The Moses Carver Farm
The farm on which George Washington Carver grew up was owned by Moses and Susan Carver. While George’s path in life took him far from here, he considered this farm his first home.
In the 1830s, Moses and Susan Carver moved from Sangamon County, Illinois, to Newton County, Missouri, along with Moses’ brothers Richard, George, Abram, and Solomon and their families. Working together they broke the prairie land with wooden plows. The U.S. government encouraged westward expansion of the nation, but Moses Carver was unable to purchase his land until 1843, when the United States Land Office first offered it for sale. Eventually Moses Carver’s farm grew into 240 acres of crop fields, orchards, and grazing pastures for horses, cattle, mules, sheep, and oxen. The farm produced corn, wheat, oats, Irish potatoes, hay, and flax. In 1855 the Carvers purchased a 13-year old enslaved girl. She gave birth to two boys, but was then abducted. Moses and Susan raised the boys and gave them chores to help with the farm. Jim was strong, but George was frail and only able to do lighter work, like sewing and fetching water from the spring. In time, George discovered in himself a need to learn that required him to leave the farm he had grown to love.
Courtesy hmdb.org
