Red Ears and Andy at the Corn Husking Party

 



     It was old-fashioned in November 1899. Andy Patchett attended a corn husking party at the farm of old friends John and Nellie Coons in the Sandy Ridge community a few miles out of Coffeyville, Kansas. The Coons were Sandy Ridge neighbors since 1874. Nellie Augustine Coons was also a childhood friend.

      Andy’s father Mathew and cousin Jim Patchett also came and helped. “The huskers cleaned the field and left the corn all cribbed,” the local newspaper’s country correspondent noted.

     Work parties such as barn raisins, corn huskings, quilting bees and apple parings were a part of our agricultural ancestors’ lives. “Many hands make light work,” and a little good-natured teasing lightened the job, too.

 

  Andrew Patchett had the honor of being first in the field and there were grave doubts as to whether he slept any the night before.

  Harley Felker hung close around John Young because he suspicioned that John had a jug in his wagon. John Faultner was such a strong Republican that every time an ear hit him on the head he thought it was chunks of prosperity coming his way.”

 

      The last remark needs a little context. The United States was battling its way out of the worst depression before the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Panic of 1893, as it was called, devastated the country, leading to unemployment rates of nearly 20 percent nationwide, but as high as 43 percent in Michigan and 35 percent in New York. Over 500 banks closed, over 15,000 businesses failed, including major railroads. Numerous farms ceased operation and people faced actual starvation. Republican William McKinley was elected president in 1896 with over 50 percent of the popular vote, something that hadn’t happened in 25 years. He was promoted as the “advance agent of prosperity.” During his first term, the country pulled out of the terrible depression and fought a popular war against Spain. His campaign slogan for reelection in 1900 was “Four More Years of a Full Dinner Pail.” 

     But Kansas voted for William Jennings Bryan in 1896. There were many headlines and comments sarcastically extolling the “chunks of prosperity” people waited on.  

     As to being “first in the field,” all the other descriptions of huskings had guests gather in a barn where the farmer already had the stalks cut and arranged in a great pile. Participants sat in a circle around it, shucking the ears. 


Corn Husking

     

    From the 1850s on, there were nostalgic accounts in the newspaper about corn husking. It’s not that machinery had taken over the task; it hadn’t. It wasn’t until 1928 that the first commercially successful husker and sheller entered the market. Indeed, it was still common to husk by hand into the 1940s. But increasingly, corn husking and shelling became something hired hands were paid to do. When there was a husking party, many of the rowdier elements were left out – hence the nostalgia.

     Those who husked a field of corn report that it was physically exhausting. After the 1890s the men wore gloves with a hook on them that helped rip the shucks open. Before that, they carried a husking peg made of wood. A corn husking party made an exhausting task fun. It was a time for neighbors to gather, engage in competitions such as who filled a bushel the fastest and to socialize, with the women preparing a big feast. 

     Unlike many farm tasks, husking was done when it was cool, and therefore, more pleasant: “Golden autumn days with hazy, dreamy atmosphere, weather just cold enough to stimulate activity…mellow, yellow pippins hanging in the orchard, and sometimes a jolly evening extending into the morning hours…” was the picture a newspaper correspondent painted of such times.

     Mrs. Coons’ party had 26 men in attendance and four women helping her with the cooking. Dancing and game-playing, which was common in the “old days,” was not mentioned, though there was a dinner to look forward to.

      

Red Ears


      Something that was made much of was the tradition that if a man found an ear of red corn, he could kiss the girl of his choice at the party. Everyone knew what it meant if someone mentioned a red ear of corn. No one had to explain this little stanza that ran in a “chit-chat” column in 1863:


Rosy, ripe and red,

The pride of perfection’s years,

Sweetest, brightest and best,

Red cheeks, red lips, red ears.


     The word 'ears' was italicized in the original. This inserted quite a bit of interest and fun into the event. Similarly, if a young woman found an ear with corn smut on it, she could rub the smut in a man’s face. These two activities alone could make the corn husking quite a lively affair. There were also a lot of stories of young men saving red ears of corn and bringing them to the husking hidden in their clothes, and gullible young girls who kept getting kissed by the same young man until she caught on. One year at a community Christmas party at the schoolhouse in Winfield, Kansas, a red ear of corn was given out as a gift.


Atchison Corn Carnival and Red Ears


     In the late 1890s Atchison, Kansas hosted a corn carnival that drew crowds of thousands, with special excursion trains to meet the demand from out-of-towners. At the 1896 festival the governor and his wife  arrived with 200 uniformed veterans from the old soldiers home. The governor’s wife even wore a bonnet decorated with corn. Three bands played, one of which had 184 members. It was made up of the bands of eight different towns, at a time when each town had a town band. There were elaborate floats for the parade, one with a giant ear of corn and another with a log cabin. Corn husk neckties were big sellers, and so were bags of shelled corn. The reason for this becomes clear from a newspaper reporter’s description:


     The excursionists came to town yesterday loaded with shelled corn. When the trains came in there were thousands of people at the depot to greet them, and pelt them with shelled corn. The people in the car windows and on the platforms returned the volleys with great spirit. Every time an excursion train came in the locomotives whistled in chorus, and the din was terrific. 


     But in addition to the fun of a “corn fight,” a big draw for young men were the girls walking around wearing red ears. They were obviously “open game.” 


     The red ear of corn business was no joke yesterday. Hundreds of young men made a specialty of grabbing girls wearing red corn and kissing them, and the struggling and screaming were immensely funny. The girls fought back with shelled corn, and when a number of them were in a party, they often put the young men to flight.


     No wonder the excursion trains from Podunkville towns were full. The newspaper noted that one young man said he’d kissed 150 girls. Yet the reporter said there was less “rowdyism” than the year before, even though 1896 brought much bigger crowds. 


The Red Ear in Fiction and Poetry


     The red ear was the theme in quite a few short stories, sometimes featuring an innocent city girl attending her first corn husking. It was featured in at least one poem from 1877:


The Red Ear of Corn

By H.C. Hayden


One still October morning, 

A long, long time ago,

‘Twas in whis’pring cornfield

I met sweet Jennie Rowe.


The golden ears were peeping

Through silver husks to see

A bashful lad in trouble,

And Jennie watching me. 


I ran and carried Jennie

A bright red ear of corn;

And then the crimson blushes

On her soft cheeks were born.


We ran across the meadow

With hearts brimful of bliss,

Jennie kept the ear of corn,

I, the cornfield kiss.


This chill October morning,

I kneel upon the ground,

Where in my happy boyhood,

That ear of corn was found.


Now, through the frosty meadow

An aged man I go;

Still on my lips I feel that kiss

Of fifty years ago. 


      Red ears were not mentioned in the report of John and Nellie Coons’ corn husking outside of Coffeyville. 


     Today there is a National Cornhusking Association with members in nine Midwestern states, including Kansas. They sponsor corn husking competitions – picking and shucking the corn in the field. 

     While they continued to be described as old-fashioned, the corn husking party remained popular in the Coffeyville area into the first decade of the twentieth century. 


Sources:


     “Corn Husking Frolic,” Eastern Argus (Portland, Maine), 12 Dec 1832, p. 1. 

     “Chit-Chat With Our Readers,”  Ebensburg Alleganian (Ebensburg, Pennsylvania), 29 Oct 1863, p. 3.

     “The Same Old Way,” Coffeyville Weekly Journal, 21 Nov 1885, p. 6.

     “Corn Husking and Feeding,” The Western Rural (Chicago, Illinois), 30 Dec 1869, p. 1. 

      “A Husking Bee. A Jolly Old-fashioned Custom Revived,” Grant County Herald (Lancaster, Wisconsin), 6 Dec 1870, p. 1. 

     Red Ear on Christmas Tree: “From Pleasant Valley,” Winfield Courier (Winfield, Kansas), 4 Jan 1877, p. 3.

     Hayden, H.C. “The Red Ear of Corn,” Troy Bulletin (Troy, Kansas), 17 Nov 1877, p. 4.

     “The Red Ear - The Story of a Husking Frolic,” Garnett Weekly Journal (Garnett, Kansas), 25 Feb 1882. p. 1. 

     “Love at the Husking,” Concordia Times (Concordia, Kansas), 5 Feb 1888, p. 1. 

     “Fifty Years Ago! No. 23, by Uncle Silas," The Thibodaux Sentinel (Thibodaux, Louisiana), 24 Dec 1892, p. 1. 

     “The Corn Carnival,” Atchison Daily Globe (Atchison, Kansas), 25 Sept 1896, p. 2. 

     “Husking Corn For Fun,” The Daily Register (Red Bank, New Jersey), 11 Nov 1896, p. 5. 

 


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