As the oldest boy in the family Carl Sandburg was given the task of carrying water into the house for daily use. In those days, water came from a well in the backyard and from a cistern which collected rainwater from the roof of the house.

 

The well water was used for cooking and drinking. The cistern water served for laundry and cleaning the house. Many of the older homes in Galesburg still have cisterns which were built into the foundations. A faucet located on the inside of the basement wall allowed the water to be used for cleaning activities.

 

Cisterns built to collect rainwater have been used for at least fifty-five hundred years in arid and semi-arid areas of the world. Many ancient cisterns still exist in countries around the Mediterranean. They were often located under large open areas, such as town plazas, to catch rainwater and store it for later use. Cisterns also were used to store water from aquaducts which drained higher elevations. They were simple in operation and provided a sustainable source of water for the people.

 

Sandburg often heard his father say, “Friskt vatten” in Swedish. It was time for the lad to get the galvanized iron bucket and go out to the pump on the well to get a bucket of fresh water.

 

The wooden pump was somewhat tempermental and Carl had a love-hate relationship with it. In the summer the water would sometimes become low in the well. A bucket of cistern water was poured down the well to prime the pump. In the winter the water would freeze in the well. A bucket or two of cistern water heated on the kitchen stove and poured down the well would thaw the pump. Extra buckets of water would be carried into the house for use during the day in case the pump might freeze again.

 

Once a year Carl was lowered into the cistern with a rope around his waist. He cleaned the dirt and decayed leaves from the bottom of the cistern. Occasionally the well pump failed  because it needed a new sucker. August Sandburg would cut a new one from a piece of leather. Carl would be lowered into the well by his father and following his father's instructions replace the part in the piston of the pump.

 

On the frequent trips to the well Sandburg carried on a conversation with the pump while working the handle up and down. If things went well he would praise the pump. When the pump was not doing its job, he would curse it. But he finally came to the conclusion that the pump had a good excuse when it wasn't cooperating with him. He didn't blame the pump and eventually came to like it for the work it accomplished for his family.

 

Carl determined that the well was fifteen steps from the back steps of the house. He also calculated the thousands of steps he walked from the kitchen and out the back door of the house to the well. The total may well have added up to many miles.