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The recent talk on “Our People Were Farmers” reminded me of
the stories my dad, a Romulus farm boy, used to tell. He told a lot of stories of growing up on the
family farm. The hard work, the family
ties, the crops, and the animals. Like
all farms at the time, the work was done by boys and men, and strong
horses. The farm team was an important
resource for all farmers. The team my
grandparents owned were Belle and Bill.
They were massive gray horses (Percherons?) that had a special place in
the workings of the farm and apple orchard.
Mornings brought many chores: there was the care and feeding
of the livestock, cleaning the barns, and a multitude of other chores to
accomplish before breakfast. The team
was always fed before the men and boys. Always. After breakfast the team was
harnessed and hitched to whatever implement they were using that day, and the
hard work began. When the lunch bell
rang, the team was brought back to the barnyard, unharnessed, rubbed down,
curried, and fed and watered. Once the
team was seen to, the men and boys could then wash up at the pump and head in
to their meal. Once lunch was finished,
they went on to other barnyard chores while the team enjoyed a full hour of
rest.
When the dinner bell rang, the care of the horses again came
before the care of the workers. Belle
and Bill were the live horsepower necessary before the advent of mechanical
horsepower, and they were well treated on my grandparent’s farm.
They were also instrumental in the building of the new church
for St Stevens parish, New Boston, MI.
When the ground was broken for the church that stand today, it was with
the use of the powerful team of grays belonging to Frank Joblinski. The ground was broken, and the basement dug
using horsepower, in September 1923, and the cornerstone was laid in
October. Times were hard, and the labor
was provided by members of the parish, but Belle and Bill played a large part
too.
Once the hardworking beloved team were gone, the mechanical
age took over. There are a few pictures
of the early tractors, with dad put putting along. His oldest brother didn’t have much use for
the farm, but Dad loved farming. He
would tinker with the equipment, and when he got older, he advanced to
motorcycles and cars. He loved to go fast!
After cruising along on a Harley, and even flying his own airplane,
horses seemed very tame to him. But he
held on to a few photos of the team for the rest of his life and talked fondly
of the big horses that were the heart of the farm for so many years.
Belle and Bill lived out their lives on the farm on Eureka
Road, and are buried somewhere on the property.
There were other horses also, but Belle and Bill were the ones that were
loved and remembered.
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