Philadelphia, PA – Long before big-box hardware stores and online shopping, rural families had to craft their own tools to face harsh winters. A 1919 book published by The Farm Journal, titled How to Do Things, reveals just how resourceful farmers were when it came to snow removal.
According to the guide, a one-horse wooden snow plow could be built from two sturdy boards, each 12 inches wide and 4 feet long, braced together at an angle. A triangular block made the boards slant outward, allowing the plow to push heavy snow aside. The instructions note this homemade tool had been in use for more than a decade and had “saved many a day of hard labor.”
The book also describes how to fashion a snow shovel from scrap materials. By reusing the handle of a broken fork and attaching it to a homemade wooden blade reinforced with zinc at the edge, families created a durable shovel that cost virtually nothing.
For farm families in Pennsylvania and across the Midwest, these devices weren’t just conveniences—they were necessities. Without them, roads and yards could be blocked for days, isolating households and halting daily work.
Today, store aisles are filled with lightweight aluminum shovels and motorized snow blowers. But in 1919, surviving winter meant knowing how to build what you needed with your own hands. The ingenuity captured in How to Do Things offers a reminder of just how self-reliant earlier generations had to be.
