Interview
I [interviewer Dale Treleven] first met Rangnar and Margaret Segerstrom and their son Arlan, an invalid since childhood, on the evening of August 20, 1974, to discuss the possibility of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin conducting an oral history interview about their farming experiences, political activities, organized farmers' efforts, and other observations. We sat around the kitchen table for several hours munching on cookies, sipping coffee, and discussing farm policy, the Farmers Union, and liberal politics. Because of the approaching year-end holidays, which meant for the Segerstroms the traditional (and huge) family gatherings, we decided to get together “sometime after the New Year.” After mailing off a follow-up letter in November 1974 which outlined the areas we might discuss, my commitments in other areas or theirs delayed our getting together for nearly two years.
I held interviews with Rangnar and Margaret Segerstrom on September 29 and 30, 1976. On each day I arrived at 10 A.M.; we recorded for about 1-1 1/2 hours until lunch; after an extended lunch filled with more talk we taped again for about 1-1 1/2 hours after which I departed to do other Society field work. During each of the sessions, Arlan Segerstrom, confined to a wheel chair, observed and sometimes contributed to the discussion, and laughed along with the rest at a humorous anecdote or particularly assertive anti-Republican statement by his mother. Margaret Segerstrom, short, bespectacled, heavy-set, wore a house dress and apron each of the two days; towards noon she occasionally left the discussion to start lunch. Rangnar Segerstrom, thin, of medium height with neatly-trimmed snow-white hair, wore a work shirt and bib-type overalls. During the interview sessions, they were seated side-by-side in the living room, Rangnar in a large swivel rocker and Margaret in an overstuffed easy chair; Arlan and I sat across from them.
The researcher will find a wealth of information about dairy farming practices and improvements on a farm the size of which in 1958 was the same as in 1922: 120 acres. The Segerstroms discuss the difficulty in starting to farm during a period of depressed commodity prices in the early-1920's and the even more serious problems they encountered in the years during the Great Depression. Even as farm prosperity improved during the 1940's and 1950's, they chose to stay within their immediate means instead of investing heavily--as did many others--for expansion and modernization. They are proud of having stayed out of debt, unlike many capital-intensive agribusinessmen of the next generation.
Margaret and Rangnar Segerstrom in the late-1920's became involved in the activities of the Wisconsin Farmers Union and later, of the Farmers Union Central Exchange, although they had been involved with local cooperatives since the early-twenties. Both held offices for many years in the Farmers Union local, and they discuss at length their activities. Rangnar Segerstrom tells how he helped sign up farmers for the Buffalo County Electric Cooperative, begun under the auspices of the national Rural Electrification Administration (REA). Both discuss their long involvement in the Farmers Union youth program, and how they joined with many others to build the state youth camp, Kamp Kenwood, near Chippewa Falls. Both are very informative about neighborhood politics, and they describe how Buffalo county, traditionally a Republican stronghold, became increasingly Democratic with the development of the new party. The Segerstroms comment on various farm leaders, past and present politicians, and on current agricultural policy. At the same time, the greatest strength of the interview may well lie in the remembrances of Rangnar Segerstrom as he reconstructs how he farmed over the years with a moderately-sized herd of Guernseys, relatively small amounts of machinery, and modest levels of investment.
Other than the son at home, two sons and one daughter of the Segerstroms continue to live nearby in the Town of Naples. Both sons have expanded rapidly into heavily commercialized and heavily capitalized dairy operations in contrast to their parents' experience during over three decades.
Abstract to the Interview
The tapes for this interview have two tracks: a voice track containing the discussion, and a time track containing time announcements at intervals of approximately five seconds. The abstract lists, in order of discussion, the topics covered on each tape and indicates the time-marking at which point the beginning of the particular discussion appears.
Thus, the researcher may listen to distinct topics without listening to all of the material on the tapes. For instance, the user who wishes to listen to the topic on “Background of Rangnar Segerstrom” should locate the place on the second track of tape one, side one, where the voice announces the 05:45 time-marking (the voice says at this point, “five minutes, forty-five seconds”), and at this point switch to the first track to hear the discussion. The discussion on “Background of Rangnar Segerstrom” continues until approximately 12:00 at which point discussion of the next topic (“Rangnar Segerstrom's Family; Youth on Father's Farm”) listed in the abstract begins.
Notice that in most cases sentences beneath each headline explain more about the contents of the topic. For example, the sentences underneath “Background of Rangnar Segerstrom” give further details on what appears on the tape between 05:45 and 12:05.
The abstract is designed to provide only a brief outline of the content of the tapes and cannot serve as a substitute for listening to them. However, the abstract when used with the index will help the researcher easily locate distinct topics and discussions among the many minutes of commentary.
Index to the Interview
The index, which is keyed to the same time announcement track (second track) as the abstract, gives a single alphabetical listing of proper nouns (names of persons, places, organizations, periodicals), historic phenomena (Depression), and concepts (Cooperative Commonwealth), which appear on the tapes. Each entry is followed by one or more three-part citations specifying the location(s) where the entry appears. For instance, “American Society of Equity” is followed by the citation 2:2, 13:05, 15:35. This indicates that a reference to the American Society of Equity appears on Tape 2, Side 2, within the time-markings beginning at thirteen minutes, five seconds, and fifteen minutes, thirty-five seconds of the time announcement.
