We Sagebrush Folks

by Annie Pike Greenwood

First published in 1934, this book tells the story of an American farm woman, her husband and family, and vividly describes farm life and farm psychology.

“We Sagebrush Folks tells the experiences of a woman of education, refinement, and culture, who went with her husband to plow up wealth in the land under the then new Minidoka Irrigation Project in Southern Idaho. The ‘heart of gold’ that experience held was the beauty of Idaho, its sunshine, its sky by day and by night, its mountains, its vast stretches of gray-green sagebrush, which she saw transformed into fields and farms, its pure, clear, inspiring, stimulating air—and what all these meant to her, emotionally and spiritually. She writes with intelligence, a notable gift for expression, and a considerable interest in and knowledge of economics. An intimate, colorful portrayal of the daily life of the sagebrush farmers and their families, mercilessly truthful, but written with vivacity, cleverness, and humor, full of anecdotes, tales, and incidents that are often amusing, sometimes tragic, but always told with a keen sense of their dramatic values.” (FLORENCE FINCH KELLY, New York Times Book Review)

Genres: History, Nonfiction

650 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that I find hard to recommend to most people. The author is telling the story of her life as a farm wife, or “sagebrush wife” in southern Idaho in the teens and 1920s. That alone drops readership enormously. The book should have some interest to Idaho readers as well as anyone wanting to know about farm life in that period.

Greenwood began as a farming-innocent young woman who along with her husband and first children moved to a life that only just kept them afloat. We Sagebrush Folks is her rambling memoir covering such things as farming details, children’s education, health, religion, politics, history and social life in this very specific place. Her writing suffers from too many distractions, opinions and excessive length.

I found it fascinating a lot of the time because her family got off the train a couple of stops and a county over from my paternal grandparents at almost exactly the same time. Cheap land and railroad advertising drew people to this area which was unsuitable for small (160 acres) farms and ruined almost every endeavor. Her stories either completely duplicated things my dad had told me or shocked me into the realization of really hard times brushed over lightly in my family. She talks of farm boys building homemade radios (yes, my dad), the cool starry nights, the “big city” of Twin Falls and the unending drudgery. Among the things that shouldn’t have startled me but did, the horrors of women’s work, women’s fear of children falling into irrigation canals, the one horse that took all the children to school (I had always envisioned my dad and his two sisters on three horses, but of course not). Only one old nag that was no longer fit for farm work was loaded with three or more children for the ride back and forth to the schoolhouse—an hour each way. It is a treeless country so sagebrush was the fuel for the kettle that boiled your clothes in lye soap and the school kids gathered sagebrush on their way in the door to heat the one room school. Mischievous boys sometimes stuffed the school chimney to cause smoke to billow out and disrupt class (again in her story and one of my dad’s stories). All of those things and more fascinated me. But for you, her diversions and endless opinions might be a bore.

Near the book’s end she says “YES, we lost the farm, thank God!” It was a foregone conclusion and happened to the vast majority. If you drive by there today you see enormous, beautiful, irrigated fields but you should consider the work and suffering that came before.

I’m glad Greenwood wrote the book, I’m glad I read it, but I can’t recommend it wholeheartedly.

[Rrshively · Rating 4 out of 5]

By looking over Goodreads reviews, I found that people were all over the map from 1 star to 5 stars in rating this book. I rated it 4 stars because I very much enjoyed Annie's humorous sarcasm, ironic wit, self deprecation, and unique turns of phrases. Her descriptions of landscapes, homely items, and people were very well done. This was a book that was written by subject matter rather than chronologically which made it more difficult to follow, a fault that might turn many people off. Also, Annie went into long diatribes about the treatment of the farmer and other subjects which made me, as a reader, impatient even though I mostly agreed with her thoughts. I found several pithy statements that really captured an idea, though. Despite its faults, I am very glad I read this book. When I recently traveled on the interstate through Jerome, Twin Falls, and near Bliss, I looked at the area in a whole new way imagining sage brush where there are now dairy farms and green fields. In modern times the irrigation isn't so difficult as expensive field-size sprinklers are now used.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really great book by a woman who lived near Twin Falls, ID on a type of homestead farm during the early part of the last century. I loved her sense of humor and clear-eyed view of her life and community. Her husband was lured to this area through railroad advertisements in a farming magazine, just as railroad companies lured many farmers to unsuitable areas for farms. The price was amazing--25 cents/acre with another 25 cents/acre due in order to buy the farm you had slaved over after clearing the sagebrush and trying to make enough money on the crops you grew to pay back your mortgage. Very few were able to do this. The work was backbreaking, and that includes for the women who worked nonstop baking, washing, gardening etc. Annie was also asked to teach the neighborhood children and the school and school district are still named after her. Her chapters are not chronological but recount her experiences and opinions of many different topics. Not enough books are written by women who lived lives such as Annie's and I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

[Kelly Horn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for anyone studying women's history in America, Western settlement, or trying to understand the source of anti-federal attitudes in the American West.

[Vikki Ascuena · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Pleasure

I am an Idaho girl, raised in sagebrush country, by the descendants of pioneers. While that brought Greenwood's book to my attention, the author deserves your attention because of her engaging style and voice. Her memoir begins when the young wife and mother, accustomed to fine living follows her husband to the sagebrush la d of southern Idaho where the new Milner canal promises to bring easy riches to the family who puts the virgin volcanic soil under cultivation. Greenwood chronicles her personal struggles as well as those of her neighbors with wit and wisdom.That she can laugh at herself, the students she comes to teach, and cantankerous farmers while loving and learning is a joy to read.

[Dianne Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

I drove to Twin Falls, Idaho with my family when my brother-in-law died a few years ago. On the way, we passed an old schoolhouse. Two evenings later while visiting, the local television channel broadcast a documentary about that schoolhouse and a woman who taught there. This book was one of the resources. I was so happy to find the book available for my kindle. Part of my family helped settle the southern part of Idaho. The book was fascinating to read, all the way from this family's newlywed days through to their old age. If we hadn't been interested in the old schoolhouse, I would never have found and read this book.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story to look back in history and the way things were.

I greatly enjoyed reading about the place I grow up. I never knew the history of Hazelton. A so much different place now but happy to no that at one time it was booming. My heart is with the farmers of today and in the past. My dad and my my husband work so hard to feed America. Farming is so important and the author really puts the truth on the industry.

[Sheryl Heuer · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much better than I expected

I really didn’t want to read “We Sagebrush Folks”, but once I got started (Thank you, Tracy) I fell in love with my home state. Mrs. Greenwood expresses the ideas and thoughts of so many other farm folk.
I would like to see this book become required reading for all Idaho high school students, and all economics students.

[Leslie Metzger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a satisfying read!

I enjoyed every page of Annie Pike Greenwood's book. Her intelligence, wit, adaptability and good humor made me wish her book wasn't published in 1934. I would call her for advice. people do 't change!

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read for anyone living in southern Idaho, whether native to the state or transplanted from elsewhere, who wants to understand what life was like here in the very early days when dam and canal building made farming possible in this vast sagebrush country. Especially for women.

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book club read. Good historical read about early Idaho. Somewhat repetative in nature and certainly reflective of a very opinionated woman. We had a great discussion with a four-generation Idaho native and professor.

[judy kendrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A journey of hard times

This author is, in my opinion, one of the best. Her command of the English language is remarkable. She is witty and comical and keeps you interested. How fortunate for us that she kept notes and wrote this book. Her ability to make you wonder how anyone could put up with such hardships was compensated by her love of Idaho....I think she was a very special woman.

[Josie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know what to think about Annie Pike Greenwood. I learned about her in a Farm Literature class in college and was only now able to get my hands on her book as it's out of print and difficult to find a paperback copy. She has quite the wit and I found myself regularly laughing at the things that happened to Annie as well as her unusual outlook at life. I found many ways to relate as I grew up on a farm and had some similar experiences to her, as well as having spent a summer in South Eastern Idaho, I felt like I knew the landscape she was describing. I admire her, definitely. But I also find myself hating her just a little, and I'm not honestly sure why. Her book talked honestly about many of the things she was facing during her time on the farm in Idaho and her struggles real, but I came into the book already knowing some of Greenwood's history and was disappointed by moments left out of her story (though I know she often mentioned it was no biography.) I also found myself loving Charlie and am saddened beyond belief that they did not finish their time together. But, all in all, Greenwood's wit makes the book well worth reading, not to mention all that I learned from farming in the early 1900s and all the challenges and joys that came with it.

[LAB · Rating 2 out of 5]

My great grandmother lived on a farm in one of Idaho's irrigation projects. She was a woman I never met so I don't know much about her time there. With the idea that I could learn something about what she had experienced, I picked up We Sagebrush Folks written by Annie Greenwood (U of Idaho, 1934; reprinted 1988).

Greenwood, whose stream-of-consciousness style barely hides the autobiographical character of the stories, saw herself as a moderately talented writer and somewhat displaced by life on the farm. Her narrative is disjointed, wandering, and filled with barnyard philosophy. In between her unsuccessful attempts at humor and horror, she did manage to give me some sense of farm life. But I'm not sure that what I got out of Greenwood's book was worth the effort.

[Wendy Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Annie's childhood in town was very sheltered. She didn't even know where babies came from until she was nearly an adult, and pulled a human anatomy and physiology book off of her (physician) father's bookshelf. This is a series of stories about her years as a teacher, mother and wife of a would-be farmer on the Snake River Plain of southern Idaho. Annie's narrative has a lot of personal insight and humor, and some really interesting descriptions of what frontier life was like for a woman.

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Parts of this were interesting. It didn't need to be so long. I loved that she wrote so candidly and honestly, but there was something about her 'voice' that put me off. I'd say 2.5 to 3 starts. Still not sure what I think. But there were definitely interesting things about the way of life then, especially since I'm living not too far from where they had their farm. I really enjoyed when she talked about her teaching experiences.

[Katie Tatton · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of a frontier family who comes to Southern Idaho to find their place in the world. Annie Pike Greenwood writes with humor and emotion about various aspects of farm life and her experiences as one of the first teachers in the area. The book is laugh out loud funny in parts, disturbing in its harshness in others.

[Barbara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I chose this memoir thinking I would enjoy reading about Annie Greenwood's life as a settler in South Central Idaho. The Greenwood homestead is within 15 miles of my childhood home. Some of it was interesting but I was so annoyed at Ms. Greenwood's conceit that I couldn't bring myself to finish it. She certainly has an excessively favorable opinion of herself!

[Jean Cowden · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was about an early Idaho farmer and all the trials she went through. It was interesting to me because it was about my home state. It could have been told in half the pages. The sad part is the last pages when it went on to tell about her life. She divorced Charlie and continued to write but never quite made it as a writer.