#52Ancestors #Week46 - These Ancestors Went to Market

Little in the way of facts are available to me from my research in Southern Illinois and environs re: the Pearsons and related family lines. However, with the exception of my paternal grandmother's people from the Netherlands, I believe that every single one of my grandfathers, going back many generations were farmers for at least part of their adulthoods.

That translates into many hundreds of trips to market in the young United States and many countries in Europe. I know for certain that many of these farmers were also illiterate, which wasn't at all unusual prior to the 20th century. Not only were crops and livestock both subject to good and bad weather, disease and natural disaster, but the literacy (or not) of the people involved in transactions at market often led to mistakes if not outright cheating. Business, and life itself, was precarious.

Since I have little more than speculation to go one, imagine just one family and their experience at market. The family may have worked for an entire season, or perhaps the entire year, to bring whatever goods they had raised to market, which for many included a journey to the nearest town, often far enough away to plan for an entire day or more. One would arrive in town, sometimes having to obtain directions or deal with unfriendly citizens, possibly getting lost a time or two on the way. They then arrive at market, perhaps exhausted, to possibly haggle over the worth of their product. Still having to get to the general mercantile to buy whatever can't be produced at home, there would have been many instances in which an individual or family may have had to find lodging for the night in order continue their shopping or their journey home in daylight.

On a happier note, this day at market was also an opportunity to obtain news, perhaps to see friends or family, and to participate in a variety of activities such as local politics or county fairs. One often had to get to the county seat to enter births or marriages and to buy or sell land.  In my imagination, for an isolated farming family, going to town was akin to the recent ability to hug our family again as COVID restrictions eased.