Hamlin’s father’s success as a farmer and his failure as a father and husband were intertwined. It was the willingness of men like Garland to exploit the labor of their wives and children, to divert income to modernizing and improving the farm, and, if necessary, to relocate that allowed household production in wheat to outcompete larger farms that relied largely on wage labor. Dick Garland embodied the democratic manhood and economic striving that Radical Republicans wanted to transplant in the West. His son made him into something more.
