Letters dated: July 19, 1919 / July 27, 1919 / August 5, 1919
Wilmington Del., July 22, 1919......Hello Mr. Messenger! Here I am again. We are with (our ? my?) cousin, W. F. Nance. He is paid a salary of $2,500 a year besides a good liberal commission and he doesn't mind the expense of showing us a good time. I dislike very much to take up valuable space in your paper, but we have seen so much of interest that I cannot resist writing you again. I wish to mention a few things on our trip from the beginning.
In central south Illinois we saw much wheat lost on account of soft land and in the main wheat belt we saw hundreds of binders running and no shockers, thousands of acres of bundles lying on the ground, but in upper Illinois the wheat was up in good shape. In the northern section the farmers are well equipped with machinery of every description; but they are most all retired in palatial homes in the cities, the farms being tenanted. Illinois is the second loveliest state in the Union, Louisiana being the first. The roads in Illinois are mostly gumbo and will always be for the reason that in summer they are as fine as any highway and you can make from (?? 30 to 50 ) miles per hour in a machine, but they are surfacing one half of these roads for winter use and do not allow tractors or heavy traffic of any kind to use them. They use heavy draft horses most altogether for farming, very few tractors.
In Wisconsin diversified farming is practiced but dairying is the principal business. This state has the highest priced land in the Union, an average being $170 an acre. The finest dairy farms we have seen are in Michigan and the best land runs as high as $1,000 an acre.
We traveled over 600 miles in New York state. Western part, fruits and small berries; central part, celery and cabbage, Phelps taking the lead on kraut canning; eastern part, very mountainous, not much farm land but of reasonable price. Lots of good bottom land can be had for $100 an acre.
Northern Ohio is a fine farming country but was very dry. Corn was twisted badly but have had good rains since I was through. We saw hundreds of threshers at work in this state. Good roads, all surfaced. New York has them all skinned on roads. We saw thousands of barrels of tar and hundreds of thousands of loads of crushed rock of different fineness lying along the roadside. They repair the roads half at a time so as not to interrupt traffic. We were detained 45 minutes on one of these highways by a large truck breaking through a bridge and when the road was cleared, it was estimated that there were 500 cars in the jam.
On the highway from Toledo to Cleveland we met 168 cars in ten minutes, so you can see the importance of keeping the roads open.
In New York the staple products ( a line that can't be read) all stacked in good shape.
Pennsylvania is hard to describe: it is very wet, all the wheat is sprouted six inches long and lots of it not out is lost. Lots of iron products. Have just come into Delaware. Don't know much about it, but it is not very impressive; has been raining here for several days. We had to detour several times on account of floods and washouts. We came from Philadelphia here, about 40 miles. Should have gotten here by 5 p.m. but it was 10 o'clock. A few more things and I will close.
We have not seen a dozen mules since we left central Illinois, have seen no hucksters since we left Kentucky. Went through five states without seeing a rabbit or sassafras bush, but yesterday in Pennsylvania we saw our first rabbit and sassafras bushes in 2,400 miles, and it made me think of home so strong that I stopped, pulled off a few leaves, smelled of them and put them in the car. (5 lines unreadable) and you should know how to ??? your machine and do ?? with ?? patch. There is no speed limit in Illinois, but caution boards at sharp turns, except to small towns. You slow down to 15 to 20 miles.
Chicago makes 20 to 60 (??) per hour on main drives and go about four in a breast each way: you don't dare turn right or left or you get bumped. They have a traffic cop up in the air at highway crossings with big sign, stop, go, and when he turns the board he wants you to lift the hind wheels off the ground; if you don't you get a scolding. Michigan and Ohio are swift too, but in New York you slow down; in Rochester you could put old Beck to your buggy and keep out of the way. Our average pace was about 20 to 25, but we very often made 30 for many miles and when we were going 30 big cars passed by us like we were not going at all.
We have seen but one Kentucky tag since we left. That was in Ohio near Cleveland. We were making ?0 miles and a big car passed by and they hollowed (yes) hello Kentucky! We are from Kentucky too. And tell me it did us a barrel of gas (??) on the highways, everybody is catering to the tourist. We found prices very reasonable on account of competition. Gas ranged from 23 to 29 cents. Have met thousands of tourist and they are an interesting, jolly good set of people.
Have met lots of hospitable citizens, have been invited in to tea, given several meals gratis and furnished nice room with good bed and bath free of charge. It seems to us that the world is becoming more and more humanitarian all the time. The only thing that has marred our tour is a few punctures and some rain the last few days.
We will remain at this place for a few days for my wife to rest up.
Yours truly,
In same paper.....BACK FROM THE EAST......Mr. and Mrs. Lafe Nance of Pottsville and daughter, Mrs. C. E. Bazzell and baby of Paducah, were in the city Tuesday. Mr. Nance (rest unreadable)
Information taken from the Mayfield Messenger Newspaper, Mayfield, Kentucky and kindly provided by Wayne Youngblood. Transcribed by Nancy Greer: e-mail: ngreer@wk.net