Relatives butchering hogs: The photo on the left features my uncles Commodore Cyphers and Paul Christian. (Uncle Commodore is the one wearing the hat.) The one on the right features my Uncle Paul (on the right) and two other men. I believe Uncle Commodore is cutting the pig (he can barely be seen, but he's the one behind the man in the front of the picture). I'm not sure who the other man is ... and, actually, it might be a boy rather than a man. He may be sitting on the work-horse but I can't be sure since there is a shadow. The reason I say that is because I have two other photos that were taken during the butchering and there is a young boy in one of the photos wearing a similar cap as the one seen here. (See the other two photos below).

I remember my mom talking about her family raising hogs. One of mom's daily chores was to feed them. But I'm supposing that all of the family participated in helping care for the farm and animals.

I'm also supposing, from what I remember my mom saying, that butchering the hogs and preparing/preserving/smoking the meat was a family activity (with the men taking care of the butchering; and the women taking care of most of the preparing).

The family had a building behind their home called a 'smoke house' where some of the meat would be smoked, cured and preserved. I also remember mom saying that sometimes meat was canned in jars and the jars were put down into the cold water wells to keep it from going bad.


The Family's Memories About Butchering Hogs:

From Clyde Bearre, dated 7/8/99:

" ... By the way, that young man with the hat in the pig slaughtering picture looks a little like my Grandad. He use to tell us how he'd slaughter pigs. He also use to tell us about one of the delicacies -- brains and eggs. But, I can't remember if the brains were pig or calf. Anyway, he use to help slaughter the livestock in the fall. Be talkin' to you. Cousin Clyde"

Uncle Commodore, unidentified others

Uncle Commodore, Uncle Paul kneeling down, & unidentified man