Research Catalog

Harder than hardscrabble : oral recollections of the farming life from the edge of the Texas Hill Country

Title
Harder than hardscrabble : oral recollections of the farming life from the edge of the Texas Hill Country / edited by Thad Sitton.
Publication
Austin : University of Texas Press, 2003.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
Book/TextUse in library F394.F6365 H37 2003Off-site

Details

Additional Authors
Sitton, Thad, 1941-
Description
x, 297 pages : illustrations, maps; 24 cm.
Summary
Until the U.S. Army claimed 300-plus square miles of hardscrabble land to build Fort Hood in 1942, small communities like Antelope, Pidcoke, Stampede, and Okay scratched out a living by growing cotton and ranching goats on the less fertile edges of the Texas Hill Country. While a few farmers took jobs with construction crews at Fort Hood to remain in the area, almost the entire population--and with it, an entire segment of rural culture--disappeared into the rest of the state. In Harder than Hardscrabble, oral historian Thad Sitton collects the colorful andfrequently touching stories of the pre-Fort Hood residents to give a firsthand view of Texas farming life before World War II. Accessible to the general reader and historian alike, the stories recount in vivid detail the hardships and satisfactions of daily life in the Texas countryside. They describe agricultural practices and livestock handling as well as life beyond work: traveling peddlers, visits to towns, country schools, medical practices, and fox hunting. The anecdotes capture a fast-disappearing rural society--a world very different from today's urban Texas.
Series Statement
Clifton and Shirley Caldwell Texas heritage series ; no. 6
Uniform Title
Clifton and Shirley Caldwell Texas heritage series ; no. 6.
Subject
  • Country life > Texas > Fort Hood Region > History
  • Ranch life > Texas > Fort Hood Region > History
  • Farmers > Texas > Fort Hood Region > Biography
  • Ranchers > Texas > Fort Hood Region > Biography
  • Oral history
  • Histoire orale
  • Country life
  • Farmers
  • Manners and customs
  • Ranch life
  • Ranchers
  • Fort Hood Region (Tex.) > History
  • Fort Hood Region (Tex.) > Social life and customs
  • Fort Hood Region (Tex.) > Biography
  • Texas Hill Country (Tex.) > Social life and customs
  • Texas Hill Country (Tex.) > Mœurs et coutumes
  • Texas > Fort Hood Region
  • Texas > Texas Hill Country
Genre/Form
  • Biographies.
  • History.
  • Oral history.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-290) and index.
Contents
1. Introduction : Lost Worlds -- 2. Homeplaces -- Lay of the Land -- Chores -- Gardens, Home-Use Field Crops, Fodder Crops -- Domestic Livestock -- Fishing, Hunting, Trapping, and Gathering -- Medical Self-Help and Town Doctors -- 3. Money Crops -- Cotton and Other Crops -- Cash-Crop -- Livestock -- Minor Money Crops -- Part-Time Cash Labor for Others -- Peddlers and Country Stores -- Visits to Town -- 4. Settlements -- Country Schools -- School Entertainments -- Family Visits -- The Sporting Life -- House Parties and Dances -- Neighbors Helping Neighbors -- Churches and Religious Life -- 5. Modernizations and the Takeover -- Communication Breakthroughs -- Roads and Automobiles -- Government Programs and the Takeover -- Epilogue : Sixty Years Afterward -- Appendix : The Fort Hood Oral History Project.
ISBN
  • 0292701993
  • 9780292701991
  • 0292702388
  • 9780292702387
LCCN
2003016597
OCLC
  • ocm52757453
  • 52757453
  • SCSB-1325479
Owning Institutions
Princeton University Library