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I'd like to share with everyone a bit of information on my latest research findings relating to corn husking parties in the 19th century. In late November, the corn stalks,having been cut and bound into shocks, dotted the fields of rural America. These shocks were then transported to the barn that was to be used for the husking party. Neighbors would make the trek to the barn for a day of husking, feasting, and dancing. Following is an account written by E.R. Eastman from his autobiographical book entitled: "Journey to Day Before Yesterday". Granted, the book had been published after the Civil War era and his account is in reference to events following the 1860's, but he is outlining his own personal experience from his boyhood on an 1880's farm. Husking parties continued to be popular into the 20th century in America, and are still traditionally practiced in some parts of Canada.
"It was a cold, frosty day in late fall. For several days, Father and we boys had been busy moving the shocks of corn from the field to the big barn floor.
Our little black dog waited eagerly everytime we tipped a shock of corn over to catch the big, fat rats who thought they had it made for the entrire winter by living under the shelter of the cornshocks and eating the eared corn.
While we were working with corn, Mother was busy in the house getting ready for a big feast for the neighbors who would come in the evening to help husk the corn, eat the food which Mother had provided, and drink quantities of sweet cider.
After the corn was husked, the barn floor was cleared, old Dan tuned up his fiddle, and the young folks danced in the light of the lanterns until midnight. If, during the husking, a girl was so lucky or unlucky, according to her point of view, as to find an ear of red corn, then she got kissed by most of the young men present. She always squeeled a lot, but the squeeling was for effect, for her resistance never was too strong." (pages 164-165).
This account, though written in retrospect of the 1880's, can be visualised just as well when viewing Winslow Homer's engravings that appeared in Harper's Weekly, November 13, 1858. Homer did a series of three illustrations of a New England husking party that appeared in the November 13th issue. You can view these prints here:
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http://www.printsoldandrare.com/homer/113.jpg (Driving Home the Corn)
http://www.printsoldandrare.com/homer/114.jpg (The Dance After the Husking)
I also managed to dig up another account recorded by the daughter of Missouri Carroll. Missouri Carrol grew up and came of age in Indiana in the late 1830's. Her daughter was born in 1858, and Missouri dictated her childhood and early womanhood reminiscenses to her daughter when she was an elderly woman. The date of this dictation is unknown. Here is the excerpt regarding the corn husking, held in 1839. It provides us with a touching story that humanizes and personalizes our past:
" I was born and grew to womanhood among the big timbers along the Licking River in Indiana. For amusement we had log rollings, quilting bees, apple peeling, partys, always followed by a dance when the work was done. I must not forget the ever popular corn husking bees where the finder of the red ear was in great luck, for he or she was privileged to take a kiss from the prettiest girl or the handsomest man there. Let me tell you there was lots of tears shed (in private) and some heartaches caused by the red ear of corn. When I was 15 years old my best of mothers died, and left me to keep house for my father and brother. I was not very strong and housekeeping those days was not the easy task it is today with all the modern devices we have to save the housewife so many steps. My father was very lonesome and before the year was out brought home a new mother? But Oh I could not bear the thought of anyone taking the place of my own dear mother in our lovely house, for to me, log cabin though it was, it had always been a happy one. So I asked and gained permission to go to one of my uncles who had two girls near my own age, and though the work was hard and the living rather scanty, for the family was large, we girls had a good time together. I had plenty of "beaux" as our boy friends were called then, but cared nothing for any of them except as an escort. One night at a corn husking given by one of the neighbors, I noticed a tall broad shouldered young man - a Mister Hollenbeck - I had never seen before sitting just opposite of me. I noticed him watching me really closely, so I kept my eyes on my husking. All at once a shout arose. I looked up. He had a red ear. I fairly gasped when he marched across and claimed the kiss that custom gave him for finding the red ear. At the dance that followed, he secured an introduction and we danced together several times. When the party broke up he asked to take me home, on the way home he told me he was a widower, his wife having died a year before, he had a son four years old. Before we parted, he asked permission to come the next Sunday. I told him I would be glad to have him come. So before long he was a regular visitor and I soon found myself thinking of him very often through the week and eagerly watching for his coming, and oh how happy I was when he told me he loved me and asked me to be his wife and a mother to his little boy. We were soon married, for I had no real home and was anxious to get to housekeeping again. So to housekeeping we went."
Eastman Johnson also painted an exquisite rendering of a corn husking bee in Nantucket. The painting dates from 1875:
![]()
Notice that these huskers are seated outdoors directly in the fields.
I find these husking parties to be a fascinating facet of traditional American life. The tradition of their beginnings hearken back to the days of the Homespun Era, when men and women were carving out their existence in the vast American wilderness, as late as the 1850's in some parts of upper New York State. These men and women relied on the generosity of their neighbors to aid them with the larger tasks of fronteir life, such as log rolling and barn and cabin raisings. To this day, many mid-western towns hold corn husking competitions as a way to remember and preserve their heritage. These husking bees, and any type of bee for that matter, are a lovely way to gain insight into the social structure and community-based spirit of the early American agricultural class.
~Natalie Baur
"It was a cold, frosty day in late fall. For several days, Father and we boys had been busy moving the shocks of corn from the field to the big barn floor.
Our little black dog waited eagerly everytime we tipped a shock of corn over to catch the big, fat rats who thought they had it made for the entrire winter by living under the shelter of the cornshocks and eating the eared corn.
While we were working with corn, Mother was busy in the house getting ready for a big feast for the neighbors who would come in the evening to help husk the corn, eat the food which Mother had provided, and drink quantities of sweet cider.
After the corn was husked, the barn floor was cleared, old Dan tuned up his fiddle, and the young folks danced in the light of the lanterns until midnight. If, during the husking, a girl was so lucky or unlucky, according to her point of view, as to find an ear of red corn, then she got kissed by most of the young men present. She always squeeled a lot, but the squeeling was for effect, for her resistance never was too strong." (pages 164-165).
This account, though written in retrospect of the 1880's, can be visualised just as well when viewing Winslow Homer's engravings that appeared in Harper's Weekly, November 13, 1858. Homer did a series of three illustrations of a New England husking party that appeared in the November 13th issue. You can view these prints here:
http://www.printsoldandrare.com/homer/113.jpg (Driving Home the Corn)
http://www.printsoldandrare.com/homer/114.jpg (The Dance After the Husking)
I also managed to dig up another account recorded by the daughter of Missouri Carroll. Missouri Carrol grew up and came of age in Indiana in the late 1830's. Her daughter was born in 1858, and Missouri dictated her childhood and early womanhood reminiscenses to her daughter when she was an elderly woman. The date of this dictation is unknown. Here is the excerpt regarding the corn husking, held in 1839. It provides us with a touching story that humanizes and personalizes our past:
" I was born and grew to womanhood among the big timbers along the Licking River in Indiana. For amusement we had log rollings, quilting bees, apple peeling, partys, always followed by a dance when the work was done. I must not forget the ever popular corn husking bees where the finder of the red ear was in great luck, for he or she was privileged to take a kiss from the prettiest girl or the handsomest man there. Let me tell you there was lots of tears shed (in private) and some heartaches caused by the red ear of corn. When I was 15 years old my best of mothers died, and left me to keep house for my father and brother. I was not very strong and housekeeping those days was not the easy task it is today with all the modern devices we have to save the housewife so many steps. My father was very lonesome and before the year was out brought home a new mother? But Oh I could not bear the thought of anyone taking the place of my own dear mother in our lovely house, for to me, log cabin though it was, it had always been a happy one. So I asked and gained permission to go to one of my uncles who had two girls near my own age, and though the work was hard and the living rather scanty, for the family was large, we girls had a good time together. I had plenty of "beaux" as our boy friends were called then, but cared nothing for any of them except as an escort. One night at a corn husking given by one of the neighbors, I noticed a tall broad shouldered young man - a Mister Hollenbeck - I had never seen before sitting just opposite of me. I noticed him watching me really closely, so I kept my eyes on my husking. All at once a shout arose. I looked up. He had a red ear. I fairly gasped when he marched across and claimed the kiss that custom gave him for finding the red ear. At the dance that followed, he secured an introduction and we danced together several times. When the party broke up he asked to take me home, on the way home he told me he was a widower, his wife having died a year before, he had a son four years old. Before we parted, he asked permission to come the next Sunday. I told him I would be glad to have him come. So before long he was a regular visitor and I soon found myself thinking of him very often through the week and eagerly watching for his coming, and oh how happy I was when he told me he loved me and asked me to be his wife and a mother to his little boy. We were soon married, for I had no real home and was anxious to get to housekeeping again. So to housekeeping we went."
Eastman Johnson also painted an exquisite rendering of a corn husking bee in Nantucket. The painting dates from 1875:
Notice that these huskers are seated outdoors directly in the fields.
I find these husking parties to be a fascinating facet of traditional American life. The tradition of their beginnings hearken back to the days of the Homespun Era, when men and women were carving out their existence in the vast American wilderness, as late as the 1850's in some parts of upper New York State. These men and women relied on the generosity of their neighbors to aid them with the larger tasks of fronteir life, such as log rolling and barn and cabin raisings. To this day, many mid-western towns hold corn husking competitions as a way to remember and preserve their heritage. These husking bees, and any type of bee for that matter, are a lovely way to gain insight into the social structure and community-based spirit of the early American agricultural class.
~Natalie Baur
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