Scholarly Article Review William Branham University of Maryland University College History 157/6380 October 1, 2017

Scholarly Article Review Article 1: Riney-Kehrberg, Pamela. "Separation and Sorrow: A Farm Woman's Life, 1935-1941." Agricultural History (Agricultural History Society) 67 (2): 185-196.(1993) Accessed September 27, 2017, The article by Pamela Riney-Kehrberg describes the life of Martha Schmidt Friesen, a farm woman in the mid-west during the Great depression. The primary source for Riney- Kehrberg’s writing is Martha’s diary that she kept from 1936 to her death in 1955, but the article concentrates only up to 1941. 1 Martha and her husband George Friesen migrated to west Kansas from McPherson County, Kansas in 1906 with several other families. However, most families did not stay in the community they had first settled called “Menno Community,” the Friesen family was the last of the original settlement at Martha’s death. 2 When her diary began she was 52 with three adult children, Sally, William, and Margaret that had stayed closed to the family farm until 1936. 3 Riney-Kehrberg describes Martha’s daily routine on the farm and was able to find trends that changed due to the affects the Dust Bowl and drought. Martha would usually maintain a personal garden for family meals, but Riney-Kehrberg finds that she had to purchase produce during this time. Martha had to wash clothes sometimes just after she had already washed them due to the dust storms that plagued their area. Tasks that were already physically straining became just that more difficult for Martha as the storms continued to blow dust. Martha’s found