What Happened on an American Farm After Sundown | History for Sleep

Hey guys! We're now on Spotify 🎧 Join us here: https://open.spotify.com/show/0z2GXOz... Fall asleep on a family farm in eastern Iowa on a November night in 1885, when the sun set before 5 o'clock and nearly all of the evening's work was done by lantern. Cows milked by hand, ideally in 3 minutes a cow, the milk set in shallow pans at 56 to 60 degrees for 24 hours while the cream rose, a hired man paid $17 a month and his board, and a gallon of kerosene at 15 to 20 cents, about the price of a pound of the farm's own butter. Upstairs, the boys slept on straw ticks in a garret so cold they were, as Hamlin Garland wrote, asleep in 30 seconds. So why, warm inside at last, did the farmer light his lantern one more time? Subscribe to the channel: @quiethistoricnights In this video, we talk about one night on an 1880s Iowa farm, including the last load of corn and the banger board, the cows walking to their own stalls, milking by lantern light, calves and hogs at the trough, the horses rubbed down with straw, the hens shut in, the pump and the woodbox, setting the milk to rise, supper by lamplight, the bread sponge wrapped in a blanket, the care of the kerosene lamp, butter money and the price of things, the mending basket, the almanac and the Montgomery Ward catalog, McGuffey Readers and popcorn, the Day of Two Noons, the cold garret and the hot board, the hired man's corner, the feather bed, the last walk to the barn, the prairie night, and the cream rising in the dark. 🔔 Subscribe so the next long night on an old American farm finds you without any searching. 💬 Tell us where you're listening from, and which you'd have chosen: the garret by the stovepipe, or the stable by lantern light. 📢 Share this with someone who grew up on a farm, or still dreams of one, on Facebook, Reddit or in the family group chat. You're the reason these quiet nights keep coming. Chapters: 00:00 Opening 21:48 The calves and the hogs at the trough 39:30 The pump, the woodbox and the milk carried in 59:31 The kerosene lamp and its keeping 1:20:08 The almanac, the paper and the catalog 1:39:12 Bedtime begins with the smallest 1:59:11 Making the feather bed below 2:20:49 The sounds of the prairie night 2:41:54 The farm asleep, and the lantern on its peg Sources: A Son of the Middle Border, Hamlin Garland, 1917 (Project Gutenberg): https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28791 Boy Life on the Prairie, Hamlin Garland, 1899 (Internet Archive): https://archive.org/details/cu3192402... Life on a Jones County Farm, 1873–1912, Merrill E. Jarchow, Iowa Journal of History, 1951 (Internet Archive): https://archive.org/details/iowajourn... Dairy on the Prairie, State of Iowa, 2005: https://publications.iowa.gov/22770/1... The Day of Two Noons, Library of Congress: https://guides.loc.gov/this-month-in-... One Man's Life, Herbert Quick, 1925 (Internet Archive): https://archive.org/details/onemansli... The American Woman's Home, Catharine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1869 (Project Gutenberg): https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6598 DISCLAIMER: This video is based on real historical events and figures, drawn from the sources listed above alongside primary archives, biographies, court records, period press, and leading historical scholarship. While every video is heavily researched, occasional minor inaccuracies in dates, quotes, or specific details may occur — historical sources sometimes disagree, and interpretation is sometimes required where the historical record is silent. Any errors are unintentional. #QuietHistoricNights #HistoryForSleep #SleepStory #Iowa #IowaHistory #FarmLife #FarmHistory #1880s #1885 #AmericanHistory #MidwestHistory #RuralAmerica #HamlinGarland #CornHusking #DairyFarm #Lantern #KeroseneLamp #19thCentury #History #BedtimeStory