When people first moved to Joplin to mine, they brought with
them animals. Many of these animals were cows. The cows were
used for milk and meat. The farmers were in charge of keeping
track of the animals and getting meat and dairy products to the
miners. The farmers would have to find a water source, a barn,
and a field for their cows. The average day for a Joplin farmer
would begin bright and early when he would milk the cow. He had
to sit on a stool and place a pail under the cow to catch the
milk. Then he would grab and pull the cow’s udder. The milk
would squirt out, and once he had emptied out the cow’s milk
sac, he would move on to the next cow. The milk would then be
taken back to his house and used for making cheese, making
butter, cooking, and for drinking. Next, the farmer had to take
the cows down to the water. Sometimes they would drink out of a
trough and sometimes from a spring or another body of water. “My
job was to lead all the cows down to the spring after school,”
said Delores Johnson, a l