The book Smiling Hill Farm is about the Wayne family’s life at Smiling Hill Farm. It starts out with the Wayne family moving to Indiana in an ox driven wagon to be pioneers and find new farm lands. The book shows how the farm and family grow through the years 1817-1937.
The story starts on the Wayne family moving from Virginia to Indiana. They found a settlement on a hill and called it Smiling Hill Farm. They started building the farm, and making the farm bigger. The farm and kids grow up over the years. For example now they grind their wheat with a machine instead of horse power. As they were building their new house a flood comes and destroys the new house. They repair and rebuild the farm. As the farm and kids keep growing relatives come to live at the farm. The story ends with Great-grandfather Wayne’s ninety-second birthday.
If you like books that are funny or sad you probably don’t want to read this book. The goal of this book was to tell you how life was long ago. Every once in a while you will come by something funny or sad but that’s not the books purpose. If you like books about history you will like this book.
I thought the book was a good way to see how life was back then. First it shows how they traveled to get where they needed to go. Then it showed how they farmed and grew their food. Next it talked about the tools they used back then. The book Smiling Hill Farm showed that life was hard long ago.