Displaced Agrarians of Privilege and Poverty
[ T ] Total
Pastel and Photo Collage
Melinda Turnbull
2012
Pastel and Photo Collage
Melinda Turnbull
2012
Of my Ancestors
The DeSpains, the Lynchards, the Birdsells, and the Hudsons, came to this country before it was a country from England. There is little to account for me being anything but English. They came to lumber the forests, till the soil, generation upon generation. The DeSpains, persecuted Huguenots of Canterbury, arrived in Virginia, moved through Kentucky, as the Lynchards moved through Ohio, to settle for over 150 years in Southeast Iowa near the town of New London. How ironic is that? The Birdsells chose the Finger Lakes region of New York State so reminiscent of their home near the Lakes District in Yorkshire, England. The Hudsons also started from Yorkshire (A party to William the Conqueror) a privileged family that farmed the prairie near Schoolcraft, Michigan. They all stayed, these agrarians, until the early 20th century when the demon alcohol and Great Depression changed their course. |
The Hudsons rode the prohibition train from Michigan to DC as my great-grandfather became a US congressman. The Birdsells rode the American dream from New York to DC as my great-grandfather worked for the government. Their children my social climbing grandparents met fell in love married and moved to Wisconsin on business. The DeSpains and the Lynchards always shared the same geography In southeast Iowa where my grandparents met fell in love married and lost the farm in the Great Depression. My mother, a Wisconsin city girl met my father, an Iowa farm boy one romantic summer in the western mountains (of Colorado) working at a summer camp. They settled in Wisconsin, She to till the soil, and he to teach. Twenty odd years later, this Wisconsin city girl met another Iowa farm boy one romantic summer in the western mountains (of New Mexico) working at a summer camp. They settled in Iowa, he to till the soil, and she to teach. Generation upon generation. |
Of my Grandparents
Of my grandparents I loved my grandfather DeSpain the most who pinched my brother and I under the dinner table passing us candy and pennies with a wink. He outlived the rest of his generation beating me at checkers after his 90th birthday. Visiting my Iowa grandparents always felt like coming home. The smell of cashmere bouquet the sparkle of fireflies sitting on the step stool as grandma cooked. A gentle spirit with a fragile heart. Grandpa and Grandma Birdsell were not so easy formal and removed but always kind and curious about our latest adventures. Grandma gave me a book with her name etched in the cover every year until she died of MS so I would forever remember her. Grandpa told us stories of his travels of watching the Wright Brothers fly. He always joined in every event creating a family bond that his children and their children and my children continue Generation upon generation. |
Inspired by my father's poem "Wealth"
by Clarence J. DeSpain; from his selected poems