Illinois State Library

General Information

Name:  Sandra K. Wilcoxon  

Genre: History Non-Fiction

Born:

Sites:

• WorldCat -- http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=sandra+k.+wilcoxon

Hats Off Books. 2002

HARVEST JOURNAL, PART I (1846-1903), introduced Fred Cummings and his family. Adopted by an aunt and uncle when his mother died, Fred moved to Minnesota from Vermont in 1855. They built a home, cleared land, and survived by farming, bartering, and exchanging labor with neighbors. By 1880, Fred's accounting records showed how he supported a family on an annual income of $100.

Fred's early journals recorded the politics of presidential elections, local news including floods and tornadoes, and international news such as the Prussian war. He also recorded his own feelings in poems marking the loss of an infant, visions of angels, and his love of the land. His children grew and started families of their own, two of them homesteading land near Lake Itasca at the turn of the century.

In HARVEST JOURNAL, PART II (1904-1937), we rejoin Fred, Rose, their children, and grandchildren. Even with the advent of electricity, automobiles, and telephones, life on a farm is difficult and an extended family is essential to survive. In addition to area events, Fred's journals document the turmoil leading up to World War I, the economic hardships of the Depression, and the shock of the Lindbergh kidnapping. In his later years, Fred struggles to deal with his own frailty and mortality.