Peek into Kansas, 1913

OK, you knew I couldn't keep up a postcard a day for long. My collection is not that extensive or deep. So, every other day. The next few entries cover postcards with mundane messages that yet offer us a peek into the past.

To Charlie McCloud of Iowa, from his sister in Coats, Kansas, July 13, 1913.
"Dear Bro.
I recieved [sic] your kind & welcome letter yesterday was glad to hear from you. We are well and hard at work thrashing wheat. Did you go the 4th. We thrashed all day. We have made over $80.00 since we came here. O the wind is blowing awful here today and has blowed hard every day we have been here. I don’t like it here at all. Well I guess I will have to close for this time hoping to hear from you again soon. I remain your loving sister [illegible]"

$80.00 was very good money. Of course, we don't know how long she worked to earn this amount. I wish I could read her name.

Whitten, Iowa (population 160) is in central Iowa, northwest of Des Moines. It's clear in Google Earth that it was once on a railroad line, but that the tracks have been taken out.
Coats, KS is still there, a little farming and railroad town in Pratt County. According to Wikipedia, its population was 112 in the 2000 census. It is SW of Wichita and south of I70, and about 26 miles from Greensburg KS, the town that was destroyed by a tornado and is now rebuilding itself.

The teens were a time of more rainfall on the plains and farm yields were good. Labor was needed. She does not live in Coats but is there for the work. Who was with her? I wonder how old she was.
viridian