Growing Up in Small Farms
Small Farms was a rural community in Calumet Township on the southwest edge of Gary, Indiana. It was home to African Americans who initially settled there during the Great Migration, in search of better jobs and opportunities in the North. Never formally recognized by the post office, its borders were defined differently throughout the years, but Small Farms was generally considered to be bordered by Grant Street on the east and Clark Road on the west, between 21st and 29th Avenues.
Small Farms and the adjacent neighborhood of Black Oak were historically under-resourced and had no municipal services, streetlights, and few paved roads. Due to racially restrictive housing covenants and fraudulent land sales, Small Farms was located in a flood plain near the Little Calumet River. Despite the challenges of racial segregation and the denial of capital, the community persisted. Residents built houses, cultivated the land or kept livestock, and found work in the mills and other businesses.
The Small Farms community began to disperse in the 1960s, as it progressively lost housing stock due to the construction of Interstate 94, a U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development urban renewal project, and a federally-funded flood control initiative. The area is now annexed into the city of Gary.
To learn more about the Small Farms community, listen to these clips from former residents:
Steve Truchan: "Everybody was a farmer"
Steve Truchan details life growing up in the Small Farms community in Lake County, Indiana. He says that "everybody was a farmer." He describes a beautiful scene surrounding the Chase Street Spring: a massive field of gladiolas. He says, "When I was small, the field where the well is was full of gladiolas ... 40 acres of gladiolas."
Found at 01:45 in the interview transcript | Listen to the complete interview
Pam Powers: "Sunflowers"
Pam Powers shares a childhood memory of her neighbors in Small Farms who cultivated a large garden and shared the produce with her family. From her bedroom window, she could see the sunflowers they grew to feed the birds. She describes the beauty of the area and provides insight into the spirit of generosity present within the neighborhood.
Found at 13:20 in the interview transcript | Listen to the complete interview
Pam Powers: "Make lemonade out of lemons"
Pam Powers discusses the flooding that regularly occurred on the south side of Highway 80/94 and the creative methods residents -- her aunt, in particular -- employed to deal with them. She elaborates, "When it flooded really bad...I can remember her meeting us with a boat to get supplies." She also used to ice skate on the frozen floodwater.
Found at 17:34 in the interview transcript | Listen to the complete interview
Chuck Hughes: "We thought we were living large"
Gary Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Chuck Hughes describes his childhood in Small Farms. He says that he and his siblings thought they were "living large" in a big house filled with extended family members. Hughes' family were avid fishermen and would sometimes host fish fries for the neighborhood. He says as children they had everything they needed in Small Farms, and that "we essentially didn't leave that area...until it was time to start school."
Found at 10:00 in the interview transcript | Listen to the complete interview
Chuck Hughes: "We had a very creative childhood"
Chuck Hughes shares a short history of his familial origins and what it was like for them to move from the South to the North. He compares the environment of Small Farms to that of rural Mississippi and Alabama, and describes the topography of the area, noting that it was wooded and had dirt roads. He also shares that he and other children had a "very creative childhood" because they used their imagination and surroundings in their play.
Found at 16:25 in the interview transcript | Listen to the complete interview
Exnar McIntosh-Burt: "We raised each other"
Exnar McIntosh-Burt discusses her upbringing in Small Farms, highlighting specific schools that she attended. She describes her childhood as "many years of wonderful growing up." McIntosh-Burt came from a family of 18 children. She shares that the neighborhood was a very tight-knit community, stating, "We raised each other... A very close-knitted family on the Small Farm."
Found at 00:43 in the interview transcript | Listen to the complete interview
Johnny Burt and Exnar McIntosh-Burt: "A nest of snakes"
Johnny Burt recalls how as a boy, he once found a large nest of snakes at the edge of his yard in the Small Farms. He recounts, "They were coming up on our fence! I had to get on the fence, and grab them, and throw them...We had about 50 snakes." His grandfather told him to burn the snakes because he and other family members believed they were bad omens.
Found at 12:28 in the interview transcript | Listen to the complete interview
Ida L. Lloyd: "You didn't have the freedom. You didn't have sidewalks"
Ida L. Lloyd discusses her memories of growing up in Small Farms, after moving there at age ten from East Chicago. She explains why she preferred East Chicago to Small Farms. She says, "We hated it in a sense that you didn't have the freedom. You didn't have the sidewalks, running water, like you should, like we had in East Chicago." Lloyd also shares a story about how residents of East Chicago would combat hot summer nights by spending the night on the Lake Michigan beach to keep cool.
Found at 28:56 in the interview transcript | Listen to the complete interview
Ida L. Lloyd: "Then we were integrated, but you weren't really integrated"
Ida L. Lloyd was born and raised in East Chicago, Indiana, and moved to the Small Farms at age ten. In this excerpt, she contends that East Chicago was more inclusive than Gary. She says about Small Farms, "You come here and you're separated--all Blacks in this area...and whites in that area. And then you had, the schools...we were integrated, but you weren't really integrated."
Found at 35:50 in the interview transcript | Listen to the complete interview
Chuck Hughes: "We wore it as a badge of honor"
Chuck Hughes shares stories of how he and other children were teased at school for where they came from. He attributes this treatment to the dirt and dust that settled on their clothing during their walk on dirt roads to get to school. Classmates called them "farmers from the Black Bottoms" (after a nickname used for Small Farms). But he says they were proud of their origins and the place they called home. As Hughes puts it, "We wore it as a badge of honor."
Found at 14:37 in the interview transcript | Listen to the complete interview