Cotton-Picking Folks: Eulogy for a Texas Depression Era Family Farm

Children of the Cotton Patch

Cotton-like the families that produced it-is today undervalued for its contribution to Texas's wealth and heritage, but for the region's first century as a colony, a nation and then a state, the fluffy commodity carried the Lone Star economy bale by bale toward prosperity. In Cotton-Picking Folks, award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction Preston Lewis explores one family's experiences on dryland tenant farms during the Great Depression and the waning years of the sharecropping and crop lien system.

As the grandson of a tenant farmer, Lewis in the 1970s collected the written and oral histories of his grandfather's five daughters and two sons. Born into a poverty that demanded their child labor, all seven siblings picked cotton before they could read, and all faced a biscuit-and-gravy existence that typified the farm tenancy system in the cotton South in the first five decades of the twentieth century. The seven children matured as tenant farming reached its Texas zenith in a labor-intensive industry that sucked children into the state's cotton fields to feed the voracious global hunger for the versatile fiber.

Their coming-of-age recollections are enlightening and touching testaments to the enduring spirit and faith of the Greatest Generation, whose work in the cotton fields was little different than it had been the previous century. In the 78,000-word volume with 18 photographs, Lewis provides a 16,000-word essay that puts the Depression-era cotton culture in perspective, then lets those who worked in the fields and farm homes tell their stories through their letters and recollections.

Cotton-Picking Folks: Eulogy for a Texas Depression Era Family is a heartfelt tribute to a farm generation poor in material goods but rich in spirit.

1146287357
Cotton-Picking Folks: Eulogy for a Texas Depression Era Family Farm

Children of the Cotton Patch

Cotton-like the families that produced it-is today undervalued for its contribution to Texas's wealth and heritage, but for the region's first century as a colony, a nation and then a state, the fluffy commodity carried the Lone Star economy bale by bale toward prosperity. In Cotton-Picking Folks, award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction Preston Lewis explores one family's experiences on dryland tenant farms during the Great Depression and the waning years of the sharecropping and crop lien system.

As the grandson of a tenant farmer, Lewis in the 1970s collected the written and oral histories of his grandfather's five daughters and two sons. Born into a poverty that demanded their child labor, all seven siblings picked cotton before they could read, and all faced a biscuit-and-gravy existence that typified the farm tenancy system in the cotton South in the first five decades of the twentieth century. The seven children matured as tenant farming reached its Texas zenith in a labor-intensive industry that sucked children into the state's cotton fields to feed the voracious global hunger for the versatile fiber.

Their coming-of-age recollections are enlightening and touching testaments to the enduring spirit and faith of the Greatest Generation, whose work in the cotton fields was little different than it had been the previous century. In the 78,000-word volume with 18 photographs, Lewis provides a 16,000-word essay that puts the Depression-era cotton culture in perspective, then lets those who worked in the fields and farm homes tell their stories through their letters and recollections.

Cotton-Picking Folks: Eulogy for a Texas Depression Era Family is a heartfelt tribute to a farm generation poor in material goods but rich in spirit.

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Cotton-Picking Folks: Eulogy for a Texas Depression Era Family Farm

Cotton-Picking Folks: Eulogy for a Texas Depression Era Family Farm

Cotton-Picking Folks: Eulogy for a Texas Depression Era Family Farm

Cotton-Picking Folks: Eulogy for a Texas Depression Era Family Farm

Overview

Children of the Cotton Patch

Cotton-like the families that produced it-is today undervalued for its contribution to Texas's wealth and heritage, but for the region's first century as a colony, a nation and then a state, the fluffy commodity carried the Lone Star economy bale by bale toward prosperity. In Cotton-Picking Folks, award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction Preston Lewis explores one family's experiences on dryland tenant farms during the Great Depression and the waning years of the sharecropping and crop lien system.

As the grandson of a tenant farmer, Lewis in the 1970s collected the written and oral histories of his grandfather's five daughters and two sons. Born into a poverty that demanded their child labor, all seven siblings picked cotton before they could read, and all faced a biscuit-and-gravy existence that typified the farm tenancy system in the cotton South in the first five decades of the twentieth century. The seven children matured as tenant farming reached its Texas zenith in a labor-intensive industry that sucked children into the state's cotton fields to feed the voracious global hunger for the versatile fiber.

Their coming-of-age recollections are enlightening and touching testaments to the enduring spirit and faith of the Greatest Generation, whose work in the cotton fields was little different than it had been the previous century. In the 78,000-word volume with 18 photographs, Lewis provides a 16,000-word essay that puts the Depression-era cotton culture in perspective, then lets those who worked in the fields and farm homes tell their stories through their letters and recollections.

Cotton-Picking Folks: Eulogy for a Texas Depression Era Family is a heartfelt tribute to a farm generation poor in material goods but rich in spirit.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781964830070
Publisher: Bariso Press
Publication date: 10/01/2024
Series: West Texas Family , #1
Edition description: 2nd ed.
Pages: 194
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.41(d)

About the Author

Author and historian Preston Lewis has written more than 50 fiction and nonfiction works. The versatile author's books include traditional westerns, historical novels, comic westerns, young adult books and historical accounts. In 2021 he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters for his literary accomplishments. His writing honors include two Spur Awards from Western Writers of America and three Elmer Kelton Awards from the West Texas Historical Association. He has received ten Will Rogers Medallion Awards for western humor, short stories, traditional westerns and nonfiction articles. In 2024 he earned an inaugural Literary Global Independent Author Award in the Western Nonfiction category for Cat Tales of the Old West as well as a finalist designation in the IAA's Memoir category for Cotton-Picking Folks. His nonfiction articles and short stories have appeared in True West, Wild West, Persimmon Hill, Louis L'Amour Western Magazine, Saddlebag Dispatches, and multiple anthologies. He is a past president of Western Writers of America and the West Texas Historical Association, which named him a fellow in 2016. Lewis earned a bachelor's degree from Baylor University and a master's degree from Ohio State University, both in journalism. He holds a second master's degree in history from Angelo State University. Lewis resides in San Angelo, Texas, with his wife Harriet Kocher Lewis.

Harriet Kocher Lewis is the award-winning editor and publisher of Bariso Press. Titles she has edited have been honored with Will Rogers Medallion Awards, Spur Finalist designations and Independent Author Awards. She is co-author with her husband of three books in the "Magic Machine Series" published by Bariso Press: Devotionals from a Soulless Machine; Jokes from a Humorless Machine; and Recipes from a Tasteless Machine. A native Pennsylvanian, she graduated from State College High School. She has a bachelor's degree from Baylor University in biology and physical therapy and a master's degree from Texas Tech in kinesiology. She spent 26 years as a physical therapist in hospitals, outpatient clinics, nursing homes and home health. Lewis concluded her physical therapy career as the inaugural clinical coordinator for the physical therapy program at Angelo State University, where she taught technical writing. She also wrote and edited numerous scientific papers as well as a chapter in a clinical education textbook. She is married to award-winning author Preston Lewis and the mother of a son and daughter as well as the grandmother of four granddaughters and a grandson. Each summer she organizes and hosts a summer camp for their five grandchildren.
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