Gilbert Royston
General Mixed Farming at Clermont and The End of This Model in 1948
In 1948, about 100 years after Edward McCormick started farming, Gilbert L. Royston was retiring from the farming business, having operated Clermont since 1939 on a 50-50 share basis with its owners, the grandchildren of Edward McCormick through his son, Admiral A.M.D. McCormick. The Royston family lived in the tenant house (ca. 1917) overlooking the farm, opposite the bank barn of the same year. Mr. Royston operated the farm with his wife, his eldest son Gilbert, a hired African American man Nathaniel "Skeeter" Garner (pay, board with the family, and room in the 1823 former slave quarter), and help from his other four children (Betty, Helen, Bill and Don) as age-appropriate, plus seasonal help as needed with harvesting, etc.
Mr. Royston's advertisement for his February 25, 1948, Closing Out Sale also clearly shows him continuing the practice of general mixed farming, retiring just as many farms in the Valley and elsewhere (including Clermont) were transitioning to a single or dual focus of operation. He was also the last to operate the farm using horses for plowing, planting, harvesting, and moving hay and other farm products. He rotated the use of his fields on a four-year cycle and strongly believed in the use of animal manure and lime, but not in commercial fertilizers. He made and used silage. His list of farm machinery (except the Model H Farmall tractor), harness, and miscellaneous items is very similar to Edward McCormick's farm inventory at his death in 1870, including a 4-horse hitch. His animals included:
Horses: 9
Milk Cattle: 16 (Holsteins)
Beef Cattle: 24 (Herefords)
Sheep: 49 (Rambouillet – French merinos, producing 10 lbs. of wool per head annually)
Pigs: 30 (Poland-China, Chester-White)
Chickens
Turkeys
Crops at the farm included a lot of wheat, almost as much corn, plus oats, barley, hay (clover-timothy and alfalfa, with 10 tons left for the sale at the end of winter in 1948), straw, and potatoes (40 bushels).
Royston family snapshots capture the life of a farming family with growing children at Clermont in the 1940s, at the end of horse-powered farming and before the advent of rural electrification. Two children of the family, Donald R. Royston and Helen Royston Magaha, have written their detailed memories of this time, copies of which are held by the Clarke County Historical Association and The Clermont Foundation. All the photos accompanying this text are courtesy of these two generous historians, who shared their family and Clarke County history.
