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Making Hay in Lafayette County, Missouri
The gentleman hard at work somewhere in Lafayette County, Missouri in both of these photos has been identified as Edwin Friederich Fiegenbaum. His two co-workers, pulling the wagon, were named Bill and Sorrell. They were well respected members of the labor force.
The hay loader attached to the back of the wagon gathered up the dry windrows and dropped them onto the wagon. It eliminating the need for humans to pitch the hay up onto the wagon with a fork, a hot and dusty task that got increasing more difficult as the load of hay grew.
John Henry Fiegenbaum (driving the tractor with the fork lift) and his brother, Edwin Friederich Fiegenbaum, are stacking hay.
J. W. Fiegenbaum, John's son, recalled that this event took place in the early 1940s on the Fiegenbaum farm on Douthit Road, southwest of Higginsville, Missouri.