There’s Something Special About These 14 Missouri Farms From The Past
By Stephanie Butler|Published January 01, 2016
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Stephanie Butler
Author
A native Midwesterner with a love for family, friends, and learning new things. In second-stage of career life, this former college instructor enjoys contributing to OIYS, blogging, reading, and spending time with her kids.
Missouri is covered with farmland, and has a rich history of much of the state being farmed for a variety of foods, cotton, and seed. Missouri also has abundant livestock farms, providing beef, pork, and dairy products. Back in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, a lot of farmers were relocated by the government in order to best manage Missouri resources. Miners were given subsistence farms that allowed them to grow their own food. In addition, due to World War II, a lot of farmers had their land purchased in order to build Camp Crowder. All of these photos are from that time period, and show what things looked like for farmers back then.
A modern dairy farm at the Bois d'Arc cooperative makes efficient milk production possible. The Bois d’Arc Cooperative Farm was a Depression-era farm that was established by the federal government in 1937 by the Resettlement Administration/Farm Security Administration.
This farm belonged to a man named John Dixon and consisted of 110 acres planted in corn, wheat, oats and hay. Photo taken in Saint Charles County, November 1939.
Part of the Bates County relocation project, this Farm unit was built on land bought by FSA (Farm Security Administration). This place would later be occupied by one of the displaced farmers from the Camp Crowder construction area. Photo taken in February 1942 in Bates County.
In the Camp Crowder area, this is James Mallory in his Ozark farmhouse. His land had been bought by the Army for construction of Camp Crowder, and the next week, with the aid of the FSA (Farm Security Administration), he moved to 160 acres of land and an entirely new type of farming. Photo taken in February 1942.
