Yakima Moxee City
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Central Washington University ScholarWorks@CWU All Master's Theses Master's Theses Fall 2016 EVERYDAY FARM LIFE IN THE MOXEE VALLEY 1915-1950: HISTORICAL ETHNOGRAPHY Terri Towner [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd Part of the Agricultural Education Commons, Cultural History Commons, Human Geography Commons, Museum Studies Commons, Oral History Commons, Other History Commons, Physical and Environmental Geography Commons, Public History Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Social History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Towner, Terri, "EVERYDAY FARM LIFE IN THE MOXEE VALLEY 1915-1950: HISTORICAL ETHNOGRAPHY" (2016). All Master's Theses. 597. https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/597 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Master's Theses at ScholarWorks@CWU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@CWU. 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EVERYDAY FARM LIFE IN THE MOXEE VALLEY 1915-1950: HISTORICAL ETHNOGRAPHY __________________________________ A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Faculty Central Washington University ___________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science Cultural, Environmental, Resource Management ___________________________________ by Terri Ann Towner November 2016 CENTRAL WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY Graduate Studies We hereby approve the thesis of Terri Ann Towner Candidate for the degree of Master of Science APPROVED FOR THE GRADUATE FACULTY ______________ _________________________________________ Dr. Kathleen Barlow, Committee Chair ______________ _________________________________________ Dr. Nancy Hultquist ______________ _________________________________________ Dr. Karen Blair ______________ _________________________________________ Dean of Graduate Studies ii ABSTRACT EVERYDAY FARM LIFE IN THE MOXEE VALLEY: 1915-1950 HISTORICAL ETHNOGRAPHY by Terri Ann Towner November 2016 This study collected oral histories of those who lived or worked in the Moxee Valley, within the greater Yakima Valley of Washington State from 1915-1950. It documents and records the historical and cultural processes of farm life and its evolution for people living in this foremost hop-growing region of the United States. The larger goal is to characterize the community and social processes for use as primary source documentation to create historically accurate programs at the Gendron Hop Ranch-Living History Farm near Moxee. Nineteen participants were interviewed. Topics addressed in the study include farming in the Valley, the household, roles and work, the community and hop harvest. To date, no other study has collected this history. Keywords: Moxee Valley, Hops, French, Dutch, hop-growing, farming, social processes, Moxee community, Moxee social processes, Yakima Valley history, everyday farm life, Moxee history, Yakima history, oral history, cultural processes of farm life, historical processes of farm life, farm life evolution, community evolution. iii iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To all those I had the privilege of interviewing and their families, thank you for sharing your homes, your knowledge, and your friendship with me. Thank you for partnering with me to preserve this knowledge of ways of life that are no longer a part of the Moxee Valley, but were part of your everyday experiences. You lived in a time that was full of change, yet also full of a kind of richness of community spirit. Those interviewed often told me they didn’t want to live in the past, thanks to all the conveniences and benefits of present day technology and medicine, yet many still long for a community that was as neighborly and connected as it was seventy years ago. I thank Dr. Kathleen Barlow for never giving up on me, and for taking the time to guide and direct me; and to my husband, Kevin Towner, for continuing to nudge me to complete this work and providing the support I needed to finish well. I am grateful for the help of my committee, for their honest opinions and help in shaping my research. I am indebted to Nancy Hultquist, Bev Pfaff, and Lisa Baily for their help in editing, the friends who prayed for me as I wrote, and for those who undertook transcribing portions of my interviews to enable me to move this thesis forward. I could not have done this without your help. I am truly grateful. Photos and other archival materials were graciously provided by the participants, Rev. John J. Murtagh of Holy Rosary Church, the O.J. Gendron family, Yakima Valley Museum, Roy Farms, and Washington State Historical Society. Thank you. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1 Study Area ............................................................................................... 3 The Gendron Hop Ranch – Living History Farm ................................... 6 Central Washington Agricultural Museum ........................................... 11 ALHFAM .............................................................................................. 13 II LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................... 15 III STUDY DESIGN & METHODS ............................................................... 21 Sketch of Participants ............................................................................ 25 IV FARMING IN THE VALLEY ................................................................... 38 Irrigation in the Moxee Valley .............................................................. 40 The Fowler Ditch .................................................................................. 41 The Moxee and Hubbard Ditches ......................................................... 43 The Selah-Moxee Ditch ........................................................................ 45 The Water Year, Ditches, and Farming ................................................ 46 Types and Sizes of Farms ..................................................................... 46 Farming through the Year ..................................................................... 56 V THE HOUSEHOLD ................................................................................... 78 Differences ............................................................................................ 79 Household Commonalities .................................................................... 85 Heating, Water, & Energy ..................................................................... 95 VI ROLES, GENDER, AND AGE IN THE HOUSEHOLD .......................... 97 Head of the Household .......................................................................... 98 Second in Command – The Role of the Wife ..................................... 101 Young Men.......................................................................................... 105 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued) Chapter Page Young Women ..................................................................................... 107 Boys and Girls ..................................................................................... 110 Analysis ............................................................................................... 113 VII THE COMMUNITY ................................................................................. 114 Neighborhoods .................................................................................... 118 A Sense of Community ................................................................... 119 Family, Households, and Extended Family ........................................ 120 Neighbors ............................................................................................ 125 Church ................................................................................................. 127 Schools ................................................................................................ 135 The Grange .......................................................................................... 147 Businesses and Establishments ........................................................... 149 Communication ................................................................................... 155 Events, Diseases, Epidemics, & War .................................................. 156 VIII HOP HARVEST ....................................................................................... 163 The French District, Kilns, and Processing Hops ............................... 181 The Kiln – A Hops Processing Machine ............................................. 188 Processing Hops .................................................................................. 192 Drying, Cooling, and Baling ............................................................... 200 Transitional Years 1940 – 1950 .......................................................... 214 Moxee Hop Festival ............................................................................ 231 The Royal Court .................................................................................. 236 Life in Hop Camps .............................................................................. 237 IX ANALYSIS AND CONCLUDING REMARKS ................................ 247 Chapter Themes, Lessons, and Their Depiction ................................. 250 REFERENCES ........................................................................................