The Social & Economic Affects of the Great Depression on Rural Minnesota
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The Social & Economic Affects of the Great Depression on Rural Minnesota Contextual Information for Lesson Plan, Grade 5 Julie Rae Pennertz Farming and agriculture in Minnesota had already seen many ups and downs in its short history by the time the Great Depression hit. The “Sodbusters” of the early 1800’s required much back breaking effort to break the sod so they could farm what land they acquired. Many times neighbor helped neighbor to get the work done. Farms during this time were usually quite small and the crops raised were generally just for the family and their animals. By the time the metal plows came in during the early 1820s, the job of breaking up the sod still did not become any easier. Finally, by the mid 1800’s, John Deere had invented the steel plow and farmers could use multiple oxen to pull the plow and break more sod, thus adding to the size of the farm and to what and how much a farmer could grow. By the early 1900’s instead of just growing for themselves, a farmer could grow enough to feed the family, the livestock, and some extra to sell to mills or market. That extra would be equivalent to feeding 5 other people. Just as the farming was becoming a little easier, the grasshoppers decided to move in and make Minnesota, especially southwestern Minnesota, their home. The grasshoppers attacked Minnesota during 1873‐1876, causing millions of dollars in damage to area crops and farms. By 1877 they suddenly disappeared, but they left southwestern Minnesota devastated and with few farmers. Farms were acquired through a variety of means. “Squatting” on the land or occupying the land, building on it and farming it before the government had laid any claim to it; purchasing the new lands around 1800‐1820 for $100 for about 80 acres; Buying land from an auction; or in 1854 a new law made it so that if you settled on a land prior to it being surveyed, you could buy it when it went on sale, another form of squatting; land for veterans of the War of 1812 and then there was the Homestead Act of 1862 that provided 160 acres of land to people who lived on the land for at least 5 years and made improvements to it and paid a small filing fee. With all of the changes on how the land was acquired, there were also changes in what the farmers did with the land. In the mid 1850’s the flour milling industry began. This required the growing of more wheat by more farmers. By 1880 the flour milling industry had Minneapolis as the flour‐milling capital of the United States. But, by the 1920’s the growing of wheat had depleted the nutrients from the soils and they had to figure out what to do to save their farms. Some of the farmers moved to new farms where wheat hadn’t been grown and started over. Others learned of the new ways of farming called diversification or crop rotation. This meant that they had to plant a different crop where the wheat had been and they could plant wheat in a new spot. Others went into large animal production such as hogs or beef or dairy. The stock market crash of October 1929 caused the country to go into an economic depression. By the 1930’s, severe drought hit most of the central and southern plains of the United States and the southwestern part of Minnesota. This caused huge dust storms to blow the top soils around and what few crops were planted had little or no chance of survival. Because many of the farmers had purchased new equipment or new farms from banks or the newly formed FHA (Farmers Holiday Association), without the crops to sell they had no money to make the payments on their equipment and on their
farms, resulting in many foreclosures. Some lost everything they had. Others, who had some money in
the bank, were able to purchase their farms back for less than what they had originally owed.
By 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt embarked on a federal relief effort for those who were jobless,
as well as help for those with children and the elderly. In Minnesota, then Governor Floyd B. Olson also
put together a temporary stop on foreclosures of farms in Minnesota and supplied aid to those farmers
who had been highly affected by the dry weather and the poor growing conditions.
The Social & Economic Affects of the Great Depression on Rural Minnesota
Topic: The Great Depression and Agriculture
Grade Level: 5
Objective: Students will gain an understanding of the history of agriculture in Minnesota up to the Great
Depression. At that point they will analyze what was happening to farming in the “Dust Bowl” area with
areas in Minnesota, particularly the area in which they live.
Time Needed: Approximately 6 class periods (about 45 minutes in length).
Connections to the Standards:
Minnesota History Standard Grades 4‐8, World Wards I and II, and the Interwar Period 1914‐1945;
Students will demonstrate knowledge of the economic changes of the 1920s/1930s and analyze the
impact of the Great Depression and the New Deal.
Background: Farming in Minnesota had gone through a series of changes by the time the Great
Depression hit. With Minnesota being a largely agricultural state, the dry weather conditions that
occurred during the time of the Great Depression had an enormous affect on the state of the economy,
farming in particular. It is through the study comparison of Rural Minnesota during the Great Depression
that we begin to get a clearer understanding of that time period.
Connections: This lesson can be used in conjunction with “Northern Lights: The Stories of Minnesota’s
Past” textbook, particularly chapter 15: “Boom and Bust”. It is also a lesson that will fit anywhere within
a unit on the Great Depression.
Introduction:
Day 1: At the beginning of class put students into 4 or 5 groups, depending on how many of the images
you want to use. Give each group a picture depicting farming/life in Minnesota during the Depression.
(See resource list figures #1‐5) Ask students to answer the following questions; (Figure # 6)
1. What do you see (people/objects) in this image?
2. What are the people, if any, doing?
3. Who do you think these people are?
4. What does this image tell you about the ways of living?
5. When do you think this image was created?
6. Why do you think this image was createdWhen all groups have answered their questions, have them each share their image and how they answered the questions about their image. Next, explain that all of the images were taken during a time called the Great Depression. Based on what they see, what does the title “Great Depression” make them think about or picture in their own minds? Give a general overview about the Great Depression, explaining that they will be going into greater detail as they continue the study. Use the “In Their Words: Stories of Minnesota’s Greatest Generation; Episode and Getting By” sections as a brief intro. (Figure #7) Ask students to go home and check with a grandparent, great‐grandparent or neighbor to see if anyone around them was alive during the Great Depression. Find out if they lived in a city or on a farm and where they lived. Bring that information with to school tomorrow. Day 2: Gather data from students as to whether or not they have family or neighbors that were alive during the Depression, and whether they lived on a farm or in a city and where they lived. Place the data on a frequency table on the board/overhead and mark on a United States map where they lived. (Figure # 8) Discuss results. Ask students if they think it would have been easier to have lived in the city or in the country during the Great Depression. Share their reasons why. Place students back into their groups from yesterday. Hand each group a document written by a person who lived during the Depression. (Figures # 9‐13) Have them read their document and answer the questions about their source (Figure #14) with the exception of the last section of questions. Days 3: Discuss students’ ideas about growing up in the country or in the city during the Depression. Be sure to have them defend their ideas. At this point have the students divide out so that there are 14 groups, assigning them each one chapter in their text and have them go back through their “Northern Lights” text and find the ways that farming has changed so far in what we have studied in Minnesota history. They are to then create a drawing that illustrates what they have in their chapter and write on it a brief description/summary. When they have finished, place them in chronological order to create a timeline of farming history. Day 4: Read the chapter “Boom and Bust” in “Northern Lights”, pp. 231‐239, with the idea that they will be making a comparison with the stories they read from the people who lived the Depression. Have them answer the last question on sheet Figure #14. Discuss students’ findings from their reading. Do they still feel the same about living in the city vs the country? Day 5: Place students back into their original groups. Hand out map, graph and Questionnaire. (Figures #15, 16 & 17) Students are going to analyze the effects of the Depression on Minnesota. Day 6: Today students will once again be placed back into their original groups and given their original photos. This time, students will be informed as to what their image is, complete with whatever detailed information about the event etc. there is. Students will then be given a new Figure #6 sheet to fill out. Does knowing about the event/people in the image make a difference to your feelings and interpretations? Discuss findings. Assessment: Evaluation based on overall combination on work with emphasis on day 5.
Figure #1 Abandoned Farm location # MW6.3p1 Neg 46661 Figure #2 Farmer’s Holiday location # SA5.2p15 Neg 5876
Figure #3 Cow/Horse at Capital location # SA5.2p8 Neg 11239 Figure #4 Dust Bowl location # QC2.3p1 Neg 22249
Figure #5 Farmers Drought location SA2.3p28 Neg81474
(Figure #6)
What Do You See?
Images From the Past
1. What do you see (people/objects) in this image?_________________________
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2. What are the people, if any, doing? __________________________________
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3. Who do you think these people are? _________________________________
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4. What does this image tell you about the ways of living? __________________
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5. When do you think this image was created? ___________________________
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6. Why do you think this image was created? ____________________________
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_________________________________________________________________“In Their Words: Stories of Minnesota’s Greatest Generation; Episode and Getting By” (Figure #7)
“For many Minnesotans who grew up during the Great Depression, the ability to dwell on the
sunny side of life, even when conditions seemed darkest, was a talent that made daily existence just a
little more bearable. But optimism did not come easily. The depression grabbed hold of Minnesota—
and the rest of the country—during the earliest months of the 1930s, and did not let go for nearly a
decade. The children who lived through those years never forgot what it was like. The experience
shaped their lives. The joys and heartaches of growing up in Minnesota during the 1930s stayed with
them over the decades as they fought a world war, built their careers, and raised families of their
own.
On its simplest level, the Great Depression was an economic crisis. Between 1929 and 1933, the
average family in the United States saw its income drop by more than one third. The national jobless
rate, which stood at about three percent in October of 1929, reached at least twenty‐five percent less
than four years later. The numbers in Minnesota were comparable, although residents in some parts
of the state—the Iron Range, for example, where the unemployment rate hit seventy percent—
suffered more than others. Children did not always understand the larger economic forces that were
swirling around them, but they could tell something was wrong. Their fathers came home with news
of pay cuts and layoffs. Their mothers struggled to make a few days" food last an entire week.
Illnesses went untreated. Clothes wore out and were seldom replaced. Many kids scavenged for food.
Others took low‐paying jobs to help their families survive. Even those whose families weathered the
crisis reasonably well felt less secure than they ever had before. All around them they saw evidence of
an economy in shambles, and the adults they depended on were helpless to do anything about it.
Before the 1930s, most Minnesotans had little direct contact with the federal government.
About the only federal workers they ever ran into were employees for the U.S. Postal Service. But the
Great Depression permanently changed the relationship between the American people and their
government. In the weeks and months after he took the oath of office in 1933, President Franklin
Roosevelt began mobilizing the federal bureaucracy to help Americans cope with what was turning
out to be an agonizingly persistent economic calamity. He pushed through legislation creating an
alphabet soup of new federal agencies including the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA),
the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), and the Public Works Administration (PWA).
Later initiatives included the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Rural Electrification
Administration (REA), and Social Security. Together, Roosevelt"s initiatives formed the core of what
became known as the "New Deal." For the first time, the federal government was assuming an active
role in the lives of many, if not most, U.S. citizens.”(Figure #8)
The Great Depression
City Life or Country Life?
City Life Country LifeVivian Henningfield: Depression Hardships (Figure #9) Written by: MGG Project Team (Connection To Main Character: Submitted on behalf of the author, Vivian Henningfield) Location of Story: St. Paul, MN Time of Story: 1930s Main Character: Vivian Henningfield Age During Story: About 10 Gender: Female Hometown: St. Paul, MN It was during the great Depression years, I remember growing up on welfare. I really thank God for its existence. Our president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was elected because God willed it "for such a time as this." President Roosevelt's New Deal program brought about our Social Security program from which the people of our nation, even today, are still benefiting. I remember living at 430 Carroll Avenue in St. Paul when my dad got angry, slammed the pink sugar bowl on the table and walked out of our home saying, "She burned the oatmeal again." We only saw him on occasional visits that he made to our neighborhood. Since we were deserted, our Mom went to the Welfare Office for help. It turned out to be a lifesaver for us as they moved us to the East side, Payne Ave. area, where we were enrolled in the Wilder Day Nursery where our medical help began. My sister had thyroid problems and my being underweight was addressed. I was put in a foster care home where I was more assured of getting a proper diet to ward off Tuberculosis. I remember Food Stamps and how families helped each other to make them stretch. My Mom worked for a lady who gave her handmedown clothes for my sisters and me. She even loaned her a radio for us to listen to the Easter music. I also remember someone bringing us yellow oleo (a butter substitute) from Wisconsin. It was already mixed. We didn't have to break the capsule and mix it ourselves. (Oleo in its natural form was white, making it look like lard. The capsule contained a yellow dye which when mixed with the oleo, made it a more appealing yellow color resembling butter.) The following is from a book published in 1975 by the Readers Digest titled The Story of America: The Government had mushroomed steadily since the 1880s. The New Deal and the Depression only accelerated the process… The New Deal did help America's faith in its own future and finally established the principal that the Federal Government has a responsibility for the National Welfare and a duty to meet a specific crisis. I don't regret those years. They helped me to be a stronger person and certainly to have respect for not wasting anything.
Growing Up In St.Paul (Figure #10) Written by: MGG Project Team (Who is also a character in the story.) (Connection To Main Character: Submitted on behalf of the author, Gratia Ouellette) Location of Story: Minnesota Time of Story: 1923 1999 Main Character: Gratia Ouellette Gender: Female Main Character: Gratia Claire Ouellette Maiden Name: Howard Gender: Female Hometown: St. Paul, Minnesota I was born May 15, 1923 at St. Luke's, now United Hospital in St. Paul, and was named Gratia Claire Howard. My father started Howard Hardware at the front Como and Dale intersection that same year. Our family home was at 1404 Sargent Avenue. I attended neighborhood schools: Randolph Heights Elementary, Maria Sanford – now Ramsey Junior High and St. Paul Central High, graduating in 1940. I had always assumed I would go on to the University of Minnesota where my mother had graduated in 1909. I was shocked to be told by my family that college would not be possible. Family finances had never been discussed nor had I been encouraged to seek a scholarship. Blindsided, I spent the summer of 1940 in what we would now label deep depression. By late fall that year, I needed to get back on track and enrolled in [Cable] Secretarial College, just off Snelling Avenue on University Avenue. I dragged myself through the courses but have been grateful since for the training. Childhood and adolescent memories include Macalister College's woods West and North of St. Clair and Snelling and a skating rink maintained by Macalister students. Season tickets were two or three dollars. The rink was flooded twice a day and a warming house included wooden benches under which we left boots, books, and etc. with complete confidence in the honesty of our fellow skaters. Oh, and there was a candy counter. My favorite was a Charleston Chew. In the late 1920's my parents acquired a cottage in Lakeland, Minnesota, just across from Hudson, Wisconsin. The tarpapercovered twostory house stood on three lots of very sandy soil, which produced healthy sandburs. We would move to Lakeland, mom, dad, four kids, and usually two dogs in one car full – very full the weekend after school let out, and stay till Labor Day weekend. The cottage had a dirt basement, no electricity, no plumbing, nor running water. As my older brother once remarked, "There's a lot to learn about the simple life." Modernized one area at a time over the years, the cottage is now my retirement home. A canning factory in Lakeland, long ago shut down, was only busy during early summer when peas and later corn ripened and were canned. By the time I was old enough to work in the factory, wages had risen to 30 cents an hour for unskilled labor, which I definitely was.
In our family, the two important holidays were Christmas and the 4th of July. Christmas was home and church, cards and decorating, candy and plumb pudding, stockings and Santa Claus. The 4th was relatives and picnics, swimming and softball, fireworks and cap guns. Oh, every year a shining new cap gun for each child, rolls of ammunition caps and stern reminders to never aim at a person. Remembering the holidays brings to mind that my mother was a fine pianist, had served her church as organist, had a large repertoire of memorized classics – [Chopin] was a favorite. My dad was proud of having been commissioned on the field in World War I. Dad used to teach me that women said something to the effect that if they got the vote, the prisons would be empty. I would respond that he had fought the war to end all war. In late 1941 I began my first full part time job with Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company working for two insurance agents in the morning and one agent in the afternoon. A point of pride with this company was that they could offer hospital insurance to their employees. I had never heard of such a thing. There were lots of rules and limitations to the coverage, but it was a start. My salary there was eighty dollars a month. December 7, 1941 several friends attended a movie matinee at the Orpheum Theater in downtown St. Paul. There the announcement was made that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. Aghast and confused, we exited the theater to see young soldiers from Fort Snelling on the street looking for transportation back to their barracks and an uncertain future. Within days, the Red Cross started appealing for blood donors. I would donate during my lunch hour – no fat or grease allowed that morning. Every six or eight weeks I would receive a reminder post card on which my mother would pen, "Please don't." I never understood her fear of this activity. My afternoon boss wasn't quite sure I worked at full speed that day. Patriotic enthusiasm gripped us all. In the summer of 1943, I enlisted in the United States Marine Corp Women's Reserve. Basic Training and my complete military career were spent at Camp Lejune, North Carolina. Assigned to the audit section, I filled a desk, which had belonged to a marine – Louis Henri Ouellette who had been temporarily assigned elsewhere. He returned to the audit section, we worked together for a few months and then married in July of 1944, just one week before he was shipped out to the South Pacific. Since he was on what they call combat alert that week, we were not allowed to leave the base. We did not see each other until October of 1946 after his discharge. I had returned to civilian life in November of 1945. We stayed with my parents until St. Paul put up a Quonset hut settlement on Carol – just off Lexington Avenue. The war behind us, we settled down in St. Paul. Lou found an accounting job and joined a local Marine Corp Reserve Unit. We had our first child in January of 1948. I attended the University of Minnesota thanks to the GI Bill. In July of 1950, my husband's reserve unit was called to active duty because of the Korean crisis and he left for San Diego. I graduated from the U in August that summer. Even though Lou was in the Service Battalion, he was part of the group surrounded by Chinese troops at the [Chowsan] Reservoir. The ensuing breakout is a point of pride in Marine Corps history. I'm still grateful that I didn't know about that fearful battle until long after the event. After a year in Korea, Lou returned to St. Paul. We quickly bought our first home, which was in the West 7th district. Between 1952 and 1959, we had four more children. Despite misgivings of church and family, we had observed our 54th wedding anniversary before Lou died of thyroid and lung cancer in 1999.
Growing up in the 1930s and 1940s (Figure #11)
By Roger Clayton Bremseth as told to his daughter Julie Rae Pennertz
I was born April 30, 1934 at my parents home outside of Madison, Minnesota., in Lac Qui Parle County.
When I was born, I was a “blue baby”; I wasn’t breathing because I had the cord wrapped around my
neck. My grandmother, Anna Pederson was attending my mother with the delivery, and if she hadn’t
been there, I wouldn’t have survived. I was the youngest of six and by this time the worst of the
Depression had already hit our family.
My dad had been a big time farmer farther down the road, where the soil was a lot more loam and it took
the 8 horses hooked up to the equipment to get the work done. He had been proud of the farm and the
work that he had been able to accomplish, with crops, hogs and a variety of things, but with the stock
market crash and the run on the banks, the calling in on the loans came to our little part of the world. Dad
had about half of the farm paid for and could have paid some more of it, but not all of it, and not all of
what was due. My brothers and sisters told me about the day when the bankers came and dug a deep pit
and chased all of the hogs into it. Those that didn’t die from breaking their necks were shot and then just
covered up. From that time on my dad never bought anything on credit. If we didn’t have the cash for it,
we didn’t buy it.
That’s what brought us to the farm site where I grew up, not far from the Milan bridge. We didn’t farm
where I lived. Dad had a big truck and he used it to haul for others; grain, seed, dirt, whatever needed
hauling. By the time my brother Dick was in 9th grade he had to quit school so he could help Dad with
trucking. Dad was able to buy another truck and we needed more money. Even my oldest sister, Ardy
knew how to drive one of Dad’s big trucks. When the WPA was offering work along the river, Dad
worked there riprapping. I remember he made $5 for the whole week of hauling that rock, and that was
heavy labor.
Because we lived by the lake, we also sold minnows and rented out spaces down by the lake for people to
come and stay in the summer time. Even during the Depression there was one family that would bring
their camper each year and camp for almost the whole summer by our lake. I remember my mom taking
the quarter she got from selling minnows and going to town to by bread and milk to feed all of us. There
was also the time when my brothers and sisters were told not to go swimming in the lake because it was
green and they could get the itch, but they went in anyway. I can still see my dad striding down toward
the lake with his face set and a switch in his hand. My sister Gloria and brother Dick crawled into the live
well to hide and my other brother Willy just took off running. Dad caught up to Willy first and gave him
a switch, and then came to the live well and hauled the other two out one at a time and gave them the
switch.
Times were tough for many people during the Depression, but my Mom always did what she could for
others. One night I was sitting on the reservoir on the wood stove when there was a knock at the door. I
jumped down and ran to answer it and there was a “Bo” (hobo) at the door. Mother came to the door to
see who was there and then she went and got an old loaf of baked bread and tore off a big end of it and
then took a quart jar and poured some milk into it. She told him he could eat it on the porch there, but
then he had to move on. We saw a lot of hobos over the years. I guess once you show kindness word
gets out that you can get a handout and more just kept coming.
My Mom was one who could make anything out of whatever food she was given. We didn’t really go
hungry much as we raised most of our own food. We had all kinds of vegetables in the garden, especiallypotatoes. We were always careful to make sure we had some left for seed potatoes for the next year. We ate a lot of klub and with the lake right there we also had a lot of fish. Even when the creek was frozen we would chop a path through it and try to drive the carp through so we could spear them. When we had enough we would take them to a man in town who would smoke them for us for half the bunch. We also raised chickens, so we had plenty of eggs and when we needed it we had chicken to eat too. In addition we raised Guinea Hens. Those we raised in the chicken house and in the yard to keep down the rat population as they kill rats. Entertainment was usually the dancehall across the bridge where there would be dances or rollerskating and in town every now and then there would be free outdoor movies to get people to come to town and hopefully buy things from the merchants. Later, when I was old enough to go to town for movies at the Reno theater in Appleton, it cost 9 cents to get in, with popcorn 5 cents. If you saved your penny left from the dime for the movie, you could go over to the store and buy a handful of candy with that penny. Trips to town were only when necessary, and usually only the oldest family members went. The cheapest gasoline I can remember was about 15 cents per gallon at the time. We usually only bought the main staples that we had to; butter, salt, flour (in 100 lb. sacks) yeast and sugar. Sometimes it would be meat and butter and storebought bread, though my mother usually baked bread about every other day. Most of this was purchased at the Hantho Store, a country store owned by my Aunt Laura, a few miles from our home. We may not have had a lot of money, but we always had lots to do and we had each other. Mother and Dad saw to that.
Grandpa Clark's Farm (Figure #12) Written by: MGG Project Team (Connection To Main Character: Submitted on behalf of the author, Katherine Everett Claypool) Location of Story: John W. Clark Farm Time of Story: 1929 Main Character: Katherine Everett Claypool Age During Story: 41/2 Ethnicity: Scotch/Irish Gender: Female Hometown: Eden Prairie Our first visit to Grandpa Clark's farm was in the spring of 1929. My sister, Roberta, was in the second grade and Lad was a first grader. I was about 4 1/2 years old. Clark, the baby of the family was two years younger. It is not surprising that my recollections of this visit are pretty vague. I've thought and thought about it, but it seems that my memory is very capricious; an incident will flash through my mind clearly, then if I don't catch it on paper, it's gone. I can no longer check with my sister, Roberta. I lost her in 2006 and am now the only Everett of my generation still here. The picture I have included with this shows the Everett family standing in front of a derelict old farm building. This derelict building was an old bunkhouse, and when the farm had more hands, this was their domain. The bottom floor, as you can see, was open, no door of any kind and the wind would whistle through and find many openings to the living quarters upstairs. There had been a heavy sliding door, but time and inclement weather had taken their toll and it was no longer usable. This first floor was a repair shop and it was home to a number of old and ailing pieces of farm equipment. Around the side were boxes of nuts, bolts, screws and any and all paraphernalia that might be used to repair wellworn equipment. I imagine it held many machines too good to discard, but no longer in use. I'm sure there was always a stock of baling wire, which was used extensively on farms at that time and no doubt still is. An outside stairway led to the second floor living area. That railing was needed because oft times the hands would celebrate excessively on weekends and the railing was a safety feature. I think I heard tell of some who celebrated very vocally as they climbed up the stairs. As you entered the second floor you would realize how primitive it was no bathroom no running water little heat and no privacy. One section of it was a basic kitchen with a sink area, table and chairs and I seem to recall an old kerosene cook stove. The remainder was sleeping space. In ordinary times this was the hired men's quarters, but had been given over to our family. It was inconvenient, but a welcome haven in our hour of need. We had to carry water up by the bucketfuls and had to go up and down the stairs to use the outhouse in the rear. You can bet that our "thunder mugs" were used at night no running up and down the steps after dark.
If I remember correctly, the farm workers took most of their meals up at the main house. Grandpa was getting older and Uncle Tom was taking over the farm. So Grandpa and Grandma, Uncle Tom and Aunt Pansy and their children all lived there in the main house. The dining room had a long table and rather than chairs, a bench ran down each side of the table with chairs at the ends. Somehow the six Everetts were squeezed in and shared the food. Looking back, I can only wonder how in the world Aunt Pansy and Grandma had coped. What a lot of work and what a struggle it must have been, but farm women have always been the backbone of family farms and they rose to the occasion. All the cooking, all the cleaning, all the work stripping beds and making beds every week and doing mountainous laundry chores fell on the women's shoulders. When we were there, Mom pitched in and was a big help. At that time I think Grandpa still had a barn full of milk cows. I seem to remember being fascinated by the whole process of milking the cows and the smell of the place rather intrigued me. The old milk house was still in use and I watched while they poured the milk from the pails, straining it into 5gallon milk cans which stood in a cold water tub to take the heat out more rapidly. The water was very cold and I remember being told never to sit on the cold tub because I might get piles. I had no idea what piles might be, but I knew I didn't want to get THEM! My sister, who was almost three years older, filled me in on some of the details of our short visit. We came in the spring and left before school started in the fall. The icehouse was still in use then. The ice had been cut from the Minnesota River and was stored there covered with sawdust and straw. We used to sneak in, grab a piece of dirty ice and run away sucking on it. Even covered with sawdust it ws a treat on a hot summer day. Roberta and Lad spent the spring going to school at the Eden Prairie Consolidated School. If I'm not mistaken, Roberta was in second grade and Lad was in first grade. Lad was very bashful and when he needed to use the restroom, he would get down on the floor and crawl on his hands and knees over to Roberta so she could take him down to the restroom. Hopefully he soon gained confidence. Every farm had a chicken coop and Grandpa's farm had one too. The chickens spent most of the time running around clucking, scratching, getting in the way and flapping their wings when we got too close. They would object strenuously when we reached under them so gathering the eggs was fraught with pain and danger. The hens would get "broody" in the spring and were constantly looking for a warm snug spot outside where they could lay their eggs. When they had a clutch of eggs before we tracked them down, we had to let them hatch their eggs. We enjoyed watching them and kept tabs on them until the chicks had pecked their way to freedom. By the time school started in the fall, we were on our way back to Tomahawk, Wisconsin. Word had come that the sawmill had reopened and work was available again for Dad. He hoped the job would last until the depression was over. We bade "good bye" to our bunkhouse home and set out for Tomahawk. We never dreamed that within a couple of years the Depression would worsen. The mill would close for good and we would come back to Grandpa's farm where Dad could get work. According to the Hennepin County News, the Everett family of Tomahawk, Wisconsin arrived on March 23, 1933. Thus it was the spring of my third grade year that our family returned to Minnesota...part of the flotsam set in motion by the winds of the Great Depression that engulfed the country.
Memories of the Great Depression (Figure #13) Written by: MGG Project Team (Connection To Main Character: Submitted on behalf of the author, Dorothy Klick) Location of Story: Long Prairie, Minnesota Time of Story: 1930s Main Character: Dorothy Oedbauer Klick Gender: Female Hometown: Long Prarie I've been happy to have had the experience of living in the days of the depression. All people seemed to be on the same level financially and seemed happy about adjusting to the odds presented. It wasn't like now "Haves" and "Have Nots;" we always had food to eat and, while not as good as the farmers who could eat off their land with meat, chickens, eggs etc., Mom provided us with nutritious meals with 25 cents' worth of hamburger and veggies from the garden, which we also canned for winter use. I remember asking permission to use sugar and raisins, but otherwise we made do. There were the feed sacks from the mill that we could buy for 115 cents each. They were used to make dresses, aprons, tablecloths, curtains, blankets, etc. In fact, at the Todd County Fair, there were special prizes for articles made from feed sacks. Rationing of sugar, meats, and flour, tires, etc.. did cause some cheating, but usually just sharing. While in high school, one of the students' father was a rural mail carrier. Bud could get the car for school activities. We would pitch in for a 15 cent gallon of gas. Movies were 10 and 15 cents and we used babysitting money to go. Clothes were made over from stashed away reserves of the wealthy. I could alter a dress to wear for school of the finest quality materials so we just had to scrounge for hosiery and shoes. I remember babysitting a whole summer to earn money for a $10 wristwatch and $5 raincoat to use when I started high school in 1929. We used the library a lot and walked to the Lake Charlotte a mile south of town to swim. My parents got their first car in 1927. We had our home remodeled in 1929 and got indoor plumbing. We never felt bad about using the outdoor toilet; ours was in a wood shed. Before that time we took baths and washed clothes at the barbershop on Main Street. My father augmented his income from the barbershop by supplying a public bath in one section of the shop. For 50 cents you would get a clean tub, hot soft water, soap and towel. Men from town, lawyers and businessmen who didn't have modern plumbing in their homes used this convenience for their weekly baths. Many truckers stopped in, too, on the weekends. Since we were a family with only girls, the job of keeping the bathroom clean provided us with some "pin money," too. Wood was cut by two men with a motor powered saw rig. We piled the wood for heating and cooking in the shed. Later we had a coalburning parlor furnace that heated the whole house too warm in places and cold in others. The only heat in our one bedroom upstairs was from the stovepipe from the living room to the roof. We had feather bed coverlets to keep us warm.
In the winter the streets were shoveled to high piles near the sidewalks and occasionally they dug a hole though the snow pile so people could just walk to the other side of the street. Movies were silent and black and white. In our town they had accomplished piano and violin players that would follow the story and present the show. Popcorn was 5 cents and you kept your movie space clean. There were tent shows that came to town in the summer and presented a show every night. They enhanced their profits with boxes of sea foam candy and had prizes in them. Revival church tents were also set up in town. "The cleansing stream I see, I see, I jump into and it cleanses me" was the theme of the tent shows. Our church had a ladies aid, which served meals on Thursday nights for 15 cents for members and 25 cents for the public. The teachers were so happy to come for a hot dish meal, salad, homemade rolls, bread, relish, cake or desserts and coffee. As kids we were happy to be asked to help serve. County fair prize money was planned on and we were creative all summer on projects "fancy" work and horticulture. We would walk 3 miles or more to visit friends' farms. Sometimes we got to stay overnight and come into town with the milk team in the morning. We walked out to play a player piano, played a couple of rolls and then walked back to the railroad track before suppertime. Radios were just coming in and we would stand on the public sidewalk and watch Mr. Frana though the window adjust the rabbit ears, head phones and paraphernalia with squawk, squawk and cheer as he got stations from far away. There were no funeral parlors in our time. We visited the deceased in their homes and it was the practice to have the wake service there and adult friends would stay up all night with the corpse. The dray a team of horses and wagon would be the source of transportation for many things: garbage removal, street cleaning and watering of sidewalks. The dray also transported people's luggage to the train depot. During the Depression, Long Prairie had public transportation none here today. There were two Greyhound buses, one in the morning going north, and the other going south in the afternoon. We also had the "luxury" of the Great Northern Railroad. This line connected trains from Wadena to Sauk Centre to the Twin Cities. Most of the people I remember provided and contributed to make the best better and came out of the lean years being able to adjust and be happy to have gained this experience. We made the world a better place by unitizing our skills and adjusting our attitudes.
(Figure #14)
The Great Depression
City Life or Country Life
Analysis of Primary Source Print Documents
1. Identify the Source
Author(s) or source: _______________________________
Title:___________________________________________
Date:___________________________________________
Type of Document:_________________________________
2. Analyze the Document
Main idea of the document: __________________________
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What might have motivated the author to write this? _______
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Who did the author write this for and why? ______________
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Are there any ways in which the author is trying to get you to
think about things from only one view point? Why might this be? _
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__________________________________________________What questions would you ask the author if he/she were here?
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3. Historical Context
Did you learn about any famous people in your reading? ____
If so, who and what did you find out about them? ____________
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What can you conclude about this time period from what the
author has written? ___________________________________
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4. Comparing Documents
Compare what you learned from this primary source with what
you discovered in your text book.
A) How did the two documents relate? __________________
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B) Which did you prefer and why? _____________________
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__________________________________________________Figure #15 US Map http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/dep02.jpg
Figure #16 US Census, 1940, Minnesota, The Federal Census, 1940, (Detroit? Stranahan, Harris & company, incorporated) 1940 HA205.57 LC:41010493
(Figure #17)
The Effects of the Depression on Minnesota
(Use the map of figure #15)
1: Color in the area known as the “Dust Bowl”. Use brown.
2: Find Minnesota. Color it in Green.
3: Find the arrows that show the major migration route of workers.
Carefully color them in red.
4: What do you notice about the arrows and the direction they are
going? Why do you think this is happening? ______________________
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5: Why do you think the states that are receiving the over $700 per
head of population are those states? What do you know about them
that might give reason for them needing more relief than any others?
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6: Since it is hard to distinguish which states are in areas of decline and
which are in revival, lightly color in the striped areas you think are
decline in orange and in revival in yellow. Then explain why you did the
areas you did for both. ______________________________________
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__________________________________________________________(For this side, use the chart from figure #16)
7: How many people lived in cities in the 1920 census? _____________
8: How many people lived in cities in the 1930 census? _____________
9: How many people lived in cities in the 1940 census? _____________
10: How many people lived in the country in 1920? ________________
11: How many people lived in the country in 1930? ________________
12: How many people lived in the country in 1940? ________________
13: How many people lived in Minnesota in 1930? _________________
14: Did the overall population of Minnesota increase or decrease from
1920 1940? ______________________
15: Did the population in the cities of Minnesota increase or decrease
between 1920 and 1940? __________________
16: Did the population in rural Minnesota increase or decrease between
1920 and 1940? _______________________
17: Did the Urban farm population increase or decrease between 1930
and 1940? ____________________
18: Did the rural farm population increase or decrease between 1930
and 1940? ____________________
19: What happened to the rural nonfarm population in Minnesota
between 1920 to 1930? _____________________ Between 1930
and 1940? _________________
20: If you were to analyze this information and come to a conclusion
based on what you have seen, what conclusion would you draw?
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__________________________________________________________Resources
Images
http://www.mnhs.org/library Minnesota Historical Society library provides access to the library’s
catalog, some birth and death records and a timeline of Minnesota history.
Figure #1 Abandoned Farm location # MW6.3p1 Neg 46661
Figure #2 Farmer’s Holiday location # SA5.2p15 Neg 5876
Figure #3 Cow/Horse at Capital location # SA5.2p8 Neg 11239
Figure #4 Dust Bowl location # QC2.3p1 Neg 22249
Figure #5 Farmers Drought location SA2.3p28 Neg81474
Figure #6 “Images From the Past” Question Sheet
Figure #7 http://www.mnhs.org
Minnesota Historical Society “Greatest Generation”
“In Their Words: Stories of Minnesota’s Greatest Generation; Episode: The Depression; Getting
By; Helping Hands.”
Figure #8 “The Great Depression: City Life or Country Life” T‐chart
Figures #9‐13 http://www.mnhs.org
The Greatest Generation: MGG Projects (except #11)
#9: Vivian Henningfield
#10: Gratia Ouellette
#11: Roger C. Bremseth
#12: Katherine Everett Claypool
#13: Dorothy Klick
Figure #14 “City Life or Country Life: Analysis of Primary Source Print
Documents”
Figure #15 US Map
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/dep02.jpg
Figure #16 US Census, 1940, Minnesota
The Federal Census, 1940, (Detroit? Stranahan, Harris &
company, incorporated) 1940 HA205.57 LC:41010493
Figure #17 “The Effects of the Depression of Minnesota” questionnaireYou can also read
