Herbert William Lane (1924 - 1972)

Born 7 May 1924 in Tunkhannock, Wyoming County, PA

Ancestors

Husband of Carolyn (Gorman) Lane — married 15 Aug 1948 in Tunkhannock, PA

Died 20 Jan 1972 at age 47 in Tunkhannock, Wyoming County, PA

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Biography

Herbert was the fourth of six sons. He attended grade school about 1,000' up the road from his home on route 6 two miles east of Tunkhannock at the Dixon one room school. When Herbert was very young, perhaps 4 or 5 years old, he contracted encephalitis also known as sleeping sickness. It was told that he would fall asleep during the day in unlikely places such as beside a pile of hay. The family hired a doctor for $50 to try and help him. The doctor prescribed drops of iron administered with a straw.

Herbert ran the family dairy farm with his father and eventually took it over. He had a herd of registered Guernsey cows. When Herbert was a young man, he and Larry Line traveled to the Midwest in search of bulls to improve the herd. Herbert took a two week course at Penn State to learn the latest agricultural techniques.

Herb sold a cow in order to buy a wedding ring for Carolyn.

Being a farmer required many skill sets from animal husbandry, to equipment mechanic, to amateur weatherman in the days before good weather forecasting and radar. Herb's youngest daughter remembers high school boys gathered around the dinner table at haying time. She remembers taking jars of cold drinks to the haymakers out in the field. Sometimes there was a push to get the hay into the barn before it rained. Hard rain on bales of hay would cause them to mold and be ruined.

Herbert was a quiet man who was devoted to his family, his farm and his church. His wife Carol told how he would get up several times in the night when he had a cow about to freshen; he would go to the barn to check on her.

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From the July 2, 2019 Wyoming County Press Examiner 60 Years Ago (1959): With almost one cow for every Wyoming County citizen, the dairy industry plays a major role in strengthening the county's economy. Some 13,500 cows were milked each day in 1958.

• Cows were milked twice a day. In addition to being on pasture in summer and hay in winter they also got certain amounts of corn silage and grain based on the amount of milk they were producing at any given time. Years with drought conditions meant you might not have enough forage to feed your animals. The manure the animals produced was spread on the fields to enrich the soil. The herd was comfortable with their caregiver and were sometimes nervous around a stranger. There were no vacations for a farmer.

The barn held about 25 milking cows and about 10-15 calves and heifers. At that time, a family could survive financially on the milk produced by that number of animals. In the years since that time the price of milk has not kept pace with inflation and herd sizes have gotten bigger and bigger. Most family farms have disappeared and 'factory' farms with thousands of cows have taken their place.

Sources

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/188819148/herbert-william-lane