Harvest Season

William Gamlin's wheat binding operation circa 1902

From what I’ve been hearing (and seeing on Facebook), it appears that the fall harvest season is well underway in Central Illinois.

My maternal grandfather, Joe Gamlin, made a living farming. He got started sometime around his 18th birthday which is interesting to note, since the doctors had always said he wouldn't live past the age of eighteen. Not only was his heart on the wrong side of his chest, but he suffered from severe asthma and allergies. He was small for his age, pale, and considered to be “sickly” throughout his childhood and teenage years.

In 1902 my great uncle, William Gamlin, visited Raymond and offered Joe a job. Uncle Bill made a living operating a wheat binding business and he personally oversaw a crew that traveled from southeastern Missouri across many western states, harvesting hundreds of miles of wheat fields along the way. Bill owned a wheat binding machine, and that enabled the men on his crew to harvest huge wheat fields quickly and efficiently. Over the years, Bill Gamlin made a name for himself in the wheat binding business, and his company was booked solid during the harvest season with regular customers in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana.

Even with the help of the machine, wheat binding was hard work that continued non-stop, eighteen hours a day, seven days a week. It took a team of four horses to pull the contraption through the field, cutting the wheat as they went along, and forming it into bundles that were about two feet wide. One man would sit on the back and tie the heavy bundles with binder twine that was fed through the machine from a large spool. The bundles were then dropped on the ground, and two or three men would follow along behind, stacking the bundles heads up, and tying them together to form a shock that was eight feet high. After the shocks sat in the field and dried for a day or so, the men loaded them in wagons and delivered them to the customers. A covered wagon loaded with supplies trailed behind them and each night the men camped, only occasionally stopping in a town for a meal, a warm bath, and a quick poker game at a local saloon. The men worked from dusk to dawn each day with few breaks, and would drag themselves back to the campsite each night for much needed rest.

Joe accepted the offer and was hired on as part of the crew. I have tried to imagine what it was like for him to leave home for the first time and what it was like for his parents to let go. Not only was his health a major concern, but as with any adventure, there was any number of things that could have happened on his 2,500 mile journey to Billings, Montana and back. Things that could have changed the course of his life forever: a fast moving lightning storm on the prairie; a stray bullet fired during a brawl at a saloon; a brush with diphtheria; a chance meeting with a pretty woman.

Joe Gamlin driving his "Minneapolis Moline" Tractor shortly before his death. 

Of course nothing happened, and luckily, Joe made his way back to Raymond. When he returned, his parents barely recognized him; he had put on a considerable amount of weight and seemed healthy and happy. The doctors claimed that spending time out in the western climate had cured him. I'm not sure about that, but one thing was for certain: he had never enjoyed better health in his entire life. Joe eventually married the woman who would become my grandmother, Wilma McCallum, in 1918. He farmed south of Raymond for three years before the couple moved east of Raymond to what was later known as “Anderberg Hill” (the hill opposite of Mulch’s hill and the birth place of my mother, Eileen Gamlin Bandy, born in 1924). In 1944, the family moved to a farm located on what is commonly referred to as the "East Road" (the road leading out of Raymond past Held's Sales and Service). My grandparents lived there at the time of Grandpa's sudden death on May 11, 1952.

As was customary in those days, the following fall, many friends and relatives gathered at the farm to harvest the corn Grandpa had planted just prior to his death. The following photo and article appeared in The Raymond News in the fall of 1952: 

1952 Harvest at Gamlin Home

While the names of the men who helped are listed in the article, unfortunately they are not identified in the photo. I can recognize my dad, Charles Bandy, seated in the front row, 4th from the left and possibly Earl Sorrells (kneeling in the front row, first from the left).

Many thanks to Susan Lebeck for providing the group photo and article.

If you have memories, photos, ideas for future blog topics, or any comments in general, please feel free to contact me at pinkston.jan@gmail.com. Thank you!