Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org
Surnames: Elmer, Steinberg
----Source: Greenwood Gleaner (Greenwood, Clark Co., Wis.) 02 Apr 1964
(Written by Ernest Elmer)
E.A. Elmer and family came to Greenwood (Clark Co., Wis.) from Columbus, Wis., on October 15, 1902 and bought a farm from Charles Steinberg, 2 miles east and 2 miles north of Greenwood. Mr. Elmer's grandson, Thomas Elmer and his family now operate the farm.
The above picture was submitted for publication by Ernest Elmer and it shows the farm in its present state. The small picture, in the corner, was taken in 1910 and shows all the family except Ervin and Walter, who were working in Montana that summer. There were about 8 acres of woods chopped off the farm, the rest was nice hardwood timber, which meant lots of sawing and hauling wood to Greenwood and Loyal for $1.25 per cord body maple, less for the rest.
My father hauled most of the wood, but I can remember of hitching the team to the sleigh, which had been loaded the night before, and pulled up in the yard on sticks of wood so the team could not get the load started, which would have been frozen down otherwise. The team was so used to hauling lodds, so I hung the lines up and walked behind the sleigh. When I got to the Farmers' Store I walked in to get Mr. Barkley to measure the load, he said, "What are you down here for this morning, don't you know it is just 40 below zero?" The Farmers' Store bought wood and delivered it around town as the people needed it. Some of us boys can remember going to the woods and sawing wood for an hour or sw before we went to school in the morning. There were about 4 acres of hay ground and that was among the stumps, so it had to be cut with the scythe. For a few years we w went out and put up hay on halves. We would drive around between the stumps with a dump rake, put it up in small piles, then the man that could put the whole cock of hay on the wagon at once had something to crow about, especially if he could break the fork handle. That would be to slow for these times.
I am sre no one would want to go back to the horse and buggy days, although they leave a few good memories. We boys did quite a lot of custom work, especially my brother Ervin. We sawed wood, filled silos, thrashed grain and sawed lumber for many years. In the spring of 1938 my parents left the farm and moved to town, and my wife and I had two sons, Thomas and Lester, took over the farm. One of the first things we did was wire the buildings for electricity. A new hen house was built. In 1949 we started building again. The boys and I hauled all the gravel from Black River with the tractor and wagons for the barn.
The picture shows the rest of the buildings that were added on, the last was the 48 foot addition to the barn, which was built in 1959.
As far as I know the Greenwood Gleaner has been received at that farm all through the years. I am a firm believer of the family size farm, and do all the trading you can in your home town.
