Liberty Gardens, 1917–1919

On April 12, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson called upon Americans on the home front to help fight what would become known as World War I. In response, many Minnesotans turned to backyard gardening to increase their food supply. Homegrown vegetables filled pantries and stomachs and allowed “citizen soldiers” to conserve wheat, meat, sugar, and fats that were essential for U.S. troops and their European allies.

Black and white photograph of workers hoeing sugar beets in a field in Carver County. Date and photographer unknown.

Hoeing sugar beets

Workers hoe sugar beets in a field in Carver County. Date and photographer unknown.

Black and white wedding portrait of Frank and Sophia Schott, June 25, 1909.

Frank Schott and Sophia Barth Schott

Wedding portrait of Frank and Sophia Schott, June 25, 1909.

Color image of a windmill near Schott Barn, c.1985.

Schott Barn windmill

A windmill near Schott Barn, c.1985.

Black and white photograph of Frank Schott drilling grain, c.1920s.

Frank Schott drilling grain

Frank Schott drilling grain, c.1920s.

Frank Schott Barn, Stevens County

The stone barn built by German immigrant Frank Schott in 1923 is a prime example of innovative Midwestern architecture. The barn, located just southwest of Chokio, stands out above the fields near the Stevens and Big Stone County lines. Many feel it serves as a reminder of the determination and skills of the immigrants who did their own building throughout the Midwest. Though the barn’s wooden roof collapsed in 1993, its stone walls remain standing in the early twenty-first century.

Color image of Rocky Ridge farm in Mansfield, Missouri, 2011.

Rocky Ridge Farm

Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri. Photographed on June 24, 2011 by Wikimedia Commons user TimothyMN.

Photograph postcard depicting a shipment of butter produced by Farmers Cooperative Creamery in Milaca, c.1915.

Shipping butter to the eastern markets, Farmers Cooperative Creamery, Milaca

Photograph postcard depicting a shipment of butter produced by Farmers Cooperative Creamery in Milaca, c.1915. Minnesota farmers expected to produce goods for a market, and came to use cooperatives like this one to control the prices they received for their goods. Photograph by O. L. Palmquist.

Engraving of a bonanza farm, 1879.

Red River bonanza farm

Engraving of a bonanza farm printed in the November 1, 1879 edition of the Independent Farmer and Fireside Companion (page 174). The image celebrates the commercial possibilities of large-scale, mechanized, and systematized wheat farming in the Red River Valley.

Black and white photograph of J. H. Thomas, head of the Grange in Young America, 1873.

J. H. Thomas, head of the Grange in Young America

J. H. Thomas, head of the Grange in Young America, 1873.

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