Farming at Hooper
The situation was not good when the Anderson
family
arrived at Hooper late in 1928. As a
rule some 200 to 250 hogs were raised on the farm but they had not been
vaccinated and hog cholera had gotten into the herd so they were all
lost. Also some old ewe sheep had foot rot
that had
to be cleaned up.
E. L. continued his story, first with an aside note and then back to the story of farming at Hooper.
my Father had give my younger Brother a Heifer Calf a gernsey[.] She Developed Into a good Cow. But was hard to milk Due to the fact she was Nervous and would Kick. We Kept our cow[s] In the Cow Barn In Stantions and Milked them Side By Side[.] one morning While milking[,] this Heifer Kicked me In the Back In the Reagon of the heart Breaking 2 Rib's which Never Grew to geather Right[.] The Ribb's Grew Togeather Across the two cartilage or the Bones Grew to geather at the end Where they Were Broken some what Shuting off the Curciculation[.] I ask Dr Heinnie If he Could ReBreak the Bone and Rest[reset] them[.] his answer was he was afraid to. Due to the fact that I might not come out of it[.] he also Said it Might Cause a Heart condition and if I come out of the first one I might Be OK for Along time, As, If it was a Blood Clot that hit there It would try go its natural Course And If it Couldnt It would have to go Around and Break a new passage[.] I also had a Doctor tell me the same thing years Latter In sidney[,] his name was Thomas[,] And Latter By several year a Doctor a Japanese Doctor at Corvalis Oregon told me the same thing So it was no Serprise when The Heart Condition come to me.
I Built the hog
end up to about half of what they did have.
And seemed to be coming along fine[.] We had good corn crop that
year So
that we would try to Buy Some Light calves or about 50 head of cattle
to feed
out[.] My Father Said he would Look after the Buying of the Cattle. I told him I did not want more than 50
head. But my oldest Brother was In
Denver that winter or late fall And dad had him Buy the Cattle And he
sent us
150 head Instead of 50 head. And the
Right thing to have Done would have Been to Sent them Right Into
Omaha[.] I
dont think I ever was so mad In my life as I was to have my order
tripled[.] We
fed the Cattle until June made 84 dollars pluss freight Lost all of the
feed In
them But If I had of got 50 head We would of had enough feed for to
have Kept
them Longer and made some money on them.
the Banks at that
time was In Bad Shape I had put $3000 In a state Bank and figured on
useing it
to tide me over. And the Bank Closed up
with my money In there tied up And it was a long while to get what
Little I did
get out of the Recever's[.] And We sold good fat hogs around 350 lbs
for $2.50
to 3.00 per hundred or about $9.00 a hog until we were Sold down to
about 50 or
60 head and the Rest of the hogs would have Brought About l 3/4 cents a
pound[.] But Come out on them Fairly well as we had had to hire men to
help us
pick corn and they all wanted take their wages out In pork at same Rate
as we had
got for the hogs we sold Befor Corn picking[.] So we had Buchering Bee
and
Buched enough for each Family[.] We found that we were not the only one
that
had the Idea to Bucher our hogs[,] for Some one else had tried to
Bucher some
of them as we found quite a number had Been Shot with 22 Rifles and the
Bullets
were still In them[.] And Couple showed where they had Been stuck with
a Knife
But for some Cause they were not Stuck Deep enough or some thing Be
Cause they
had gotten away from who ever did the Job on them[.] that was the
Depression[.]
(Note in top
margin of page: My Mother passed away at Hershey Nebr [Nov. 15, 1933]
there was
a lot things that mother couldnt eat so father would have my wife fixe
her some
meat Loaf what she could eat and my wife Realy took more care of mother
than my
sister did Now she and father are Buried at north platte Neb)
I had a Bunch of
milk Cows of my own and Raise Calves off of them and they were Large
Steers
when I sold them. I sold them for 3 3/4
cents a pound. I Bought light Calves
Back for them up to about 40 head[.] I sold My Brother and dad part of
theose. And when dad Lost the place we
had our milk cows and a few sheep Left[,] And the Stock Cattle or
Calves[.]
I got a place at Sutherland Nebr[.] And Dad got one at Hershey Nebr And he Raised a few hogs In the edge of town[.] my Brother and Dad got a place of l60 acers east Hershey and farmed there[.] my Lease expired at Suther Land in 1934 and moved east of Hershey and farmed there for a year and I found a place North west of Sterling Colorado of 720 Acers Moved out there[.]