "       5      5 3/4  "
  "       9      5 3/4  "
  "     29      5 3/4  "
Sept  2      5 3/4  "


$46.72


[The word, 'Paid" is written across the above entries.]

My Thoughts

Image via Wikipedia

Road before King Rd. Drag

Image via Wikipedia

Crowned Center After Use if King Rd. Drag

Now that was a pain in the butt to copy and type, but it's not even in the same ballpark as the work it took to clear the roads and make them passable for the wagons, horses, and cars back in the early 1920's in rural Iowa.  The farms were responsible for road work near their farms unlike today where the county takes care of them.

I was very privileged this past summer to visit where the Pointer farm once stood.  We took some back roads to get there.  And you know what?  These back roads are still dirt roads.  In later posts, I'll share more about what Great-Uncle Donald had to say about the roads, and I'll share my photos of the area as well as Great-Uncle Donald's photos of the area.  [Folks, do I need to even tell you how lucky we are to have so much about this farm?  Soon we'll be smellin' fresh eggs fryin', hearin' the bacon sizzle, and smellin' horse, cow, and goat poo.  That's right.  They had 2 goats.  And Great-Uncle Donald has some stories about 'em.  Hilarious ones.]


Below is a map of Collins, Story Co, Iowa & the surrounding area.  I've placed a marker at approximately where the Pointer farm once was, which is outside of Collins proper on the way to Rhodes.


View Pointer Farm in a larger map
 
~Caroline

Image by justmakeit via Flickr

Purple Iowa Sky