At the turn of the century, Brigham City was still an agricultural community. Some farmers lived in town and had farmland just outside of town. Others had acreage farther out in the county, and lived in homes on the farms. One of the farm families in Bothwell was that of Afton Hunsaker Olsen who was born in 1908. As an adult, Afton lived in Brigham City where she achieved success in her marriage and childrearing endeavors and in church and community service. In a 1985 oral history interview, she told of an experience that reflects her childhood on the family farm and the lifestyle in Box Elder County in that time period:
There were 10 of us in our family, and I was the third. I helped Mother a lot in the house because my older sister had had polio when she was just very young. Then my brother just older than I helped in the fields. I would work in the house, and then I'd go out and drive the derrick horse to put the hay up on the stack. Then every load that would come in I'd run out and help on the derrick and then run in to help Mother and back and forth. When it was time to top the beets in the fall, I was out in the fields topping them along with everybody else.
My father didn't hire workers very often. We had enough in the family that we could take care of our own. On the dry farms, though, he hired headers and threshers, and we fed them for every meal until they were finished. The headers came in early one summer – the summer of the Willard flood when I was 12 or 13. My father had come in and said, “Now the headers and threshers aren't coming until next week. I'd like to take your mother to Salt Lake for little vacation for her birthday. Can you take care of the family?” And of course I could because I'd always done it.
They left for a couple of days. During that time, the headers and threshers came early and said, “We'll be on your place in the morning.”
There I was with my brother five years younger than I. He got busy and helped me, and we started to peel the potatoes. We had everything in storage. We had a big ice house with layers of straw and then layers of ice, and we kept all of our foodstuff in there. He pitched in and helped me because the next one was my sister, and she was only four, but she did a little running around for us. We got busy, and we cooked for 13 headers and threshers.
Oh, we worked hard, and we put on the whole meal, three meals a day for all those men! When Mother and Dad came home, there we had supper all ready for the last meal of the headers and threshers. Mother sad down and cried. Dad said, “I can't believe it! You've already had them and it's over with and we missed it!”
The headers said, “We've never been fed better.” That made us all feel so good that we took care of all of those men.
There were 10 of us in our family, and I was the third. I helped Mother a lot in the house because my older sister had had polio when she was just very young. Then my brother just older than I helped in the fields. I would work in the house, and then I'd go out and drive the derrick horse to put the hay up on the stack. Then every load that would come in I'd run out and help on the derrick and then run in to help Mother and back and forth. When it was time to top the beets in the fall, I was out in the fields topping them along with everybody else.
My father didn't hire workers very often. We had enough in the family that we could take care of our own. On the dry farms, though, he hired headers and threshers, and we fed them for every meal until they were finished. The headers came in early one summer – the summer of the Willard flood when I was 12 or 13. My father had come in and said, “Now the headers and threshers aren't coming until next week. I'd like to take your mother to Salt Lake for little vacation for her birthday. Can you take care of the family?” And of course I could because I'd always done it.
They left for a couple of days. During that time, the headers and threshers came early and said, “We'll be on your place in the morning.”
There I was with my brother five years younger than I. He got busy and helped me, and we started to peel the potatoes. We had everything in storage. We had a big ice house with layers of straw and then layers of ice, and we kept all of our foodstuff in there. He pitched in and helped me because the next one was my sister, and she was only four, but she did a little running around for us. We got busy, and we cooked for 13 headers and threshers.
Oh, we worked hard, and we put on the whole meal, three meals a day for all those men! When Mother and Dad came home, there we had supper all ready for the last meal of the headers and threshers. Mother sad down and cried. Dad said, “I can't believe it! You've already had them and it's over with and we missed it!”
The headers said, “We've never been fed better.” That made us all feel so good that we took care of all of those men.
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