Farm Wife's Window – January Columns 1958 - 1965

One of the casualties of the decline of newspapers in general is the disappearance of local interest columns. Although the columnists were often non-professional writers not on the payroll of the newspaper, they nevertheless provided an invaluable inside look at a topic or aspect of life that hitherto had been off-limits to the general public.

A column along those lines that appeared regularly in the Lorain Journal from the late 1950s until the end of the 1960s was "Farm Wife's Window," written by Ethelberta Hartman of Berlin Heights. Her topics included farming, gardening, wildlife, and anything else that she thought might be of interest to her readers. 

She became a farm widow shortly after she started writing her column, and many of her stories revolve around the running of the farm by her and her sons.

I posted one of her columns from 1962 back here in 2022, which discussed red wing blackbirds.

Recently I ran across a few of her columns while reviewing some vintage January editions of the Lorain Journal. Here's an ample sample from the 1950s and 60s which includes a variety of topics. They're all well-written and provide a point of view that is becoming scarcer as the number of farms continue to shrink.

This column from January 9, 1958 explores a topic many of us have wondered about: "What Do Farmers Do In The Winter Time?"

Her January 16, 1958 column entitled, "Feeding Station Battle Seems To Go On And On" tells the story of a bird feeder built by her son David.

A charming walk in the woods is the subject of her January 8, 1959 column.

Ethel returns to a favorite topic – birds – in her January 15, 1959 column. Like me, her favorite seems to be the cardinal.

Her January 23, 1959 column reveals how corned beef and cabbage was cooked in the early 1900s. Her reference to Dinty Moore near the end of the column refers to a tavern owner in the Bringing Up Father comic strip (who prepared Corned Beef and Cabbage), not the line of prepared meals by Hormel.

The weather-forecasting groundhog is mentioned in the January 29, 1959 column, "Secret Superstition Found In Everyone."

Ethelberta's column from January 28, 1960 is of particular interest to me. She writes about, well, writing: how it is often a problem coming up with topics, how she chooses topics, and how her sons feel about being the subject of her columns. She also notes how reading various newspapers, magazines and books is a critical part of her preparation.

Lastly, here's her column from January 16, 1965. It provides a nice historical perspective of how a housewife made an angel food cake in pioneer days. Does anyone out there still make an angel food cake from scratch?