A YOUNG INDIANA FARMER'S MANUSCRIPT JOURNALS, FIVE YEARS OF A LIFE TENDING THE FIELDS ON HIS FARM NEAR BOURBON AND LEESBURG JUST PRIOR TO WORLD WAR II, AS WELL AS HIS ENLISTMENT AND TRAINING IN THE ARMY AS THE UNITED STATES ENTERS THE WAR.
[Bourbon & Leesburg, Indiana: 1937-1942]. Seven manuscript journals kept in small top bound notebooks, each about 6 1/2 x 4 in., a total of approx. 1000 pages and 65,000 words. Bixler writes near daily entries between March 29, 1937 and April 15, 1942, a few paragraphs for each day describing his attempts at raising chickens and hogs, plowing, harvesting, cultivating a truck farm, etc., and faithfully recording the weather. He keeps an accurate record of his work life, but also notes local events, theorizes about where his life is headed, and how the impending war is affecting him. He writes in both pencil and ink, and all entries are legible and well written. Accompanying the notebooks are three of Bixler's drivers licenses, issued for 1937, 1938, and 1939. The first has a small photo of him, smiling and wearing a jaunty hat, attached to it. Also laid in is a business card from his later career as a Vice-President of H.D. Tousley Co., Inc. General Contractors, of Indianapolis, Indiana.
Bixler is 19 years old when he begins keeping his journal, working on a farm in the vicinity of Bourbon, Indiana with his older brother Carl. Their parents have a farm nearby. The young men struggle to keep the chickens from freezing, the hogs from eating their young, the strawberries ripening for market, and the crops planted and harvested. Carl occasionally offers his services to other local farmers sawing wood or putting up barns, for which he seems to have a knack. By the beginning of 1941 the brothers have begun to transition into the construction business. With news of the war coming, many of Bixler's friends begin to enlist, and on Oct. 16, 1941 Don does the same, reporting to Fort Benjamin Harrison. Part of the sixth and all of the last journal record his experiences as a soldier in the Army, first at Camp Lee in Virginia at the Quartermaster Replacement Center, and then in Greenville, Mississippi at a new camp, in one of its first Quartermaster units. Item #62291
Bixler's first entry on March 29, 1937 records the brothers early efforts at farming on their own: "It was a nice warm sunny day with a cool wind a blowing. Carl arrived with Dick (our horse) and some hay at about 11 o'clock. We got the hay to the end of the orchard and then broke the harness. After looking the matter over we decided to leave the hay for awhile...." The next day they fence the hog lot, and by the end of April Bixler is plowing and planting oats and timothy, harrowing the orchard, and planting vegetables. He converts an old building into a chicken house. His parents split up and his mother moves in with them. His older brother John is away working in South Bend on the New York Central section gang. He records how much "certified seed" they plant, and how much seed from what they had at home, plus how many rows of potatoes are put in, and how many quarts of strawberries they pick. He also mentions a bad storm which comes through the area on June 25 and 26 knocking down barns, tearing off roofs, destroying crops, and moving their hen house about five feet. In July he goes to South Bend to sell some of his produce: "We made $9.65 minus gas and oil. We discovered you must have a health certificate from a doctor before selling." During the winter he works on fencing and on selling the hogs, Carl works for another farmer. By the following spring, his parents decide to reconcile and his mother moves back home. On Jan. 4, 1939, Bixler reports: “Rained this afternoon. Pretty muddy around now. I mixed feed this morning and also a little this afternoon. Got fire going in #1 house, laid papers and etc. but chicks didn’t come. Cleaned out #2 this afternoon. Also listened to Pres. Roosevelt message to Congress. The 76th Congress met yesterday.” Another season on the farm continues with selling hogs, mixing chicken feed, buzzing wood for neighbors. On May 25, a tired Bixler says “Everything is going wrong as usual. I broke seeder and had to borrow one. Brooder house caught on fire burned a hole about 3 foot square and stove fell through. Broke the stove….” The tensions is Europe continue to mount and on Sept. 1, he writes: “War has probably started in Europe. At least Germany bombed Warsaw Poland and 5 other times. Will United States be drawn in? [but then matter-of-factly continues] Washed feeders this morning cleaned dropboards and sorted some chickens. Electricity failed today had to call REMC. A squirrel had climbed transformer pole shorting circuit causing a fuse to blow out. Made stall for colt and shellac knots on other brooder house.” He also records the rise in hog prices as a result of the declaration of war in Europe, and laments their luck having already sold their hogs. In November he notes that Roosevelt has declared that the third Thursday of November will now be the official day for celebrating Thanksgiving.
Don and Carl continue to supplement their income with construction work on other people's farms. Carl spends the winter drawing plans for remodelling homes, and even designs a filling station for someone. By the fall of 1940 Bixler breaks from recording his daily activities to mention that the bombing in London and Berlin is occurring nightly and that London seems to be getting the worst of it. Several of his friends are joining the army in anticipation of the U.S. entry into the war: "I believe that most people are convinced we will be drawn in or if Hitler conquers England he will later attack the Americas.” On October 16, 1940, the first peacetime draft registration is held, and he registers at Pleasant Valley. When numbers are drawn, his friend Boyd is about 30th in the county, but his number is 2802. In February 1941 he goes to South Bend to apply for an appointment with the Flying Cadet branch of the army air force: "I am afraid my physical condition will keep me out (Especially bow-legs). Also two years of college is required or its equivalent." Even though he feels he has no chance, he begins to study trigonometry and other subjects hoping to qualify. He and Carl also settle in to the local construction business. Most of the rest of 1941 he records their work building barns, houses, etc., while also commenting on the increasing likelihood of war for the U.S. On October 3, 1941, Bixler goes to Warsaw, Indiana and volunteers for service and on Oct. 16, he is inducted into the army at Fort Benjamin Harrison. From there he is sent to Camp Lee, Virginia, where he continues his daily entries, now reporting on policing the barracks, going to lectures, getting shots, training, and, as a good farmer, recording the weather. While there he records the attack on Pearl Harbor. On Dec. 8, the whole camp assembles to hear the President's speech to Congress, and the country is now at war: "We had more rifle marksmanship today. My opinion the soldiers morale is good, at least so far. Cool to-day, we wore heavy underwear and overcoats part the time."
Bixler begins his seventh notebook with two quotes, one from Marshall Foch: "In war you do what you can, making use of what you have," and one from General Gamelin: "In this war the first one who comes out of his shell will be in great danger." In January 1942, Bixler is transferred to a new camp in Greenville, Mississippi, formed for flight training of cadets. Bixler is first assigned a job as an M.P., later as a fireman, and then as a clerk in the property warehouse. He takes a correspondence course in radio, hoping to better himself. He orders books from the Book-of-the-Month Club and reads "Farewell to Arms," "Reveille in Washington," and "Berlin Diary" among others: "As a journal like Berlin Diary mine won't compare but at least it will show the life of an average human being. I am an average person aren’t I?” Payday comes around and he notes: “the usual thing started and that was a crap game. You could see a bunch of intense faces in a huddle like a foot-ball game and acting to be like fellows in a trance. Some come out with the money, others come out broke. It would seem to me if they had ever had to known what poverty was really like they wouldn’t gamble their money away so quickly.” His last entry on the final page in book 7 is on April 15: “Last night in black-out two m.p. jeeps had a head-on collision a short ways from our barracks, one fellow was badly hurt. We sorted khaki trousers about all day to size and put them in the shelves. Hot as all get out again.”
Donald Bixler went on to serve in the Army Air Corps in various places in the South Pacific during the war. We have found no other record of his journals, so perhaps he put aside his pen for a time. At the end of the war he returned to the United States, married in 1947, and finally got his degree from the School of Civil Engineering at Purdue University in 1949. He went to work for the construction firm of H.D. Tousley. According to his obituary, published in the Indianapolis Star on Jan. 5, 2012: "During his 30 years with the company, he rose to the position of President; in 1966, the company was renamed to include him. The company's projects included the Indianapolis Art Museum and various areas of the Indianapolis Speedway." He was an "enthusiastic amateur radio operator," and one hopes he continued to write in his beautiful, spare prose. He died at his home in Marion, Alabama on Dec. 8, 2011.
Price: $750.00