INCLUDED IN THIS SITE:
     The Village, Employment, Local Institutions, Community Life, Farm and Household Life

Erieville, NY During the 1930's

This page contains the second part of an ethnography written by Larry J. Schmidt in 1977.

Employment
Local people were either self-employed dairy farmers or else they worked in the village.  Very few people, if any, were employed outside the community.  Incomes were low in those times and little money was saved.  The typical farm did not produce much of a milk surplus and did very well to make $1000.00/year, from all sources.  Topsoil was relatively thin in the local area, and many farmers were forced to buy part of their feed for the herd.  Many farms west of the village were taken out by a government reforestation project in 1932.  A similar project began a little later northeast of Tuscarora lake. 

Despite the slowdown and depopulation, Erieville remained a farm community.  Income from dairy and livestock was supplemented by working on the lake (cutting ice), hiring out a team of horses, cutting and selling wood, selling maple syrup and vegetable products, and marketing labor locally.  There was a surplus of labor and a shortage of cash in the area, especially during the off season, and all forms of income earning activities were pursued.

Especially popular was syruping, even though it was fairly hard work.  It was thought to be great fun and people looked forward to the season beginning.  It occurred in the early spring, a time when farmers were not especially busy anyway.  Sale of the syrup provided extra cash for such things as taxes and seed.  People were particularly fascinated with the evaporating operation.  Often eggs were boiled in the hot cooking sap.  At that time the sap was boiled in large cast iron pots.  The syrup was finally finished off in the house.  The season ran two to three weeks.  A good season required cool nights and warm days.  Sometimes the workers would have to carry the sap buckets through the snow if the tree was not accessable to a horse and sleigh.  In general, horses could get to places that even a tractor couldn't, and thus were useful for sap gathering.

Filling the ice house was also a yearly source of extra cash.  The ice was used to provide summer refrigeration at the creamery.  The farmers' small ice houses also had to be filled.  Several men would saw a strip across the lake.  Horses were used to do the lifting and storing.  Sometimes a man would fall into the lake and have to be pulled out.  It took almost a week to fill the ice house and employed a crew of two dozen men.  They were hired by the creamery and paid $1.00 a day for their labor.  Seven or eight teams of horses were also used to draw the ice to the creamery.  Very little ice was shipped out of the community.

Woodcutting was done with a crosscut saw operated by two men.  Wood for sale was usually drawn into the village by horses.  Not much more than a cord could be sawed in one day.  It had to be stacked on the buyer's property, not one stick short of a full cord (8x4x4 feet), before payment was made.  Sometimes the wood was also stacked behind the general store for later sale.  Wood was also cut for the schoolhouses.  A typical price was $2.50/cord.  It was common to cut a cord when money was needed for a nonroutine expenditure, such as buying a new winter coat.

There was some seasonal work usually available on the road crews and the reforestation project.  A large crew was usually required to repair roads after the winter thaw.  The reforestation project also did its planting during a short period in late spring.  Several large crews were required.  These were also farm planting times, so many of the farmers were in their fields while these crews worked.

Peas and cabbage were also cash cropped on some farms.  Labor was managed by a jobber.  The pickers were often high school aged local youth.

In general, men, especially single men, found it necessary to work when jobs were available.  A single man would find himself doing many different types of work over a two year period to earn extra cash.  Often steady work was not available and young men would remain at their father's farm until they could find something else.  Women typically remained home until they were married.  Men often built houses on their father's property.

Most of the country households were milk producing farm households.  The village was occupied by merchants and older people who came in from the country to retire.  There were a few farm households at the edges of the village, however.

Steady nonfarm work was available mostly in the village.  These jobs included working at local businesses, or for the sawmill, the road commission, the school, the post office, or the railroad.  Even here, employers would farm out labor to other employers when it was needed.  For instance, the highway foreman would provide a man to the undertaker when he needed help with his work.

The post office had a postmaster, a clerk, two mail carriers, and one person running the star route (shuttle) between local towns.  The road commission hired several men full time. There were also over a half dozen schoolteachers working in the community.  Each blacksmith shop was singly owned and operated, as was the barber shop, the boot and harness shop, and the small variety store.  All told, there were over three dozen steady jobs in and around the village.  This, plus the retirees living in the village, probably accounts for most of the households in Erieville at that time.

There was not much building going on, so demand for the construction and service trades was not as great as it is now.  Many of these skills were provided as needed on a part time basis by jacks of all trades.  This was true for other services also.  For example, the feed store owner was a part time veternarian.  Some people also cut hair part time.  One farmer ran a "milk route", delivering door to door in the village.  Some men were part time butchers.  In earlier times, one man ran a "meat route" in the village.  Even barn raising bees were a rare occurrance, taking place only when someone's building burned.

Farms were also a major source of employment, especially for seasonal work.  Hired men would often "live in" with the farm family.  Sometimes they would get a share of the meat at fall butchering.  Day labor was also available on farms, at $1.00 per day wage.

Click here to learn about Local Institutions in Erieville during the 1930's.

History needs a "keeper" to allow it to be passed on to future generations.  Erieville is lucky to have such a person in its Postmaster, Donna.  This document came from her file of information related to the history of the village.