Look Who's Talking about Texas History Davick Services recommends the Facebook Group "West Texas History & Memories" for history, famous people, old photos, stories, unclaimed estates and genealogy of the Western Half of Texas . . . Check it out and join the conversation |
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Life on the Farm in Texas 1850 - 1950 Farming in Texas from 1850 to 1950 as pictured in archived government photographs, vintage postcards, old school yearbooks and newspapers. This was life in Texas as our parents, grandparents and ancestors saw it. |
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![]() All suited up and holding bag she will drag behind her and fill with cotton. The cotton will be weighed and dumped into the trailer behind her. When full, the trailer will be towed to the nearest cotton gin . . . View full Size |
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Sometime in the 1930s a family in Floyd County Texas posed for this great old photo of the Newberry family picking cotton. Dale Newberry provided this photo and was able to identify his Grandfather Harvey, his dad Orval, and uncles Skeet... continued |
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![]() In 1905 Joe Botelier was plowing a field with his two-horse team near Floydada Texas when someone captured this huge highly-detailed photo |
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![]() Amazing photo of a man working on a combine to harvest wheat on the Hutcherson farm in Castro County Texas In 1923 |
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![]() In 1900 Lora and Irene Hutcherson sat on a horse-drawn harvesting machine to pose with two unknown men during the corn harvest in Hall County Texas. Lora is sitting on the machine holding the reins and Irene is standing holding a shock of corn. |
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![]() In 1910 a farmer near Claude Texas stopped his 3-mule team and posed for this photo of the kaffir corn harvest |
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![]() Sometime around 1929 four combines were harvesting wheat on the Hutcherson farm near Hart in Castro County Texas when the event was captured on film in this huge image. S.C Hutcherson and Claude Hutcherson and three other men who were helping with the harvest appear in the photo. |
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![]() Sometime between 1910 and 1930 this kerosene- powered Rumely Oil Pull tractor was used to harvest wheat in Deaf Smith County. |
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![]() In 1937 two farmers squatted against a brick wall in Odessa Texas to talk when an unknown photographer captured this highly detailed photo. . . . See it full size |
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Two farmers visiting in Spur Texas. Both wearing suspenders and one with the sweat stained hat so common among hard working farmers |
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![]() Two horse team pulls harrow in this scene from Armstrong County in 1909
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![]() In the 1920s Farmer W. J. Carter was planting his field near Gasoline Texas in Briscoe County with a horse drawn planter when his daughter Ethel brought him a drink of water in a pan . . . See it full size |
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![]() In 1909 local farmers gathered in front of Farmers State Bank in Coleman to sell their cotton crop where cotton buyers would inspect the bales and make offers. |
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![]() In 1936 Mrs. L.C. Hanks of Paducah Texas endorsed the Electrolux Kerosene powered refrigerator as a means of bringing modern conveniences to farm families. |
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![]() Massive dust storm approaches farm homestead near Pampa Texas in 1935 . . . View full size |
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![]() Four men, a woman, a dog and an early steel-tired tractor were all part of the wheat harvest team near Quanah Texas in the early 1920s |
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![]() On December 1914 Kay Shuey and her dog, Snip, posed on top of a bale of cotton for this very nice photo in Quanah Texas |
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![]() In 1937 a farmer in Goodlett Texas posed for this photo and spoke out about how his family had been forced from the farm they rented when land owners replaced them with tractors. ""Well, I know I've got to make a move but I don't know where to. I can stay off relief until the first of the year. After that I don't know. I've eat up two cows and a pair of horses this past year ..." Read more in the article |
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![]() In 1964 T. C. and Dean Faver stopped to chat beside an irrigation well in Lamb County when this photo was taken for an ad promoting butane as a fuel for farm equipment. |
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![]() Jim and Ben Davidson survey their herd of cattle on their farm near Sudan Texas in 1966 for an ad in a national farm magazine. |
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![]() In the 1930s Melvin Collins and his wife Blanche Langford Collins posed with their horses on their farm near Earth Texas. Photograph courtesy of their great granddaughter, Tina Collins |
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![]() In the 1920s a farmer in Lynn County near New Lynn Texas stopped his 4-mule team and posed with a young girl named Flossie Aycock, as her two little brothers and the family dog climbed on to the plow. Photo provided by KariLeanne Levacy-Torres. Flossie Aycock was her grandmother . . see it full size |
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![]() In 1937 a man is using a 4 Mule Team to replant cotton near Stanton, Texas |
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![]() Photograph of a wheat harvesting crew on Dick Buckles farm 20 miles south of Stratford in Sherman County in 1930 |
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![]() A four-horse team plows a field with rows that seem to reach to the horizon in Childress County Texas in 1938 . . . zoom in on this large photo |
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![]() Tractor operator stops his early tractor and two row planter to pause for picture in Childress County Texas in 1938 . . . zoom in on this highly detailed photo |
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![]() In 1914, D.L. Smith fell ill before he could harvest his crop. 19 of his neighbors showed up with their mules and equipment to harvest his crop for him. Mark Hanna from Childress captured the event on film. This tradition of farmers helping sick neighbors and widows with the harvest is one that is practiced today in small farming communities across Texas. . . . see this amazing composite photo full size |
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![]() In 1939 Mike Murphy was a farmer near Perryton Texas when he posed for a large ad in a farm magazine. |
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![]() In 1928 a group of 33 unnamed Erath County farmers posed for a photo at a meeting in Huckabay, Texas. |
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![]() Cattle belonging to A.B. Yearwood at the corner of College and Graham in Stephenville. It was common for farmers and ranchers to drive livestock through the streets at the time. |
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Man takes family milk cow to market in low sided trailer. Many families kept kept milk cows in their back yards in 1939 often staking them them out to graze in vacant lots. |
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In 1920 a farmer and his wife posed for a picture in their old car they converted into a truck complete with rifle mounted on side. look closer |
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![]() Two teen-aged boys proudly show off their prize lamb in 1940. . . . Zoom in |
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![]() The A. R. Michaels family at the original Paris Cox Farmstead in Estacado Texas |
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![]() One of the first road graders is pulled by an oil powered tractor in Gray County Texas . . . Zoom in |
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![]() Massive dust storm approaches farm homestead near Pampa Texas in 1935 . . . View full size |
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![]() In 1910 local farmers brought bags of wheat to market in front of the First National Bank in Plainview Texas |
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Muleshoe Farmer plows a huge flat field in Bailey County
with his two mule team in 1936 . . .
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In 1939, a tenant farmer, his wife and their little boy posed on their porch near Ropesville Texas |
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![]() In 1940 Eddie Schlottman showcased a 4-Mule team he had trained on a farm near Pep Texas in this huge highly-detailed image courtesy of his granddaughter Corinna Robinson |
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![]() World War 2 German POWs tend cotton crop near Muleshoe Texas. With nearly seventy prisoner of war camps, Texas had approximately twice as many as any other state . . . read more and see photo full size |
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![]() In 1915 a farmer in Bailey County Texas paused his mule team before plowing across a cow trail on the open plains to make his homestead ready to farm . . . see this huge photo full size |
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Daniel's Gin in Wolfforth Texas in the 1930s Woman walks along highway past Daniels Gin and Model T pulling cotton trailer in Wolfforth in 1930's. Smoke fills the air in background from burning cotton burrs and trash. |
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![]() Workers pose beside their trucks at a cotton gin in Slaton Texas in the 1930s. Fuzzy cotton seed is piled two-stories high in the background. The gin was owned by Hiram Wesley (Bo) Stotts . . . read more |
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![]() In June 1938 famous photographer Dorothea Lange captured this photo of an unnamed man living on "Scratch Hill" outside Atoka, Oklahoma. "I'm going west because this country's through, there isn't anything here for anyone. I'm going west to Lubbock . . . |
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![]() In the 1940s the Williams family raised hogs on their farm for family consumption and for the market. Their well-known rock house can be seen in the background |
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![]() Farmers chat over cotton seed sacks in Glen Rose in 1939. One of the farmers is wearing something unusual on his cap. A passer-by appears to be trying to figure out what it is . . . look closer |
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![]() Landowner Joe Phillips, Mr. T.A. Knight and son Marvin whose family lived on the 360 acre half-section of land near Plainview, Texas for over 30 years. |
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![]() Picking strawberries on the P B Snyder farm six miles south of Plainview in 1910. |
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![]() Did you ever pump an aluminum tube to siphon water from an open ditch? Here's how it was done in Hale County Texas in the 1950s. Some farmers were so good at it they could set a tube with one hand and from the far side of the ditch ... See full size |
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![]() Steam Engine powers a silo on a farm near Plainview Texas in 1912 as men on horseback and farmer's wife look on . . . take a closer look |
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![]() Very nice image of Joe Phillips on his Farmall Tractor in Hale County Texas in 1950s |
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![]() In 1910 a tractor salesman demonstrated a steam powered tractor on a farm near Vega Texas . . . see full size image |
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![]() Almost every small town in the panhandle had a grain elevator dominating the skyline. This one is in a small town in Potter County shows trucks lined up to unload freshly harvested wheat in 1939. The elevator would lift the entire truck . . . continued
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![]() A. M. Archambault & Company developed the first farm steam engine in 1849. The steam engine was later expanded into the steam traction engine with powered wheels and steering capabilities . . . view full size |
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![]() Farm implements for sale in front of Dalhart store offering Cocacola and local newspaper. |
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![]() Sometime in the late 1800's a lonely farmer had a photograph taken of himself on his homestead on the Texas Panhandle. Then he turned it into a postcard and advertised for a wife to join him on his farm near Texline Texas . . . view it full size |
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![]() In 1936 the cows at the Terra Blanca Dairy farm near Canyon Texas were content and covered from the cold blasts of arctic air that sometimes blasts the Texas Panhandle |
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![]() Sometime in the 1930s a father and son stopped their work in Hall County Texas to pose for this photo by famed photographer Dorothea Lange with their horse-drawn planter . . . see it full size |
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![]() Very rare photo of famous musician Bob Wills picking cotton with his cousin in the mid 1920s |
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![]() Sometime in the 1890s, Jim Harper proudly posed with his prize Jack for this wonderful old photo of early life in Hall County Texas |
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![]() On a farm near El Indio Texas in 1939 a woman runs her clothes through the ringer as her children play and hundreds of chickens fee nearby. |
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![]() At a pump house on a farm in Maverick County a Model T bus is parked near clothes drying on the line and a young boy plays with his dog in 1939
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![]() In 1939 a Maverick County farmer works to fix a flat on his old car while his chickens rest in the shade under the car and his son relaxes nearby |
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![]() An early John Deere tractor pulls a one-way in Maverick County Texas in 1939 in this rare birds-eye view
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![]() The photographer must have been perched on a windmill when he took this amazing birds-eye view of an early John Deere tractor coming at him in 1939 |
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Digging a ditch on a farm near El Indio Texas in 1939
required a tractor and two men |
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![]() Photo from early 1900's picture postcard depicts C.W. Thagard's Oat Farm near Floydada Texas. |
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![]() In 1954 T.H. Chatham, well known Floyd County Farmer from Lockney appeared in a national ad |
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![]() Combine unloading milo grain in to a GMC on a farm near Lockney Texas in 1954. The photo was part of an ad for a two-speed truck axle. |
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![]() In this wonderful old photo from 1945, eleven month old J D Woody pets a calf on his grandparents farm in Dougherty Texas 20 miles west of Matador 17 miles east of Floydada. Debbie Brauneck provided this photo of her father from her mother's collection |
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![]() In 1928 a salesman demonstrated his Model E Cotton Stripper on a farm near Ralls Texas in Crosby County |
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Boy Drinks from Burlap Covered Jug Drinking water from jar covered in wet burlap on farm near Ralls, Texas in 1939 Rapping a glass jug in wet burlap would keep the contents slightly cooler than if it was left uncovered . . .
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![]() Thirsty Farmer Drinks from Canvas Bag On a hot summer morning on a farm near Ralls Texas in 1939, a farmer pauses for a cold drink of water from a canvas bag. Hung from tractor fenders, car hood ornaments and side view mirrors, military vehicles or from a cowboy's saddle horn . . . read more and view large image |
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![]() Farmer in Crosby County Texas changes plow points and makes final adjustments to his 4-row lister planter in 1939.
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Farmer's wife hangs laundry on clothes line to dry on farm near Ralls Texas in 1939. |
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Farmer sits on his new tractor in 1939 on a farm near Ralls Texas. |
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Allis-Chalmers Tractor with planter and go-devil attached Ralls Tx 1939 The "Go Devil" was a popular attachment for tractors in the 1930's through the 1960's.
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Resources: Early Life in Texas County by County Books about Texas People and Places Amazing People from Texas County by County Texas History in the 19th Century (Amazon) Vintage Texas Photos (eBay) |
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