Carl Scott of Red Oak recalls his early years on the farm.
Carl Scott made his first livestock deal at age 12
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Carl Scott of Red Oak recalls his early years on the farm. |
Carl Scott of Red Oak remembers his first livestock deal. He was in fifth or sixth grade and was walking home from country school. A neighbor gave him a ride and the man had one horse and one pony tied to the back of the wagon. Carl liked the pony and the man was willing to sell. But a poor, country farm boy in the 1920s had no money to buy a pony so “I swapped Dad’s boar hog for the pony!” Carl recalls with a smile. “It must have been all right because Dad let me keep the pony. That was my first deal!”
Carl will celebrate his 95th birthday in February and he still chuckles at the memory. Born and raised in Mills County in 1915, Carl attended country school north of Nodaway. After his shrewd deal, Carl drove a pony cart back and forth, providing transportation for himself and his younger sisters. The Scott family moved to the Hastings area when Carl was in high school and he graduated from Hastings High School in 1934. He remembers riding a Model T School Bus for the first couple years, and then his father bought him a used Model T Coupe which he drove to school.
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Carl and Ruth Scott were married 56 years. |
Speaking of driving, Carl remembers getting his driver’s license, although the process held much less anxiety than today’s testing.
“Dad and me sent off to Des Moines for it,” Carl explains. “It cost 50 cents. There was no eye test, no test of any kind. You just sent in your money and they sent you a license!”
Gasoline at that time was a bargain, five gallons for a dollar! And while Carl got a used vehicle, he remembers his father buying a new car.
“We had been threshing and sold the hay and we went over to Corning and bought a Model A Ford. Paid cash for it. $800 and Dad drove it home in second gear. He said that was fast enough for him.”
Growing up on the farm, Carl milked cows every morning and helped his dad in the field and with livestock. He remembers his first team of work horses, King and Queen. Farmers at that time raised cattle and hogs and grew corn. Carl’s family also enjoyed a large orchard where his father grew grapes, peaches, apples, and a large strawberry patch. There also was the obligatory chicken house.
Butter and egg money provided the cash flow for groceries that couldn’t be raised on the farm. The garden provided produce and livestock provided meat.
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Some of Carl's favorite pictures have been transferred from photograph to oil painting. The top photo shows Carl with his sisters, Irene and Thelma, on their way to school. The lower photo illustrates Carl's lifelong passion, raising cattle. |
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“We ate pretty well,” Carl remembers.
After his graduation from Hastings High School Carl farmed with his father. He remembers the Depression years as tough, but not as dismal as many pictures paint.
“We just didn’t have any money, but nobody did,” he remembers. “I enjoyed those years as much as any. We had a lot of square dances and card parties in people’s homes. We didn’t have any money for entertainment, so we made our own.”
Carl rented ground and continued to farm with his father until World War II beckoned and Uncle Sam called. Carl was drafted into the army and served in the Dutch East Indies, Australia, and the Philippines. The Army put him through mechanic’s training and he spent his service years outfitting airplanes for various missions. After the war, he came home to Mills County to farm with his father again.
“Dad was getting old. He was nearly 65,” Carl explains. “I did the farming and he took care of the orchard. He loved that orchard.”
Carl began the transition from horse power to tractor power prior to WWII when he purchased a Model T Ford tractor, known as a Fordson. “I never liked it too well,” he remembers.
After WWII, he purchased an Allis Chalmers WC for $800.
“You could get a lot more done with a tractor,” he notes, but adds, “Horses were pretty smart, though.”
In the early 1950s Carl’s life took an interesting turn when someone stole the log chain out of his tractor. Consequently, he had to replace it.
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Carl Scott where he is most at home - on the farm. |
“I went in to Gambles store to get another one,” he tells the story.
A young woman named Ruth Lookabill waited on him. He was well acquainted with her father already, but soon got to know her much better. They married in 1952 and farmed in the Mills County area until 1967 when they bought a farm south of Red Oak.
Carl says he never really liked hogs, always preferring cattle, raised for milk or beef. He raised Angus and Shorthorn cattle and usually had a couple Jersey cows. For most of his life, he milked without stanchions.
“You took the bucket and a stool out into the lot and told the cows to stand still,” he laughs. “They did.”
Carl eventually stopped raising hogs, but always remained faithful to his first love, cattle.
“Cattle are easier to take care of and livestock with take care of you. They always did me,” he begins the story. He had brought salt blocks into the pasture when two coyotes approached.
“Those cows circled around the little calves and they put me in the middle with the calves!” he recalls. “The coyotes gave up.”
Even as a young boy, Carl formed a working bond with his animals. Remember the pony from the first story? One of Carl’s chores as a boy was to bring the cows in from the pasture. He remembers one particular day when he was doing just that, riding his pony. One cow lagged behind the others so Carl spurred the pony up to give her a nudge.
“That pony reached right up and bit that cow right above the tail,” he explains. “She took off toward the house. He knew exactly what I wanted to do!”
Carl began farming with horses then progressed to machinery and he marvels at the size, power, and technology of today’s equipment. His largest planter was four-rows and he remembers spending a whopping $3,000 for a combine. He also remembers picking corn by hand, and notes that his father was quite the corn-picker.
“He could throw 100 bushel a day and that was quite a good day’s work,” he says.
Today, as his 95th birthday nears, Carl is retired off the farm and lives in Red Oak. Ruth passed away in February 2009. The couple had been married 56 years. Carl has one daughter, Lavonne Doran, who lives in Colorado. He has a sister Irene Parker in Red Oak and a brother Kenneth in Malvern. His eyesight has deteriorated and he walks with a cane. Friends and family provide rides to church and the grocery store and, of course, he still owns the farm. He cash rents the farmland and maintains a few cows in the pasture. Some things just don’t change.