{"id":8823,"date":"2023-03-23T22:05:35","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T22:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/?page_id=8823"},"modified":"2023-03-23T22:05:35","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T22:05:35","slug":"ed-barrett","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/ed-barrett\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed Barrett"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_spacing=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][divider line_type=”No Line”][vc_column_text]\n

Ed Barrett<\/span><\/h1>\n[\/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line”][page_submenu alignment=”center” sticky=”true” bg_color=”#008542″ link_color=”#ffffff”][page_link link_url=” https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/manuscripts-and-guides\/” title=”Manuscripts & Subject Guides<\/strong>” id=”1679608793295-6″ tab_id=”1679608793296-3″] [\/page_link][page_link link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/guides-to-the-collection-page\/” title=”Collections Portal<\/strong>” id=”1679608793304-1″ tab_id=”1679608793304-5″] [\/page_link][page_link title=”Visit<\/strong>” id=”1679608799872-8″ tab_id=”1679608799874-5″ link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments\/archives-museum\/visit\/”][\/page_link][page_link title=”Make a Request<\/strong>” id=”1679608801313-6″ tab_id=”1679608801314-8″ link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments\/archives-museum\/requests\/”][\/page_link][page_link title=”About Us<\/strong>” id=”1679608802422-0″ tab_id=”1679608802423-2″ link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments-archives-museum-about-us\/”][\/page_link][page_link title=”Yearbooks Online<\/strong>” id=”1679608803144-4″ tab_id=”1679608803145-4″ link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments\/archives-museum\/yearbooks-alumni-magazines-delta-state-histories\/”][\/page_link][\/page_submenu][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_spacing=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Interviewee:<\/strong> Ed Barrett
\nInterviewer:<\/strong> Beth Rogers
\nDate:<\/strong> December 13, 1980<\/p>\n

BR: This Beth Rogers interviewing my father, Ed Barrett, in Cleveland, MS on
\nDecember 13, 1980. I would like you to share with us some of your recollections of your
\nfather\u2019s sorghum mill of when you ere a child, but first would you give us some
\nbiographical information about yourself? Where you were born?<\/p>\n

EB: Lee County on June 8th, 1919. My father was born November 13, 1889 in Lee
\nCounty, MS. My mother was born April 14, 1897 in Monroe County. They were living
\nin Lee County when I was born.<\/p>\n

BR: Tell us about your father\u2019s sorghum mill that he had when you were a child.<\/p>\n

EB: Well, the sorghum mill was real close to our house. My father and his brother ran it
\nfor the public- that is they made it for other people, neighbors, besides their own
\nsorghum. The sorghum mill was something great for us kids. There was something
\nsweet there and something good. Well, in the thirties there was no money for candy, so
\nthe sorghum mill was our treat. The sorghum stalk was sweet, and we chewed that to our
\ndelight. Then, near the end of the molasses makin\u2019 process the sorghum usually made a
\nwhite foam which was very light in texture, but which had a good sweet taste- we dearly
\nloved this. This was near almost the end of the sorghum film where the finished
\nmolasses came off. We dearly loved this white foam, and we could lick that for hours.
\nWe could lick it for hours. Of course the sorghum stock itself was sweet, and we dearly
\nloved to chew this.<\/p>\n

BR: How much sorghum did your father grow?<\/p>\n

EB: Well most of the time I would say an acre per year.<\/p>\n

BR: Well how much sorghum could he produce from one acre?<\/p>\n

EB: Well if it was real good soil, and a good year, we had made as much as 300 buckets.
\nNow the sorghum bucket was only about an 8-pound bucket, which is a 2 pounds short of
\na gallon, which you are talking about a little over 3 quarts in the little old bucket. Of
\ncourse sometimes in the thirties fertilizer wasn\u2019t easily obtained or maybe a lot of years it
\nwasn\u2019t even used. So, maybe you would end up with about 100 of those 8 pound buckets
\nper acre.<\/p>\n

BR: Did he sell most of the sorghum that he made or keep most of it for the family?<\/p>\n

EB: Well most of the crops that he grew on his own farm that we kept for our own use,
\nand then he told or that portion at which he charged his neighbors for making their
\nsorghum now that accumulated, and he sold that. Now I remember one time that he had
\nnearly 2,000 buckets that was tolled that he had accumulated in one year of sorghum<\/p>\n

making that he sold. There came a man from Arkansas, and the soil in Arkansas was
\nblack and didn\u2019t make a good sorghum. The good sorghum came from the sandy soils of
\nNorth MS. This man came from Arkansas and he sold him all that he could haul what
\nwas being equivalent to a ton and \u00bd truck back to Arkansas. I think he got 25 cents on
\nthe gallon for it. This was back in 1935 or \u201936.<\/p>\n

BR: Tell us sort of the process of making the sorghum from the time they cut it.<\/p>\n

EB: Ok, well the sorghum grows a good year might grow as much as 10 feet tall and you
\nhave to making something like a wooden sword to cut the leaves off. We call this the
\nstripping process. You strip the leaves off – more or less hack them off – with this
\nwooden sword. When you get all the leaves off of it, you take a hole, and one man uses
\nthe hole, and usually two or three got boys or men. And at that time I was a boy, and I did
\na lot of it: catches the sorghum stalk in his hand prior to the man cutting the sorghum
\nstalks down with the hoe. Then he takes these stalks and lays them across the road in a
\nmatter with all the sorghum heads- now, all the sorghum head has to be cut off before you
\nmake molasses out of them. The sorghum seed itself has some acid or something that
\ndoesn\u2019t do the sorghum molasses any good when in the processes of making syrup. So
\nthe guy catching the stalks, his process is to lay all the sorghum across the roads, but to
\nhave all the heads even. So they can be cut off with the hoe and not leave any of them on
\nthe stalk, so after this is done then somebody else comes along with a wagon and loads
\nthis stalks on the wagon and hauls them to the sorghum mill. My father had his sorghum
\nmill in a grove of trees with lots of shade. This is good too in the sorghum making
\nprocess because those sorghum stalks brought to the field on the wagon can be stacked in
\nthe shade against a tree in the shade. These are laid straight in a manner of like pistols in
\na pack you buy from the store, or cigarettes in a pack. These stalks are laid straight so
\nyou can pick them up without a great hassle. If they are all tangled it takes time to
\nstraighten these things out. They are going to this pile you have made in shade tree to the
\nmill which usually has 3 rollers. These rollers vary in diameter from the two small rollers
\non the mill. We used around 8 inches and the two big rollers were about 14. The rollers
\nfit on an upright position. Now the mill is set up on post usually three post that you set
\non a ground in a permanent situation, which my father\u2019s was and it has a big lever, which
\ntwo mules and two horses pulled in a round motion. They go around and around in a
\ncircular motion and they pull this lever that of course turns the rollers- the rollers are
\ngeared one to another with a sprocket. Somebody has to sit there and poke these stalks in
\nthere at this mill. Of course it is inclined to take halt when you put the stalk in the roller
\nwith the motion of the roller turning against one another. They catch this stalk and put it
\nin. That\u2019s the whole idea of the mule turning is to catch that stalk and pull it through
\nthere and mash and squeeze that juice out. You have a barrel or a tub at the mill that has
\na little spicket that runs out. You catch the juice and someone has to go in and out from
\nthat mill over the pan, which is set just right outside diameter of these mules or horses
\ngoing round and round. And there with the fire on it, the sorghum pan is usually about 12
\nfeet long and 4 feet wide. It is made so that it has little divisions- little raised partitions
\nabout every 6 inches- all the way up the 12 feet. They are made so that there is a gap on
\none end and then on the opposite end for the next gap. It makes the sorghum juice flow
\ncontinues from one side to another in a zigzag fashion- all the way up the pan. The
\nprocess with the heat under it in a slow motion going from one side to the other- the idea
\nis that by the time it gets the full length of the pan that it will be cooked enough from raw
\njuice to sorghum molasses. Somebody has to bring that raw juice from the pan over to a
\nbarrel, usually a barrel, the bottom of the barrel being level with the top of the sorghum
\npan and this has a whole in the bottom of it with a peg in it. This peg is rotated with a
\nsliding to let the juice come out of this barrel onto the pan you are cooking. Someone has
\nto bring that juice over in the bucket, usually from the sorghum mill that is making it<\/p>\n

into the pan and fire on the pan and make the juice go into the circular zigzag motion all
\nthe way down. It probably takes 10 gallons of that raw juice to make 1 gallon of
\nmolasses. That fire reduces that about 10 to 1. Of course it takes a couple hours in the
\nmorning to get things going \u2013 the heat going good and the boiling process. My father
\nmade molasses from the time he was 15 years old almost until he was 75. He made a
\ntremendous amount of it. He was very good at it. He and his brother did this in the fall
\nof the year- from August till Thanksgiving. Besides farming cotton and corn, they had
\nthis little sorghum crop that they grew for our family and they grew some to sell. They
\nhad all these neighbors in the thirties that grew sorghum for their family. My father and
\nhis brother rotated their time at this mill at a week apiece. Their profit came from 1\/5 of
\nthe amount of the sorghum that they made at the mill. It was that early that my father at
\none time had two thousand gallons of this that he had accumulated over a period 2
\nmonths that he had made the sorghum. It was a great delight for us boys, and girls- I had
\nsisters too to go by the sorghum mill to chew these stalks of sorghum-, which was sweet.
\nThe choice process was that at the very near end of the sorghum pan where the finished
\nmolasses come off when it boils up is this white foam. This white foam isn\u2019t like the
\npure molasses, which is heavier and sweeter of course. You can\u2019t eat this molasses all
\nday, but this white foam was very light in texture and it doesn\u2019t have the sweetest that the
\npure molasses has. A boy or young teenager could consume a great amount of this light
\nfoam because it doesn\u2019t have the same texture or sweetness that the finished product
\ndoes. That was one of our great delights. Of course my father was ready to help us get
\nsome of this out on something- a bucket lid or something, so that we could enjoy this
\nwhite foam. That was one of our great delights.<\/p>\n

BR: How did they strain impurities out of the sorghum?<\/p>\n

EB: Well my father usually took something like a stiff piece of wire if he could find one,
\nsomething like an 1\/8 of an inch in diameter and made a hook about 24 inches across or
\n24 inches in diameter. At that day in time it wasn\u2019t hard to come by 48-pound flour
\nsector. A flour sack was a very fine moving cloth in order to continue flour. I would
\ntake this flour sack and my mother would sew this flour sack one ply thickness. My
\nmother would take this flour sack on this hook of metal. This was used when the finished
\nmolasses came out a peg hole was which was about two inches in diameter at the last end
\nof the sorghum pan. That is where it accumulates into a pot or a wash tub or any kind of
\ncontainer that would contain hopefully 5 to 10 gallons, so it wouldn\u2019t have to be emptied
\ntoo often. There on the top of this is a strainer made from this flour sack on a metal hook
\nthat would catch little impurities coming from the pan or the sorghum. The texture of
\nthis flour sack as fine as it was would give you something real clean. The molasses syrup
\nwould be real clean after this process of straining. Then these strainers we would wash
\nfrom time to time by carrying them back to the high boiling point of the sorghum pan \u2013
\nthe end near the fire. The finished product \u2013 the molasses coming off the upper end<\/p>\n

which was the furthest away from the fire or where the fire had died down where the cold
\njuice was subject to greater intensity of heat on the fire of the pan.<\/p>\n

BR: So to clean off the strainer you would take it back to the point where the heat was
\nvery high?<\/p>\n

EB: Yeah, the end near the fire and splash the hot, boiling juice on it. It was a lot easier
\nto wash by putting it in there and splashing hot boiling sorghum juice on it than taking it
\nto a tub of water and try to wash out hot sticky molasses out with cold water. This was a
\nprocess that you probably did once a day or twice a day to keep this strainer clean. This
\nhot juice would do the job so much better than cold water would.<\/p>\n

BR: Did you and your brothers and sisters work at the sorghum mill when you were
\nyounger?<\/p>\n

EB: Oh yes. I worked there. In fact, I don\u2019t remember when I didn\u2019t worked there.
\nStarting with the stripping operation in the field and the hauling operation and making the
\nsorghum. This principally, we hoped to get most of ours done before school started in
\nSeptember. Now if we didn\u2019t at this time, I would probably have to miss some school in
\norder to help my father with his sorghum crop. Then, later on my father and his brother
\ncontinued operating this thing with our neighbors; it operated as late as thanksgiving. I
\nwould come home from school, and it was a great light foam that cooks up at the final
\nend of the molasses making process, which we enjoyed very much. We could hardly wait
\nto get off the school bus to run and enjoy this foam we called it. I almost never got to
\nthat sorghum mill that my father didn\u2019t have a little chore for me. He needed a fresh
\ndrink of water, or he needed a new strainer for his molasses, or he needed somebody to
\ncarry a few stalks of mill, or he needed somebody to bring a few sticks of wood close to
\nthe pan so somebody could fire it better. I was out done by him, but I still would go
\ndown. I didn\u2019t understand why the guy who had that crop there couldn\u2019t do his chore and
\nlet me enjoy my sorghum.<\/p>\n

BR: Did your father have any hired help with the sorghum or did he depend on you
\nchildren?<\/p>\n

EB: Well, with their own crop, he depended on us and his own brother. But when a
\nneighbor brought a crop there, the neighbor was expected to bring everybody that it
\nrequired. It usually required about three hands. My father was the maker of the
\nmolasses. He operated his end of it, and he acquired two men – a fireman and somebody
\nto assist him at the evaporator of the sorghum pan. It required somebody to feed the
\nstalks into the mill that the mules were pulling and acquired at least one more hand to
\nbring the sorghum stalks from the pile of mill and someone to take away the flattened
\nstalks at the back side of the mill. So it required at least three hands, and my father to
\noperate this thing. Any man who brought the sorghum there was expected to bring
\nhimself and at least 2 more hands. My father did not expect to furnish anyone but
\nhimself \u2013 the sorghum maker. The other hand was expected to be brought by the man
\nwho had the crop of molasses being made.<\/p>\n

BR: What about the stalk of the sorghum after it was run through the mill? Was there
\nany use or purpose that it could serve?<\/p>\n

EB: Many times I saw it ringed around the sorghum mill like a horseshoe. It would be
\nhead high where it was carried from the back of the mill where it came out flattened with
\nall the juice squeezed out. I\u2019ve seen it look like a horseshoe as high as my head. Horses
\nand cows would eat on it some, but it usually sat there until spring. One of my father\u2019s
\npet project was for my brother and I to take forks and load it into a wagon and haul it and
\nmulch our orchid. We had about a 3-acre orchid plus a bunch of fig trees in the backyard
\nthat he insisted they have good mulch of this. By that time, half-rotten sorghum salt was
\nabout six inches deep. That was the only purpose that we used was to mulch our fruit
\ntrees.<\/p>\n

BR: What about planting the sorghum? How did they go about planting the sorghum?<\/p>\n

EB: The sorghum was planted just like the cotton and the corn. They ground was plowed
\nin the same manner as you plowed it for cotton and corn. It was planted in the same
\nplanter, of course it had a different, well we called it a sorghum plant. Sorghum seed is
\nvery small compared with corn or cotton. You had to have a different size hole. You had
\na plate that went into the planter. Flat plat rotates is how you drop the seed to put out
\nwith a planter. Corn seed is about times at big as the sorghum seed. It required a
\ndifferent size hole to plant that sorghum. The ground was plowed in the same manner as
\ncotton or corn, with the same machinery used except it had different size holes to plant
\nthe seed. It was farmed the same way. It was chopped just like cotton and plowed just
\nlike cotton. The only difference was when the sorghum gets ready to be made into
\nmolasses you cut the leaves off with this wooden sword, you chop it down and bring the
\nstalks to the sorghum mill in a wagon. The corn you let it ripen in the field and only take
\nthe ears. Then you pick cotton out of the bulbs.<\/p>\n

BR: Did your father start this sorghum mill?<\/p>\n

EB: No, I have a picture of my grandfather making sorghum in 1915. He was a sorghum
\nmaker and his brother was a sorghum maker. I think my father learned from them. My
\nfather was making molasses when he was 15 years old, which you are talking about he
\nwas born in 1889, so about 1905, 06, 07, 08 that he was making molasses.<\/p>\n

BR: What happened to the sorghum mill? Is it still standing?<\/p>\n

EB: Yes, it is not standing as such, but it is still on our property on the ground. It is not
\nup on raised platform or anything, but it is still sitting on the ground. It is still there. It is
\npossible that is might be serviceable. The pan that you cook the molasses on is rusted
\nout. The sides of the pan were wooden, but the bottom of the pan was metal. The
\nwooden sides are completely rotten, but the bottom part I think is rusted out.<\/p>\n

BR: Is there a better technique for making sorghum now than the way that you described
\nto us? Is there a more modern way to do it?<\/p>\n

EB: Well, they have mills that have tractors that are pulled with a belt for the grinding
\nprocess. As far as evaporation, a cooking process, I have never seen any other process
\nused. Now of course in South Louisiana the sugar process is in a huge plant of some sort.
\nThe evaporation by steam of some sort, but in MS \u2013 in north MS at least or all of
\nMississippi that I know of there is no other process to make this sorghum except with this
\ncooking process with the sorghum pan or evaporation process you might call it.<\/p>\n

BR: Well, do you think that anytime in the near future that you would want to get the
\nsorghum mill going again and operate it yourself?<\/p>\n

EB: I could get the mill going probably, but I do not know about the pan. I haven\u2019t
\nlooked at it lately. If it is too badly deterred then I am afraid that it is a lost cause.<\/p>\n

BR: I see. Can you think of anything else that you would like to tell us about sorghum
\nmaking that we haven\u2019t talked about?<\/p>\n

EB: No, except that I still love the finished product.<\/p>\n

BR: ok, thank you very much.<\/p>\n

END OF INTERVIEW<\/strong>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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