On
November 12, the John Jay Homestead hosted a capacity crowd for a
lecture by Elaine Weiss, discussing her book Fruits of Victory: the
Woman’s Land Army of America in the Great War. As lecture Chair Melissa
Vail said in her introduction, the crowd included “descendants of
Farmerettes’ employers, descendants of the original Farmerettes, and
current Bedford Farmerettes. They are all strong and autonomous women
who work and care for the land.” Members of every garden club that
maintains a garden at the Homestead—Bedford Garden Club, Hopp Ground
Garden Club, the New York Unit of the Herb Society of America and
Rusticus—attended, along with members of the Bedford Farmer’s Club, and
volunteers from the Bedford Hills Historical Museum and the Bedford
Historical Society. Thanks to funding from all these organizations, the
program was free and open to the public.
During WWI, the Land
Army organized almost 20,000 women in uniform, working in 25 states.
These “farmerettes” (think farmer + suffragette) were college students
and faculty, working and professional women from cities and towns, who
were given agriculture training and put to work on farms where labor
was in short supply because so many young American men were fighting in
Europe.
Ms. Weiss began by noting that the timing of the
lecture was appropriate, since Veteran’s Day was on November 11. She
explained how the American public “adored the Farmerettes.” These women
were considered icons of patriotism, and their stories and photos were
featured in the top publications of the time, including the Ladies Home
Journal, The New York Times and The Boston Globe, in addition to
newsreels, cartoons and poems.
Ms. Weiss traced the growth of
the Farmerettes movement within the top women’s colleges, including
Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, and most locally, Barnard. In
1917, food was a big issue. Europe was experiencing mass starvation,
and in February 1917, food riots took place on the streets of New York
City. People stormed shops because the cost of basic commodities had
increased overnight, due to war speculation and to the increased demand
from Europe for American food supplies. A few weeks after these riots,
the U.S. declared war. Headlines read, “How are we going to feed
ourselves and the troops?”
Pres. Woodrow Wilson spoke about
the importance of the farmers. “Food will win the war,” he said. The
farmers were willing to plant the food, but the problem was the lack of
a labor supply since farmhands were going off to war or to munitions
factories where they could make more money. It was proposed that
convicts could be used as farmhands, or office workers, or those who
had flunked military physicals or even teenage boys. “The last thing
the government would consider was to employ women in the fields,” said
Ms. Weiss.
The first Women’s Agricultural Camp began in this
area thanks to two Bedford women who approached Dean Virginia
Gildersleeve at Barnard. One woman was Camilla Short, who proposed a
model for a women’s farm camp wherein the farmerettes would live
together, and be an autonomous force making their own rules. The other
woman was Delia West-Marble, president of the Bedford Garden Club and
chair of the War Work committee.
Once the Bedford camp was set
up, Columbia Teachers College sent dietitians to instruct the women on
the proper amount of calories to consume when doing such physically
demanding work. Many of the girls put on weight—a source of pride among
the organizers! Many had also been raised in New York City, and had
much to learn about farm life, from milking cows to driving tractors.
“Camp life was fun,” Ms. Weiss said. “They made their own rules, they
played Victrolas or a piano at night. They worked as independent
contractors, and demanded an 8-hour day and equal pay to males. ” The
salary amounted to $2 per day (25 cents per hour). Bedford neighbors
loaned them cars so they could get to work. “They went to overalls as
the uniform, since skirts were in the way.”
The camps provided
a valuable learning experience due to the social mix. “There were
different educational levels and occupations, and they all lived
together. It was an experiment in democracy.“ There was a mix of
concert singers, minister’s daughters, college women, factory girls,
chauffeurs, and others. The workload was divided according to who did
what best. “It broke through class barriers, and provided an unhampered
use of muscle and brain,” said Ms. Weiss. Dr. Ida Ogilvie of Barnard
came out periodically to lecture at the camps. “She fired out
cannonballs from her broad shoulders,” said Ms. Weiss. “She encouraged
farming as a profession for women—an independent lifestyle. She wanted
to push social barriers aside.”
In the summer of 1917, 142
women were trained at the Bedford camp; and by the spring of 1918,
enrollment in the camp increased to 434 women in two camps in Bedford
and Pound Ridge. In 1917, the women’s right to vote passed in New York
State, and Ms. Weiss attributes this to the impact of the Land Army.
Overall, they were quite a phenomenon at the time. We have known so
little about them until now, but thanks to Ms. Weiss’s research, her
readers and lecture attendees have become aware of the farmerettes
patriotic contributions to the war effort. In a fitting finale to the
lecture, the audience sang a rousing anthem, written to the tune of the
Battle Hymn of the Republic and sung by the original Farmerettes during
World War I.
A fascinating exhibit, including a collection of
antique farm tools, was set up for the occasion in the Homestead’s Back
Parlor. The exhibit is now located at the Bedford Hills Historical
Museum, on the lower level of the Bedford Town House at 321 Bedford
Road (enter through the lower door on the right side of the building),
which is open Thursdays and Saturdays between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., or by
appointment by calling 666-5595 or 666-9560.
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