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Cache
residents remember the Great Depression
By Kelli Dodgen
December 28, 2004 | The
Great Depression left many unemployed and without food,
but what was it like in Logan from 1920 to 1940? Many
local residents remember.
By 1932, Cache Valley had 1,500 unemployed wage-earners
with Utah being one of the hardest hit by the Great
Depression. With the unemployment rate in Utah reaching
35.8 percent, it ranked the fourth highest in the nation.
Charlotte Dopp, growing up on a Benson Farm, remembers
bringing eggs and milk to help those in need. Dopp says
that the farm provided a lot of their families needs
but they still saw many that were going without food.
"My parents gave away all they could on our farm
to help," Dopp said.
Dopp helped her parents by working at the Bluebird Restaurant
earning 26 cents an hour. Hamburgers sold for 5 cents,
but Dopp says that she could never afford one. Besides
giving all the extra food from their farm to others,
Dopp says that her family suffered very little.
Other residents in Cache Valley weren't so lucky, Thirty-two
of Utah's 105 banks had failed leaving a third of the
population receiving all or part of their clothing and
shelter from government relief funds. Farm foreclosures
state-wide had hit an all time high. Dryland farmers
were hit the hardest; a bushel of wheat costing 68 cents
during the 1933-34 growing season had dropped to 30
cents a bushel. Farmers locally also faced a major decline
in acreage towards the end of the Great Depression due
to stable production costs and falling commodity prices.
Mary Wolf, a Logan farmer, had to sell half of their
land during the hard times of the Great Depression.
Wolf recalls using a horse and cart to go and sell eggs,
instead of their car, because their was no money for
gas. Despite having to sell her farm, Wolf felt fortunate
that she had the amenities of it.
Both Wolf and Dopp agree that people were happy despite
their circumstances at the time.
Glen Bradley had a job teaching school throughout the
depression but can remember helping out on his family's
farm to sell their hay and grain. Glen and his brothers
also made extra money by driving the milk truck for
30 cents an hour. Bradley says that when the milk truck
was empty he would give the waey, water left over from
the milk, to the pigs on other local farms so they would
have something to eat.
After his farm chores Bradley remembers going to trade
an egg for a nickel candy at the local store. "The
Great Depression made everyone suffer in some way. Even
those who had jobs made very low wages," Bradley
said.
As county conditions became worse, programs were developed
to provide jobs and relief to the poor. The Logan Chamber
of Commerce, began an employment program funded by a
2 cent tax on the wages of businesses and municipal
employees. The program put 200 employees to work building
sidewalks, school playgrounds, curbs and gutters. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt's employment program, the Workers
Progress Administration (WPA), provided jobs for many
valley residents. Between 1935-39 the WPA spent nearly
$2 million on improvements and buildings in Cache County.
Dopp recalls the men working with the WPA, digging the
sewer by hand on the block where she lived.
"Four men dug the sewer line by hand for 20 cents
an hour. It's remarkable thinking back how everything
was done by hand where a backhoe can do the same thing
today in 15 minutes," Dopp said.
USU was given special funding to assist in supporting
cultural activities. USU's George Nelson Fieldhouse
and Amphitheater on Old Main Hill was constructed during
the Great Depression to provide jobs. Other projects
in Cache County, construction on the Hyrum Dam began
and the Newton Dam, was increased in size and capacity.
Additions to South Cache High School and construction
of the Family Life Building began on USU campus. The
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was another program
that allowed farmers to borrow money to pay bank mortgages.
Things began to improve in Cache Valley with the help
of employment programs and relief funds. As the Great
Depression began to be on its way out of Cache Valley,
the county saw improvements in jobs and wages but especially
people's spirits started to rise and worry started to
fade from their minds.
"The Great Depression ended gradually for everyone
but you could tell when things got better when people
started to get back to their regular lives again,"
Bradley said.
For more information on Cache Valley during the Great
Depression, see The
Great Depression.
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