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Nelvin Sloman - Modern Era

Nelvin Sloman was born in 1930 in Fayette County, Illinois. He grew up on his step-father's farm in southwest Christian County. Nelvin describes life on the farm in a time before electricity and when draft animals were used for tillage, planting, cultivating and harvesting. Nelvin recalls helping farm at age eleven by harrowing with a team of horses and plowing the garden with a one bottom plow pulled by a white horse. Crops grown on their farm at that time included corn, wheat, oats and clover. Nelvin reminisces about a simpler time on the farm, where the farms were smaller, and where neighbors lived close by and helped each other cope with the hard depression years.

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Feature Except-Audio

Sod House

Abstract

Interview Session (Audio)

Photos

Caption
Ida’s parents, Orris and Stella Garrett in front of their soddie (sod house) three miles south of Capa, South Dakota in 1912.

Where:
Capa, South Dakota

When:
1912

Ownership:
Narrator’s photo

Caption
Ida’s parents, Orris and Stella Garrett in front of their soddie (sod house) three miles south of Capa, South Dakota in 1912.

Where:
Capa, South Dakota

When:
1912

Ownership:
Narrator’s photo

Caption
House and farmstead where Nelvin lived from ages 3-19 years old. The house is on the left, with an attached summer kitchen. The family garden is in front, center.

Where:
Capa, South Dakota

When:
Circa 1930s

Ownership:
Narrator’s photo

Caption
Nelvin used this single bottom plow to work the family’s garden and potato patch on their farm in southwest Christian County in the 1930s and ‘40s.

Where:
Christian County

When:
Circa 1930s and '40s

Ownership:
Narrator’s photo

Caption
Nelvin and Ida’s first home in southwest Christian County.

Where:
Christian County

When:
Circa 1950s

Ownership:
Narrator’s photo

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