The dream of the American pioneer was always to have his own land. that's what people moved West for, the promise of land and independence. But how many achieved that goal?
In the earliest days of settlement in Illinois, only those with cash were able to buy land, and cash was in very short supply. Records indicate that sales and even wages were in trade, not cash. In the early 1800s the US needed funds to run the government, and land was its most salable asset. Illinois was not a homestead state as it was in the Indian Territory a few decades later (a system we all learned about from the Little House books of Laura Ingalls Wilder, but probably not from the much less informative TV show. ). An Illinois farmer could not set out a claim, work it for five years and then own it. Old plats of McLean County demonstrate that land was owned, in large swaths, by the men who had the cash to buy it in the earliest days. There were small farm holders, to be sure, but acres and acres of land were snapped up by the wealthy and tenanted out. McLean County was of course built by these unrecorded tenant farmers, and it was they who made agricultural history to a very large extent. Census records demonstrate that Illinois, in 1880, was the state with the most farms being farmed by tenants (Land Tenure in the United States, with Special Reference to Illinois, Charles Leslie Stewart as well as the census records available from the National Archives.)
Illinois was soon surpassed by other states in this statistic, but the practice of tenant farming persisted in Illinois even into the 1930s and 1940s. March Moving day was also a tradition, as I learned from Don Meyer on the Museum's latest Agricultural Tour. Each March tenant farmers would have to commit to a new lease and often, this involved moving from one farm to another. Imagine the turmoil and upset to the family -- the school year interrupted, the home life interrupted and an economic life interrupted. This would have been a great challenge to every member of the family and stunt the educational progress of children, possibly limiting their opportunities the rest of their lives.
In 1937 this tradition was recorded in photos by Frank Bill of the Pantagraph. As always, the take on this event was upbeat and positive. The community was part of the process, assisting the farmer in his move. Here Phil Kaufman is moving from a farm in Yuton, with the assistance of Phil Erps.
Here, little Joseph Birckelbaw packs up his toys for the move from a farm in Dry Grove to one in Colfax.
Even the livestock owned by the tenant farmer had to be crated up!
Farewell parties were held all over Illinois at hundreds of moving days each year. Here the James M. Carter family is feted at Spaulding School by the Spaulding School Social Club.
There were tenants who remained on farms for years, even decades. In 1880 twelve year old Andrew Barrowman was sent to Illinois by the New York Juvenile Asylum as an orphan train rider, with the promise of the opportunity to become a landowner and his own boss as a farmer -- if he worked hard!! Andrew Barrowman did become a talented farmer and lived on the farm of William Hanna (yes, the Bloomington attorney) for thirty years as a tenant farmer. He was acknowledged as one of the very best farmers in Macon County -- but he never owned his own farm. The story of Mr. Barrowman is told in my Orphan Train blog: https://rgridley.wixsite.com/orphantrainmap/single-post/2018/06/03/Andrew-Barrowman-Macon-County
I hope by sharing these stories from the Pantagraph Negative Collection I can show the possibilities for your own research into the collection! Dive in and enjoy the history of your past!! All photos here are from the Pantagraph Negative Collection with the gracious permission of the McLean County Museum of History.
Search: "Moving feature" "farm life" "tenant farmer"
Additional photos taken by Frank Bill for this story!!
