What was Rural life like in 1910?

Answer 1

In very rural communities, not all families yet owned an automobile. Almost everyone walked, including to go 10-15 miles to a nearby small town or between small towns. The railroad existed, but most people, especially poor folks, were never paid passengers. If a rural person rode the train, it was from jumping onto it as it was moving-- resulting in many fatalities. Many people used the rail tracks like a foot path-- called walking the tracks-- to visit a neighbor, or as a faster route home from working at a coal mine etc.

Most men worked labor jobs on farms, coal mines, mills, factories. Even men who were in pain or disabled worked, often inside the house. Women were mothers and housewives. Marriage was the norm. Couples entertained at home. Very few "went out" and the only places to go to were drinking saloons. Few people had money to eat out, though widowed housewives often opened "eateries" inside their homes, with dining in a parlor and food cooked in the family kitchen. Widows also opened their homes to boarders.

Widows with children often married widowers with children, a custom dating back centuries. Thus, women and men helped each other: women needed men to survive financially; men needed the women to care for his children while he worked. Whether these marriages were ever entered because the two people loved each other, or if it was solely to survive, is anyone's guess.

The church was a central feature of rural life. Most people were Christians and attended church every Sunday, rain or shine, whether in sickness or health. Many rural churches were too poor for a piano or organ. To start a song, they used a pitch pipe to set the correct starting note. They didn't have hymnal books. Instead, one person would "line" the song, meaning the person speaks each line right before the congregation sings it, so everyone would know the words, such as:

Spoken, "lining" the song: Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound

Congregation sings the line.

Spoken, "lining" the song: That saved a wretch like me

Congregation sings that line.

Since there was no air conditioning, church windows and doors were open. My grandmother recalled how you could hear every church's congregation singing up to a mile away from the church. Since most rural communities had the Christian churches of Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Friends/German Baptists (now Church of the Brethren), and A&M (Black congregations), Sunday mornings were like dueling songs of multiple congregations all singing loudly, often trying to outdo each other.

Sundays and evenings, times of leisure after the essential work was done, were spent on the front porch. Neighbors knew neighbors. Neighbors helped neighbors. Children roamed freely-- but were obedient to all authority / adults.

Backtalking or bad behavior was dealt with promptly with a switch applied to the child's backside, even teenagers. Extended families often lived in one house: grandparents, parents, children and maybe an aunt/uncle with their children. Any adult in the family could mete out punishment.

Children often began working as young as 8 to 12 years old. Girls became Domestic Workers in other people's homes. Boys worked in coal mines and mills. My grandmother told a story about herself as a 7-year old. Her mother would send her to her elderly grandmother, who was not well. My grandmother carried .50 cents from her mother to give to her grandmother, a task which my grandmother faithfully did each Sunday. While there, she would work for her grandmother, dusting, cleaning house, hand washing clothes and hanging them out to dry. At the end of the day, her grandmother gave the child (my grandmother) a dime as "payment". However, any earnings went to the family. So my grandmother would cheerfully turn over her dime to her mother when she arrived home. Each week this was repeated: a mother giving a child .50 to take to her grandma; the grandma "paying" her one dime. My grandmother said she finally figured out that her grandmother was so poor that her daughter sent .50 each week so the old woman would have money--- but her grandma would have .10 cents to "pay" her grandchild for "work", e.g. she was carrying the same dime back and forth each week from her mom to her grandma and back to her mom.... THAT was how poor people helped each other out, while instilling work and family values into young children. Helping her grandmother each week to earn a dime that she (returned to) gave to her mom was one of my grandmother's favorite memories.

Otherwise, every activity revolved around home and family.

Did families have issues? Yes. Drunkards, wife beaters, child molesters, philanderers, etc. were all common issues in any town or city.

But overall, rural towns had tighter family values than in cities. Children knew to stay away from their "funny uncle"--- funny not meaning humorous but that he behaved oddly or badly. Drinking/boozing and other bad acts were "sins" and sinners didn't find many people who liked the sinner.

Rural towns had transients and tramps--what we now call homeless people. Transients and tramps often made camps near coal refuse heaps (e.g. waste dumped outside of coal mines; the waste was clay clumps that were too difficult to pick out the coal.) Tramps often accidentally caught the refuse piles on fire from their campfires, causing the bits of coal in the clay clumps to burn for weeks to months.

Other poor families would also visit coal refuse heaps to salvage small bits of coal to heat the family home. People learned to survive--however they had to survive.