‘Chickens, Crops, and Tractors’
The Use of Machines as Sacred Resource in Mennonite Fresh Air Hosting Programs
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v4i3.153Keywords:
children, tractors, industrialization, city, country, religion, fresh air programAbstract
This essay argues that machines filled a sacred purpose in the middle of the twentieth century that has gone unrecognized by scholars of religion. The Mennonites who hosted African-American children from urban environments for one- to two-week stays in the country used tractors to promote their religious Fresh Air programs. From 1950 through 1979, tractors also figured prominently in the children’s testimonies about their rural sojourns. Fresh Air hosts, promoters, and participants thus used a diesel-powered machine for religious ends and, in so doing, featured an industrialized product as a symbol of a natural retreat. Mennonite Fresh Air programs also reveal similarities between the city and country that religious and secular narratives of the period have obscured. Scholarship in the tradition of Leo Marx will be enriched by shifting attention from the chronology of machine-based industrialization to the uses of machines in natural settings for religious purposes.
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Committee on Vacation Homes and Camps. 1939. Camp Directors Conference (High Point State Park, NJ).
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Dailey, M. 1969. ‘Mississippi Negro Boy is Enjoying Life from Farm Family Near Freeman’, Yankton Press & Dakotan, Friday, August 1: 10.
The Daily News (Huntingdon and Mt. Union, MD). 1945. ‘Read Story of Fresh Air Fund—Then Be Host to City Youngsters’, Thursday, June 21: 6.
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The Daily Messenger (Canandaigua, NY). 1950. ‘“Fresh Airs” Arrive in Village of Phelps for Two Week Visit’, Wednesday, August 2: 4.
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Derstine, Norman. 1955. Memorandum, ‘Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord’. Box IMS- 17 John L. Stauffer collection General Files H-Z BOX 6, Folder Nonconformity, Virginia Mennonite Archives, Harrisonburg, VA.
Desenberg, E.B. 1937. Memorandum, ‘Reminiscences of Pretty Lake Vacation Camp’. Pamphlets P 8132, Western Reserve Historical Society Archives Library (hereafter cited WRHS).
Dunn, L.C. 1966. ‘Analysis of the effectiveness of the Friendly Town publicity program of the Herald Tribune Fresh Air Fund’ (MA diss., Boston University).
Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities. 1951. Memorandum, ‘Mennonite mission children visitation program’. Third cabinet of second set in on right side, bottom unmarked drawer, folder F-J, EMMRR.
Ellenberg, G.B. 2000. ‘Debating Farm Power: Draft Animals, Tractors, and the United States Department of Agriculture’, Agricultural History 74.2: 545-68.
The Era (Bradford, PA). 1948. ‘New York’s Fresh Air “Kids” Wait for Visit to Bradford’, Friday, June 18: 2.
Evans, S. 1968. ‘My Experience in Kansas’, The Gulfbreeze, Fall: 1.
Fitzgerald, D. 1991. ‘Beyond Tractors: The History of Technology in American Agriculture’, Technology and Culture 32.1: 114-26. doi:10.2307/3106015.
Florence Morning News (Florence, SC). 1950. ‘Florence Fresh Air Fund Launches 1950 Campaign for $2,500 Monday Morning’. Sunday, June 18.
Fond Du Lac Commonwealth Reporter (Fond Du Lac, WI). 1968a. ‘73 Chicago Children Quickly Make New Friends, See Fair’, Sunday, August 4: 3, 14.
———. 1968b. ‘Sheboygan Girl Dies in Tractor Accident’, Sunday, August 4: 14.
Franz, D. 1957. Memorandum, ‘Fresh air program’. VII.R GC Voluntary Service, Series 11 Gulfport VS Unit, Box 1, Folder 4, Correspondence—General Conf. 1960, MLA.
———. 1959. Memorandum, ‘Fresh air country vacations, July 16–30’. Chicago. VII.R GC Voluntary Service, Series 11 Gulfport VS Unit, Box 1, Folder 4, Correspondence—General Conf. 1960, MLA.
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The Gettysburg Times. 1948a. ‘Ask Return of Fresh Air Girl Second Summer’, Thursday, June 24: 1.
———. 1948b. ‘Seek Vacation Homes Here for N.Y. Youngsters’, Friday, June 18: 1.
Good, M., and E. Stone. 1982. Nicole Visits an Amish Farm (New York: Walker).
Green, J. 1968. ‘Friendly Town Afterthoughts: “Felt So Depressed After He Left” ’, Fond Du Lac Commonwealth Reporter (Fond Du Lac, WI), Thursday, August 22: 21.
Grossman, J.R. 1989. Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Hammond Times (Hammond, IN). 1937. ‘Eighty Children to Spend Two Weeks at Girls’ Camp’, Tuesday, August 3.
Hawes, J.M., C.B. Schulz, and N.R. Hiner. 1991. ‘The United States’, in J.M. Hawes and N.R. Hiner (eds.), Children in Historical and Comparative Perspective: An International Handbook and Research Guide (New York: Greenwood Press): 491-522.
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Published
2010-10-04
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Shearer, T. M. (2010). ‘Chickens, Crops, and Tractors’: The Use of Machines as Sacred Resource in Mennonite Fresh Air Hosting Programs. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 4(3), 153-181. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v4i3.153
