Allison Royce Drake -- His Father's Son

Our Allison was 12 years old the summer his baby brother, Johnny, died on 31 August 1871.  How involved is a young man with a new baby so much younger in the house.  He probably wasn't expect do look after young Johnny as there were four sisters to do it.  Actually, Allison probably had very little contact with his little brother other than someone occasionally dumping the baby in his arms and saying, "Hold your brother," while they raced off to get a fresh diaper.

In 1870, all the younger children were still in school:

• Bird, 13
• Allison 11
• Jane, 9
• Lucy, 6

Ann was 20 and Mary 16 were still in the house and the 1870 Federal Census stated that they were "at home."  You have to presume they here helping out.  There is no way a farmer's daughter is going to lay around and do nothing.  The Drakes were well read and I can't imagine "an indulgent" father not getting his children the most education available.  If Allison Royce missed more school than the typical farm boy, it was probably because he was playing hooky.  And if that was the case, Allison and/or Bird would probably been whipped, and if they continued to run off, their father would have just kept them on the farm and put them to work.  

Maybe Allison wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.  Maybe he was dyslexic.  Maybe he was AD or ADHD.  Maybe he was just a little slow.  But he was a handsome man and if any of his progeny are proof -- charming and funny as well.  

School attendance was usually voluntary and a child's attendance was determined by age, sex, financial situation, time of year, weather and growing season.  It seems that in the 1870s there were two school terms.  there was the May until August  (after the spring planting to before the harvesting) and then from September to May.  

School house were usually from 8 am to 4 pm.  And I thought the traditional 8 - 3 of the 1960s was way too long.  Most farm kids had to walk to school, unless you were lucky enough to have a horse.  I found and article "The Late Nineteenth Century One Room School" at Oak Hill School Teachers Resources and Curriculum Guide that state children had to walk any where from a short distance up to 3 miles.  

I imagine that like most farmers' sons in the 1870s, Allison -- along with his brother Bird -- had plenty of chores and responsibilities on the farm, especially now that Bird and Allison were the only boys, the other brothers growing up, getting married and moving on.  And those chores were a man chore's -- not the chores that a young boy would help his mother with.  There were plenty of girls to work the garden, and get the eggs, to bring in firewood.  

Allison had to feed and water the livestock, muck the stalls, milk the cows, harvest, plant, winnow, cut firewood, cut ice and get water. 

I wonder if the farming life was starting to get harder and harder for John Stout Drake.  He still had a houseful that depended on him, but he was getting older.  He no longer had 3 strapping sons to help out, just two skinny teenagers.  Maybe too much responsibility was being pushed on the boys.