“The Cost of Living Fifty Years Ago” from the April 4, 1930 Door County Advocate
THE COST OF LIVING FIFTY YEARS AGO
Now that everything we buy or sell is up sky high, it would be interesting to know what different things cost 50 years ago.
Well, it was in the fall of ’78, things did not look very bright. Our storekeeper, John Furlong, could have done much to make life much more pleasant and easy, but he was not that kind of a man. He said, “Bring your wood, all you have. You can have all you want of what I got in the store, but no cash money.”
Now the fact is even then people must have some cash money or they cannot get along, and furthermore, his stock of goods was not much. In the line of meats the only thing he had was pig heads, and I guess they were next to being spoiled, too. Anyway people soon tired of pigs heads, so the settlers thought they would try and get another outlet for their wood. They got the town board to lay out a road to the water and from the end of that build a dock where people could ship their own wood. Of course, such a thing could not be done. The storekeeper had money and they had neither money nor experience, so the whole thing failed.
Furlong managed to get most of the dissenting settlers lodged in jail.
“I’m jailed for what,” some asked.
“Well, that is what I’d like to know,” others replied.
Well, the fact is Furlong killed this whole business here for good, and that’s what he desired.
My father was not in favor of the settlers’ plan. He said it would never work and he was right. About this time we had a dock over in Detroit Harbor, so in order to get a little money to tide over with, he got the idea of going to Milwaukee to see one of the wood dealers about getting a contract to deliver a certain amount of wood the next summer. Well, he got such a contract—125 cords of body maple delivered over the rail for $2.00 per cord! It was nice wood too, no rot, no round.
Now just think! First cut the wood, then haul it to the banking ground ( 2 miles), then, in the summer go down and load it on the wagon and haul it on the dock. Then when the vessel came, go down an’ shove it over the rail, all for $2.00! Well, we did it.
We had a young man from down east who worked with me in the woods that winter, a sailmaker by trade, a nice young man. Why he came West that winter, we do not know. We two could make from 1 to 1¼ cords per day. He had $5.00 per M. for the winter. When spring came he had $25.00 cash in his pocket. That is more than some of the young fellows save now who get 20 times as much pay.
Of course some of the old 7-cord-a-day men will laugh when they see this, but then I never took much stock in that kind of brag as a rule. They only worked one day a week.
When father came back from Milwaukee with the wood contract, he also brought along some money and some groceries for the winter, and among other things an overcoat for me. It was not much of a coat to be sure, but I was glad to get it just the same. It was made of old rags pounded together and cost $3.00.
Now, that winter we had poor sleighing so most of 125 cords had to be hauled in the fall in mud to the axles, 3 and 4 trips to each cord.
Butter and eggs sold then for 8c to 15c, potatoes from 9 to 20c, oats from. 16c to 25c, wheat 60c, and labor was 50c to 75c a day.
C. SAABYE.
( Washington Island.)
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
[This was written by Christian Saabye for Harry E. Dankoler’s “Glimpses of Early Door County” column.]
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