Your/my/our personna

[dixieflyer]

Pards,
I'm writing this on the assumption that I can: a) get registered for this thing, and b) make it to the event. In any event, here is some information that I hope you/we can use.

From June of '92 to October of '94 I made my living as a 19th c. farmer at the Homeplace-1850. (I got caught up in the big "Reinvent Gov't. layoff, then the place got turned into an environmental station. I hear it is once again a site for actual living history. :) ) The overall manager for the farm was Ron Westphal, and Iowa native, who had extensive experience running the Iowa Living History Farm site, etc. We had many conversations that came back around to Iowa history in the mid-19th c. Ron informed me that a great many of its settlers came from Kentucky, etc. Many of these people would have brought foodways, farming practices, etc. with them.
I don't know what part of Iowa Co. B hailed from, but if they came from eastern or southeastern Iowa, then many of their cultural ways that they brought with them would have stayed intact. If they hailed from other areas, . . . well, then you're on your own in terms of me or my agri pards being able to help you out with your personnas.

Just a thought. Hope this helps. Your madness may vary. ;)

[J. Donaldson]

Re: Your/my/our personna

The Des Moines River was a major route of migration into central Iowa, and you're right in pointing out that a good number of people from the upper South used that as a point of entry. Lots of Kentuckians and Tennesseans settled in that area of the state and flowed northwest from there. I think the major addition to traditional folk ways of agriculture would the addition of mechanization that Iowa's prairie environment lent itself to adapting, but there were still plenty of people farming by hand at some level.

[Hairy Nation Boys]

Re: Your/my/our personna

Iowa had a greater number of settlers from free states. Ohio, New York, Indiana etc. Not to say that settlers did not settle from Kentucky. But their number would have been smaller. One thing to also consider is that very few would have been born in Iowa. Statehood 1846.

If you want a good idea of what Iowa was like pre war I suggest people buy the book The Lyon Campaign. It is Eugene Wares account of the 1st Iowa and Wilson's Creek. The first part of the book deals with life in pre war Iowa.

Bob Welch (Native Iowan) is going to put together some information about Iowa/farming before the war. Bob is currently going after his PHD from Iowa State.

We (Hairy Nation Boys) have spent the last 21 years researching Iowa for our impression. Please feel free to contact me or any other Hairy Nation Boy. I would also like to add that I am glad people are taking an interest in Iowa and the war.

[dixieflyer]

Re: Your/my/our personna

Great points Bob! (I forgot to mention Tennessee as well. Ron's people came from West Kentucky.) Familiarizing oneself with the technology of the time is great, BUT one must also realize that sometimes, and especially back then, it is slow to take hold. I know from my own personal experiences, and reading period diaries then that then, as well as now, a lot of folk are sometimes slow to embrace "new-fangled things", something hard for a lot of folks to realize in our present day culture of immediate gratification and a "Future Shock" pace of change. Ron remembered at three years of age, in 1950 no less, his dad leaving the farm with all of their Belgian draft horses, and bringing home their first tractor.

I'm sure many here realize this, but when Kentucky was first settled a very significant portion was tall-grass prairie. We had a small field planted (3-4 acres?) in three native grasses present then on that tall-grass prarie. (FWIW, back in the 90's, there was less than 300 acres left of tall grass prairie here in KY.) We had a pair of "small" Percherons and took them out one day with a plow to take a turn at that tall prairie grass. WOW! You want to talk about exhausting work! Andrew Jackson and Zachary Taylor, our horses, were blown out and had to stop for a rest after one pass, much less poor me. That stuff scoured off the plow in gigantic hunks, it was unlike anything I had experienced before in period plowing.

I'm not sure if this info is of any use to the company here, but I thought it might serve the purpose of getting us all in the right "mind set" so-to-speak.

[dixieflyer]

Re: Your/my/our personna

Understood Nathan, I guess my point was that the overwhelming majority of folks from Iowa at this time, like Texas, were from somewhere else. My point in bringing up the Tennessee/Kentucky connection was not to imply that they made up the majority, but for the benefit of those like me who have some experience in dealing with the Upper South in this time period might find some common ground for their personna if the company to which they are assigned was from a county that had settlers from this region.

[Hairy Nation Boys]

Re: Your/my/our personna

Warren,
I am with you! Just wanted to make sure that the other places were mentioned. Very few people who portray men of the 15th Iowa should say they were born in Iowa. We were granted statehood in 1846 so unless a person is 15-16 or lived here before Iowa was a state they should pick one of the states the three of us have mentioned.

This is a good way to begin our discussion for first person. For almost twenty years I have said that my persona (Harrison Holloway) came to Iowa from Zanesville, Ohio.

[dixieflyer]

Re: Your/my/our personna

Exactly Nathan, if we all start now, and folks can find some common thing to latch onto, then with a little work here and there, we'll have this whole shebang edumacated and scouring nicely!