Planting Through History, North Carolina

Peter Simpson worked with the Historical Association of Catawba County to explore the history of the Cole Single Hopper Plain View planter from their collection which was made c. 1900. He investigates how the planter was part of an important shift in agriculture through interviews with Catawba County, North Carolina residents who discuss what planting was like in an earlier era.

 

Peter Simpson (00:05): Workers, they are the backbone of America. They're strength, ability, and perseverance are what makes our country great. American farmers have always been some of the hardest workers with the most important and toughest roles in our society, especially here in Catawba County. Working endless days, they and their families have tirelessly persevered with their strong-willed callused hands and sunburnt faces. Providing for their families, their communities, and their country has always driven them. Over the years innovation has changed the lives of these farmers and made their work more efficient. Because it's simple design and wooden handles, it may not look impressive. This turn of the century Cole Single Hopper Plainview Planter is one of these innovations and is a great example of American ingenuity as it shaped the lives of the farmers who used it and benefited from it.

Reid Ikerd (00:51): Both of my grandfathers farmed, had large farms.

Eva Abernethy (00:55): We didn't have machines. We had horses and plows. We did everything by hand.

Reid Ikerd (01:01): We raised a lot of produce and took to Maiden to sell to the independent groceries.

Dr. Clarence Hood (01:06): Probably when I was about 10 years old I was growing some crops kind of on my own. I remember having some field corn and I had, as a full waste product, I had some cotton. And that was quite a learning experience particularly when it got time to pick it.

Eva Abernethy (01:27): We'd pull the corn off by the ears and throw it in a pile and then we'd take the wagon and go back and pick up the corn and put it in the barn or outside the barn in a big old pile and then we'd have a corn shucking.

Peter Simpson (01:46): This Cole Single Hopper Plainview Planter was produced by Cole Manufacturing Company around the turn of the 20th century in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was shipped all across the country. With it's simple construction of wooden metal it made an easy tool to repair. This planter was meal drawn and could be adjusted to dig deeper or more shallow into the ground. It then automatically dropped the corn seeds into the hole and covered the hole with its wheel as it pulled along. This was truly an innovative machine as before the Cole planter was available corn or other crops had to be planted by hand.

Reid Ikerd (02:22): Before this planter everybody had to go by and drop a seed and then someone had to come along behind and cover it up with dirt. Okay? This planner you put the seeds in, the chain would turn and you put a ... what they call a plate in here, which is a disc. It had holes however far you wanted the seed to drop. And it was certain ones for cotton and certain ones for corn because you planted things differently. And as the wheel was driven by this and it turned this in here and as it would come around, it would drop the seeds down the spout into the furrow and then the wheel would cover it. So it was just one walking situation.

Dr. Clarence Hood (03:11): The most prevalent planter pull with a mule or horses was the Cole Planter. You could plant cotton and corn and peas. And so that was the most common type of planner.

Reid Ikerd (03:27): We used the Cole. I believe the one we had had two hoppers on it. One was a fertilizer in the back and the one for seed in the front so that you could do all that in one operation.

Dr. Clarence Hood (03:42): Eventually before mules and horses were used, we actually pulled it behind a small tractor and plant into our fields. So still with the mule type planter which was, by the way, made in Charlotte, North Carolina so.

Peter Simpson (03:59): With over 100 years of experience in helping farmers plant crops, the contribution of this corn planter has been truly game changing to the farmers here in Catawba County and to farming as a whole. It truly plays a part in our heritage and the way we work.

Reid Ikerd (04:14): Farm work was hard, but I still look back on it as something I enjoyed. I learned so much from that that helped me in my career.

Eva Abernethy (04:23): Well it's so much better. You got all kinds of machinery to do the work now. You don't have to work with your hands and do everything like we did.

Dr. Clarence Hood (04:36): It's important to remember that we are self sufficient and sustaining as far as food production and fiber in this country. So that's something that hopefully young people would appreciate and help support in the future that we still would be that way.

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Asset ID: 2018.14
Themes: Crossroads, history, Southern culture, farming, technology, memories, objects, museums
Date recorded: 2018
Length of recording: 5:00 m
Related traveling exhibition: The Way We Worked
Sponsor or affiliated organization: Historical Association of Catawba County; Newton-Conover Middle School
More information: https://museumonmainstreet.org/blog-node/tools-many-trades-feature-north-carolina-youth-stories