In 1914, the schools of Morgan County, Missouri, participated in a survey of rural conditions. The results were compiled and published in the Missouri State Board of Agriculture Monthly Bulletin, vol. 14, no. 2 (Feb. 1916), with photographs to illustrate the text. The survey covers economic and social conditions in the farming country.
The material in this survey is very interesting for the light it sheds on farm life in Morgan County at the beginning of the twentieth century. The pictures are particularly interesting. It therefore seemed worthwhile to digitize the survey and make it available.
A note on the photographs: the original photographs are screened (i.e. made up of dots, like newspaper photographs). To reproduce them on the web, I scanned them at high resolution, blurred them to hide the screening, then resampled them to lower resolution and sharpened them. The results are very faithful to the original. Unfortunately, the copy from which I scanned them was tightly bound, and in some cases it was impossible to avoid having the curve of the page appear in the picture. To see an enlargement of any picture, just click on it.
Table of Contents
|
| [Title page] | |
| A "DIFFERENT" COUNTRY LIFE SURVEY. |
p.4 |
| To Whom Credit is Due. |
p.6 |
| Why Morgan County was Chosen. |
p.9 |
| List of Questions Submitted. |
p.11 |
| Illustrations. |
p.12 |
| Public Schools. |
p.13 |
| Social and Religious Life of Communities. |
p.16 |
| The Farm Boys and Girls. |
p.19 |
| Farm Homes. |
p.21 |
| Farms and Farm Equipment. |
p.25 |
| Live Stock and Poultry. |
p.27 |
| Use of Commercial Fertilizers. |
p.28 |
| Sources of Farm Income. |
p.28 |
| Towns and Villages. |
p.30 |
| Old Mills. |
p.30 |
| Mining and Manufacturing. |
p.31 |
| A Land of Great Natural Beauty. |
p.32 |
| Morgan County Crop Yields. |
p.33 |
| Supplementary Reports. |
p.34 |
| Farm Homes as Described by School Children. |
p.35 |
| Assessed Valuation of Morgan County, 1915. |
p.41 |
| From the 1910 Census. |
p.42 |
| Live-Stock Products. |
p.45 |
| Topography, Streams and Soil. |
p.46 |
| Morgan County. |
p.48 |
Images
|
| [Morgan County Courthouse]
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.1 |
| [Union Label]
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.1 |
| Graduating class, Morgan county rural schools, 1914-1915.
Ninety in class.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.3 |
| [Jewell Mayes signature]
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.6 |
| M. Wray Witten, superintendent public schools, Morgan
county, Mo.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.7 |
| First courthouse in Morgan county. Built in 1837. See
present beautiful building pictured on cover of this bulletin.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.7 |
| [Map of Morgan County School Districts]
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.10 |
| Public school building in
Versailles.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.14 |
| One of the rural schoolhouses in Morgan
county.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.15 |
| Here and there, where the first settlements
were made, are old houses that seem almost to have souls. This house
is said to have been built more than one hundred years
ago.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.17 |
| This effective road-building machine, the
Pioneer Tractor, bought at a cost of $5,000, made 100 miles of good
road in Morgan county last year. Costs $25 per day to run engine and
three graders. This machine well expresses the good roads spirit in
Morgan county.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.18 |
| On a well-improved farm where registered
live stock makes money for the owner.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.21 |
| A log cabin. Some homes of this type are
still to be seen in the timbered district in the southern part of the
county.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.22 |
| A comfortable and roomy farm
home.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.22 |
| A remodeled home dating from early
days.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.23 |
| Farm home in prairie section of
county.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.24 |
| Mare and five of her colts on Morgan
county farm.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.25 |
| Silo, barn and farm-built
tractor.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.26 |
| The "razorback" has been replaced by
such hogs as these.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.27 |
| Morgan county has much
good poultry.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.27 |
| Morgan county is increasing her wheat
yield.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.28 |
| Modern school building, church and
playground in thriving little town of Stover.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.29 |
| A hamlet in the southern part of the
county. Notice new concrete culvert on Versailles and Linn Creek
road.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.30 |
| Old grist mill on the banks of the Gravois.
Mill is driven by water power, the water being conveyed about two
miles, through a race, into a lake. Mill was built before the Civil war.
Patrons come for many miles to this mill, where corn is ground by use
of old-fashioned burstones.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.31 |
| Partial view of the big clay products works
at Versailles.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.32 |
| Collins' Lake in southern Morgan county.
Fed by spring which flows 45 cubic feet per
second.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.33 |
| A modern home in Morgan
county.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.35 |
| In one of the many good wheat fields in
Morgan county.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.35 |
| A crude machine, but notice the beautiful
work when directed by skilled hands.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.37 |
| A farmstead where shade trees are a
factor.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.38 |
| A busy day on one of the modern farms of
Morgan county.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.39 |
| A reminder of pioneer days in Morgan
county.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.40 |
| As seen on a well-equipped Morgan
county farm.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.42 |
| Sawmill from which comes all the oak
lumber used in the district.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.43 |
| Cattle fattened on the farm help to make
"fat" the farm.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.44 |
| One of the farm residences in the Gravois
Mills district, and lake that supplies water for the grist
mill.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.46 |
| A creditable display. Much of Morgan
county is well adapted to fruit growing.
(Image; Enlargement)
|
p.49 |
