Outdoors
 On the way
from the parlor and dining room of the upper middle class house to the
farmhouse, visitors to Growing Up in Michigan see outdoor scenes
that change with the season and visit a backyard shed.
The farmer
still had his barn. Town dwellers had their sheds and, if the family kept a horse, there might be a carriage house, but
most boarded their horses at a livery stable. The shed held harnesses,
tools and equipment.
Outdoor Chores
 Children and
young adults often did chores around the house and yard. They cut
firewood. They fed, cleaned and tended the animals. They helped plant
and harvest crops.
Pa and the hired man went to Niles to day and as I am
generally 'he Man of the Family' when they are both gone he left the
horses and things in my care, and I always like that more than most
anything. So I watered the horses first thing.
Adeline Eliza
Graham
Tuesday, June 1, 1880
The horse
dominated late 19th century Michigan life. Until almost the turn of the
century the basic mode of transportation and power came from the use of
horses. Horses pulled carts and wagons in cities and large heavy
equipment on farms. Almost everyone used a horse and buggy in summer or
horse and sleigh or cutter in winter for local transportation--or they
walked. Taking care of the horse and harness was an important task.
The horses, as we opened the door, neighed a throaty welcome
and blew through their velvet nostrils. The cows gently mooed. The
barn was warm with the breath of creatures dependent upon us for their
comfort, and the musky sweetness of hay and grain.
Della
Thompson
 The single most
labor intensive work on any Michigan farm was crop production. Crop
production depended solely on the skill of the farmer, the capital he
had to invest, and the weather. Michigan farmers grew a wide variety of
grain crops during the late 19th century. These included wheat—the
production of which reached all time highs at end of the Civil
War—corn, potatoes, oats, buckwheat, clover and timothy hay, sorghum
and, after 1880, sugar beets.
In addition to horses, farms supported a variety of other
livestock and poultry. Hog and sheep production, on the rise during
the Civil War because of the demand to feed the Union army and replace
southern cotton sources, continued into the late 19th century. Most
farms were self-supporting in the production of milk, eggs, butter,
and meat products with the excess sold to local markets and, with the
help of rail transportation, to larger towns and cities. Almost every
small town had a creamery or stockyard near its railway depot.
Pork was cured in the smoke house in the backyard and stored
down [in the] cellar after curing.
Alice Laura
Stevenson
The farmer would begin in the winter by
looking over seed and nursery catalogs to select the garden crops and
nursery stock to be planted in the spring. He would also keep a careful
eye on his seed wheat and corn which were drying in bins in his shed or
barn. The winter months might also find the farmer polishing his horse
tack and making equipment repairs. Spring would bring plowing and
planting activities. Haying followed in late June and July. August
brought the wheat harvest. In fall the corn would be cut by hand. Fall
also brought apple harvests.
Gathering the windfalls, seconds, and otherwise least
desirable fruits from the orchard and taking them to the mill was in
itself one of the most delightful occupations of autumn days.
Della
Thompson
 With all the
crops gathered in from garden, field and orchard, the farmer would
return to the warmth of the kitchen stove to contemplate the next
spring's planting and following harvests.
The farmer did
not spend all of his winter days by the kitchen stove. Ice harvesting,
splitting wood for the stove, trapping, working on home and equipment
repairs, or marching off to a lumber camp kept farmers as busy in winter
as they had been in summer.
Spent the morning in getting wood in the woodshed and
splitting it.
Delevan
Brotherton
March 3, 1883
James Corrothers,
whose schooling ended at age 14 so that he could support himself, found
work in Michigan's lumber industry alongside the men.
Went to work in the woods near Muskegon, "pulling a
crosscut?saw," and chopping cord wood all winter, along with two
men . . . I went back to the sawmill, when the season opened, boarding
with my Uncle Henry again.
James
Corrothers
Leisure
Speaking of vacations, we went two or three times to Sand
Lake, starting early in the morning, to drive the fourteen miles and
reaching there by noon . . . . My first project upon arrival was to
get into a rowboat, get the feel of the oars and row off, then, drift
to shore, out again and so on.
Alice Laura
Stevenson
The Industrial
Revolution brought about mechanization in the factories, homes and
farms, which in turn provided more time to pursue recreational
activities. Victorian America was learning how to have fun.
In organized
sports, baseball became increasingly popular. Teams represented towns,
factories, clubs, high schools, or the Y.M.C.A. The game began to
organize in the 1840s and 1850s. By the 1880s it was well on its way to
becoming the national pastime.
Football evolved
from rugby, but it was still a sport of society, not the masses, largely
through the games in the college and university system. Basketball was
invented in Springfield, Massachusetts, by James Naismith in 1891, and
quickly became a popular game by its promotion through the Y.M.C.A.
Yard games were
an important form of recreation. Croquet went through an initial
national craze because it was the first game that allowed boys and girls
to play outdoors together. Archery also brought boys
and girls together socially, as well as for competition.
Lawn tennis and
badminton became popular. Roller skating rinks were established in
cities and towns all over the country after its introduction in 1863 in
New York. By the 1880s adults had lost interest, but children kept
skating on wooden sidewalks.
Cycling was the
new recreational craze that caught on about 1876 with introduction of
the high-wheeled bicycle replacing the older wooden boneshaker. By 1886
there were more than 50,000 cyclists in the nation, and a year later
more than 100,000. Clubs organized in many cities and towns, and the
League of American Wheelmen was formed in 1881. In the 1890s the safety
bicycle and the drop frame for women were invented. The sport became so
popular that it created new styles in clothing and pushed forward the
Good Roads movement.
Lee (Wilkinson) has got him a seventy-six dollar bicycle. I
shall enjoy seeing him ride it. It is a new kind and hard to ride. It
has the small wheel in front instead of behind.
Adeline Eliza
Graham
Wednesday, March 1, 1882
Golf and bowling
were primarily adult sports in their early years.
Yard games often required sizable backyards, lawns or fields
that were hard to find in large cities but abundant in small towns
and villages. As a result, city games played by children often had
different rules than those in rural settings. Yard games typical of the
era were "ship-coil," a rope ring toss game; "lawn
billiards," a ball game with spoon or ladle-like cue; and "rounders,"
a game with base-running similar to baseball.
Swimming,
boating, rowing, fishing and other water sports were popular in summer.
Swimming outfits consisted of knee-length garments that covered much of
the body. Small boats were built by craftsmen in most towns near water
and were easily affordable for the middle class.
Sledding,
tobogganing, ice skating and sleigh driving provided a diversity of
activities in the long, cold darkness of Michigan winters. Sleds were
high-bodied affairs with long curved runners meeting the body.
Now, I COULD NOT stand there and see a girl put on her skates
alone while the one who ought to have been doing so was silently
putting on his, so I stepped up and offered to Help Mammie. My offer
was accepted and as it was I had the 1st privilege of skating with her
since I put on her skates so I skated with her.
Delevan
Brotherton
December 16, 1882
Girls and women
were kept away from strenuous games, physical contact and some spectator
sports. Girls were encouraged to take part in sports and games for
health reasons rather than for achievement and prestige. Boys were
encouraged to participate in ball games, to swim, hunt, fish and perform
in various ways to test their strength, agility and speed.
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