Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

Life in rural 1850s Texas wasn’t the simple existence you might imagine. There wasn’t a grocery store or drive through fast food restaurant on every corner. Eating… was an exercise in long-range planning.

11—One part of being a farmer, not only is growing what you’re going to need to eat today, or tomorrow or the day after. But you’re projecting ahead, maybe six months or a year.

Barb King is a park interpreter at Barrington Living History Farm at Washington-on-the-Brazos. The farm belonged to Anson Jones, the last president of the Republic of Texas. Yet, being president didn’t mean Jones was on easy-street.

23—Even for this family, which is upper middle class, they’re still worried about survival on a more intimate basis than we are. You know, just even getting hot water is a chore, not only in hauling, but then you have to heat it up. So, all the daily chores that we have today, required and a lot more forethought—as well as just physical labor. Men, women and children—everybody was working towards family survival.

Dispatching livestock and then curing the meat for use throughout the year was a chore that rural Texas families performed during cold months, because they lacked mechanical refrigeration. Next month visitors to Barrington Living History Farm have an opportunity to witness parts of that process.

02—We get a lot of interest in this event.

And if you’re interested, we’ll have details tomorrow.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.