Farming in Talbot County in the 1930s: James Dawson

Farming in Talbot County in the 1930s

From the letters of ‘Bess’ and Sallie Caulk by James Dawson

Recently when going through papers in an old family desk, I found some wonderfully descriptive letters written in the 1930s by my greataunts, Elizabeth “Bess” and Sallie Caulk of Trappe, when they were trying to sell their big waterfront farm on Island Creek Neck. Written to a prospective buyer, who did, in fact, buy the property, these letters give an intimate and detailed view of farming in Talbot County just before the coming of the telephone and electricity.

It’s amazing how much has changed in eighty-some years. Farming was much more diversified then ~ raising several different crops instead of mostly the corn and soybeans of today. Yields were lower then, but expenses were less, too, and help was cheaper. Also, in the days of horses, no one needed to buy expensive fertilizer like farmers need to do now.

But first, here’s a brief history of their Isle of Rays farm. Joseph Caulk bought 338-1/2 acres of land in Trappe District from John Stevens in 1839 for $10,000. This seems like a lot of money for a farm in 1839, even if it was for prime waterfront property on Island Creek. People didn’t much care about waterfront views then, but in those days of bad roads, the water provided convenient access for shipping crops from farms to markets in Baltimore and else-

Bess and Sallie Caulk