U.S. farm economics 1

A more accurate title to this post might be: Midwest U.S. farm economics in the early twentieth century. We will go with the shorter version, for the sake of simplicity

Our family’s fortunes have long been tied to the farm economy, since our earliest-known ancestors were tenant farmers, and each generation after them had some relation to the land. Thus it makes sense to try to understand the context in which Grandpa Chris and his family lived in terms of farm economy.

The thought to explore this question came to mind while reading Dorothy Schwieder and Deborah Fink’s article “Plains Women: Rural Life in the 1930s,” published in the Great Plains Quarterly. They wrote:

The 1930s did not bring the first hint of depression to these counties [Boone County, Nebraska and Lyman County, South Dakota]. While South Dakota  and Nebraska farm families did well
during World War I, realizing profit from both farming and livestock production, the 1920s brought a drastic deflation of farm prices, which forced many farms and rural banks into insolvency. In Nebraska between 1921 and 1923, one-quarter of the state’s farms failed, and by the end of the decade, 650 banks had closed. South Dakotans experienced a similar situation. Only one state bank failed in 1921, but by 1925 the number had risen to more than 175. By the 1930s, farms in Nebraska and South Dakota were already in the midst of a severe economic dislocation. (1988, 80)

In other words, the farm economy was weak for nearly a decade before the depression, which only exacerbated an already-difficult situation. Schwieder and Fink continue:

Many Depression-era farmers were forced to sell off
all their property and to give up farming completely. 

Drought hit South Dakota in the early 1930s and Nebraska a few years later. Both states were particularly hard hit in 1934 and 1936. … In Lyman County, drought-stunted crops were 51 percent of normal and pasture conditions were 57 percent of normal. In Boone County, the percentages were 62 and 58 respectively. … By 1936, Boone County faced even greater drought than before. with rainfall declining to 12.63 inches. The following year, Boone County pastures and crops were reduced to 5 percent of normal production. In 1938, the local newspaper, The Albion News, carried notices of thirty-eight sheriff’s sales while dozens of other families voluntarily liquidated their assets. Along with drought, both South Dakota and Nebraska experienced infestations of grasshoppers in the 1930s. (1988, 81)

Clearly, life was hard for farmers throughout the Midwest in 1920s and 1930s, presumably no less so for those in the Lushton–Henderson area than for those in Boone County, Nebraska. Interestingly, this is also the precise time frame when Grandpa Chris and Grandma Malinda established their farm and raised their large family. It seems amazing that they succeeded when so many around them apparently did not.

To appreciate their achievements fully, we need to understand more clearly the historical context in which they lived and worked and grew. We will attempt to flesh out that context in a variety of ways, drawing upon both historical data and, I hope, family reminiscences so that we gain a more precise perspective on what our immediate ancestors were able to accomplish in the first part of the twentieth century.

The next post in the series (length undetermined) will begin with the Great War, that is, World War I. One might not think that a war on the other side of the world would significantly affect nonresistant (i.e., conscientious objector) Mennonite farmers in central Nebraska, but it actually did—in a significant and positive way.

* We are not through with the GM series; we have a long way to go with that, and we will continue that series alongside this briefer one on the farm economy.


Sources

Schwieder, Dorothy, and Deborah Fink. 1988. Plains Women: Rural Life in the 1930s. Great Plains Quarterly 8:79–88.