Early to Rise!
Even though you were a kid, you still had to work on the farm ...
If you were a kid in Buffalo Grove in 1910, you were probably living on a farm. Most residents were farmers, with the exception of the store owner, tavern owner, and clergy at St. Mary Parish. At the break of dawn, you would wake up to milk the cows or collect the chicken eggs.
Milking the cows was an important job...
Milking the cows was always your duty as the eldest kid! The milk you collected was quickly sent on the Prairie View train into Chicago for sale. Buffalo Grove helped supply lots of milk to families all over Chicago. You had 10 cows on your farm, so there was a lot of milking to be done each day.
You would first milk the cow into a metal pail. Then the milk would be transferred into a large 10 gallon metal container. These containers were perfect for shipping the milk because they were sturdy and could be reused.
Once your milk made its way to Chicago, it was repackaged into smaller glass jugs to be distributed to families all around the city. Like metal containers, glass containers could be reused and they were good for insulating the milk and keeping it fresh.
Dairy farming was also a complicated job...
Managing the temperature of fresh milk is important - you don't want the milk to go bad on the journey to Chicago. This thermometer would let you monitor the temperature of milk.
The thermometer was also a helpful tool if you needed to turn that milk into cheese or other dairy products. There was a great cheese factory in town called the Weidner Creamery and Cheese Factory that you sometimes visited to buy cheese - the Weidner's were a prominent family in town and you were good friends with many of the kids.
Still more chores to do...
After milking the cows, you had to help your siblings with the chickens – collecting eggs helped your family pay for goods at the General Store. In 1910, eggs could be redeemed for 11 cents per dozen at the Weidner General Store in town! Your family had been bringing eggs to the store for 20 years. You were saving up credit at the store so that you could buy some much needed cloth to make new winter clothes.