Family Life on the Farm in the 1940s
Hard work, strong family bonds, and a profound connection to the land characterized life at Clermont Farm in the 1940s. These photos, shared by the Royston family, capture the daily rhythms of a multi-generational farm during the final years of horse-powered agriculture and just before the arrival of rural electrification. From livestock care to harvest season, and from family gatherings to quiet moments in the fields, they offer a vivid glimpse into the lived experience of farming in Clarke County during a time of transition.
Horses were the backbone of mobile power at Clermont in the 1940s, even after the arrival of the Farmall Model H tractor. Gilbert Royston also bred black horses and succeeded in creating a 4-horse matched black team, which was also used to pull a big wagon in World War II Bond Drive parades in Berryville (with Royston employee Nathaniel Garner marching beside the lead horse). "Buddy," pictured here, is on the east side of the 1917 bank barn at the lower level with the animal stalls.
Clermont Farm, ca. 1942. Grain in hand-tied shocks in the foreground; notice how open the fields are, with less trees and no power poles – rural electrification would not reached the farm until after 1948.
Betty Royston is sitting on a shock of barley, with the Lower Barn, Carriage House, and an apple orchard behind her.
The Royston family, near the beginning of their management of Clermont, in their front yard, with the Upper Barn (1917 bank barn) in the background. This was the team, along with Nathaniel Garner and with temporary help hired in season, whose members all contributed to making the farm a success.
The Royston children's maternal grandparents, Myrtle and William Harshberger, with Bill (L), Don, and Helen in front.
Billy and Donnie Royston, with the (from L to R) former slave quarter, garage, owner's house, and, down on the creek, springhouse and carriage house in the background.
Gilbert L. Royston standing with "Bett's" colt "Maude", 1942, with shocked grain in background.
Four generations of the family, from L-R: Margaret Harshberger Royston, mother; Myrtle Harshberger, grandmother; Mary K. Hope, granddaughter; Betty Royston Hope, daughter. Wives, mothers, and daughters were a critical part of the farming family working team.
Two Hereford heifers were bought by Don (L) and Bill (R) so the boys could "start their own herd".
Mare and colt grazing with the garage (built of the 1784 barn logs) and meat house in the background.
Gilbert Royston's flock of Rambouillet (French merino) sheep, with their leader, the goat "Nannie". The wool from these sheep was exceptional, averaging 10 pounds per head annually.
Helen Royston, and behind her, the family's huge vegetable garden, and beyond it, the big barn.
One of the earliest pictures after the Royston family's arrival at Clermont, with Bill and Don with their grandmother Myrtle Harshberger in the yard of the stucco house, with roaming chickens.
Nathaniel Garner, a full-time employee of Gilbert Royston's, who lived at Clermont in the Quarter, was exceptionally talented with horses and a friend and mentor to the children. On the day of Gilbert Royston's retirement, Closing Out Sale in 1948, it was "Skeeter" Garner who demonstrated Royston's pride and joy, the matched black four-horse team and wagon, the horses braided and in decorated harness with red tassels, each with a chain of bells. Royston was proud that his sale netted the highest return of any farm sale to date in Clarke County.
Chester-White pigs and to the right the tail-end of a Poland-China sow, of which there were two, as well as two Duroc-Jersey sows and a Chester-White stag. In the background, the metal silo (1920's) and the Marietta concrete stave silo (early 1940’s) added by Gilbert Royston (the metal silo with its thin walls ruined too much silage).
