Showing posts with label Lawton Oklahoma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lawton Oklahoma. Show all posts

Friday, April 14, 2017

Friday Farming: Children and Teenagers working cattle: Lawton, Oklahoma. April 14, 1917.


Bartrum Choate, age 12, driving colts to town.  Lawton, Oklahoma.  April 14, 1917.

The photographs above were taken by Lewis Wickes Hine who made a specialty in this period of photographing teenage and child laborers.  Usually if the photos depict the same kinds of work they were taken on the same day ir in very close proximity.  I note that as the following photos are on the same topic, and likely on the same day, but actually aren't dated.


LOC Caption:   Sarah Crutcher, 12-year-old girl herding cattle. Route 4, c/o S.O. Crutcher. She was out of school (#49 Comanche County) only 2 weeks this year and that was to herd 100 head of cattle for her father, a prosperous farmer. She said: "I didn't like it either." She is doing well in school. Is in Grade 8.] Location: [Lawton, Oklahoma]


I think one of the interesting things about this photographs is, contrary to the modern image of what women wore when doing livestock work in the early 20th and late 19th Centuries, she's dressed in completely typical female attire for the time. She's riding wearing a fairly long skirt and a woman's hat that is typical for the period.



LOC Title:  14-year-old boy hauling water on farm near Lawton. Francis Heinz, Route B, Box 11. Location: Lawton, Oklahoma

I note the caption says he's hauling water, but he's actually filling the tubs up with a garden hose.  He'll likely haul the water somewhere after that.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

The Frakes. PIcking Cotton, Lawton Oklahoma, 1916.

LOC Caption:   Family of W.T. Frakes, Route 5, Lawton, Okla. Mother said 6-year old Warren picked 41 pounds of cotton yesterday "An I don't make him pick; he picked last year." Had about 20 pounds in his bag. She said Clara, 11 years old, averages 75 pounds a day. Picked 101 pounds yesterday, earning $1.25 (they are picking now for another farmer). She carries 40 pounds in the bag. Velma, 14 years, picks 125 pounds. Has picked over 200 pounds in a day. Children go to Flower Mound School, District 48 while living here, but they are itinerant, renting a small farm of 10 acres now. "We move about a good deal" mother said. Location: Comanche County, Oklahoma.  October 11, 1916