The Great Depression was a difficult time for the United States as a whole, as it was for the residents of White County in Arkansas. During the Depression H.M. Hamilton of West Point wrote a letter to the governor of Arkansas on behalf of his farming neighbors. He said the farmers "have gone as far as they can go…they doant [sic] know whether they are going to get help to make a crop or not." Farmers of the county as well as other citizens had a hard time surviving during the Depression, and they desperately needed some kind of assistance. In an attempt to alleviate a portion of the economic and social hardship on the American people, President Franklin Roosevelt created and implemented a New Deal program to provide employment and relief, and this program consisted of several different agencies. White County was a rural and predominately farming community, and it participated in several New Deal programs from which its citizens benefited. Roosevelt had in mind the benefits he wanted his New Deal to provide to citizens such as those in White County when he said in his 1933 inaugural address that "the measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than monetary profit." The agencies Roosevelt established under his New Deal helped the people of White County develop qualities such as cooperation with and trust in the government, in addition to providing them with necessary skills to make the county grow. Federal agencies and initiatives established under Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal contributed to the culture of White County by shaping the skills, practices, and qualities of its people. The ideas inspired by the New Deal also influenced citizens’ views regarding the direction of government assistance to the disadvantaged in the community and the nation.

During the Depression White County was composed of many different towns. The county seat was located in Searcy, a small town community. Other communities included Judsonia, Romance, West Point, and McRae, and these were representative of other communities.

White County consisted mainly of farming communities before and during the Depression era. However, businesses were also present, and some people lived in towns and were merchants as opposed to farming land for income. One operation headquartered in Searcy was the Grisham Ice Cream Company, which in early 1929 was doing very well in sales. Another successful Searcy business was the Baker Nurseries, which sold trees grown in Searcy to Sears and Roebuck.

Before the Depression Searcy was a leader in cotton production and poultry shipping, and many new homes had been built in the area; however, in the 1920s "Searcy was supported principally by the timber and agricultural interests of White County," as were many communities. Thus, there were some people who lived close to town, but the county was predominately rural. In the 1920s "the family farm became an entrepreneurial operation," providing income for the individual family. Thus, farm families created businesses out of the farming that supported their lives.

This way of life was threatened for some farming citizens when in 1927 flooding occurred in some White County communities such as Judsonia, which attempted to sandbag the levee of the Little Red River. After the flooding had passed in various parts of the county, farmers’ lives were once again turned around when chronic overproduction of farm goods such as cotton and grains became a problem. American farmers produced more goods like cotton during World War I because European countries were heavily involved in the war and could not produce all that they needed. When the war ended the European countries resumed their agricultural production; however, now they produced more agricultural goods such as cotton, and this was as a result of increased mechanization such as tractor use. United States farmers began competing with farmers from other nations after the war. Therefore, White County farmers had to compete with other farmers in the state, as well as farmers on the international market. Local farmers felt this overproduction crisis on a small scale, but they felt it nonetheless.

White County appeared to be doing well for the most part before the Depression, as its businesses and farm productions were growing. However, when the Depression began in 1929 Searcy "felt the shock wave," as did other communities. On November 3, 1930, banks failed in Searcy, Beebe, and Bradford. The sheriff of Searcy began having a hard time collecting taxes from people, especially the poorer groups such as farmers who did not seem to make ends meet, and so the Searcy City Council had to reduce automobile license taxes and occupation taxes for 1932. Another addition to the hard times the Depression brought on was a drought that occurred in 1930, affecting White County as well as the rest of Arkansas as it "withered livelihoods, and it revived…famine." H.M. Hamilton’s 1931 letter on behalf of his farming neighbors asked that the state of Arkansas "come to their rescue before…too late" so that they could plant their crops on time during the drought.

Farms failed because of the drought and county businesses failed because they could not survive without making a profit in the downturned economy. Upkeep of the community was also affected by the lack of funds during the Depression. In 1930, the septic tank in southeastern Searcy was not adequate for the town’s needs, and before 1933 the road to Little Rock was in such disrepair that the speed limit was reduced to ten miles per hour. In addition to this, many people were unemployed at this time. Farmers could not grow crops during the drought, and merchants could not engage in trade with so little money to be exchanged. In 1933 "a record 4,627 men were unemployed in the county."

Citizens were in need of something that would give them relief, jobs, self-esteem, and the ability to keep their communities properly running. Before the Depression White County was attempting to grow and expand, but when the Depression hit it was plunged into economic and social hardship that affected every aspect of people’s lives. The county needed direction and assistance in order to begin to recover from the devastating effects of the Depression. Franklin Roosevelt’s election signified salvation for many people, and in his New Deal people benefited from the federal government’s assistance.

The New Deal was important to White County for the skills it enabled citizens to acquire. Christina Doyle Spear, a past resident of Pangburn, said that she and her family "lived off the land" and controlled most of their food production. Many families were able to be self-sufficient as Spear’s family was because of the Home Demonstration program. This program was encouraged by the federal government and set up by state extension services. White County received its new home demonstration agent in March 1934 and "home demonstration work in White County was launched," providing assistance for "food conservation, canning, home management, and other phases of home demonstration work." White County’s agent held home demonstration club meetings where she gave the women of the community recipes and showed them how to make new foods. Invaluable to White County citizens were the canning kitchens that home demonstration agents helped set up and which they used to "train and assist White Countians in food preservation." Alyene Yocum Miller demonstrated the usefulness of her community canning kitchen when she described how "some days two families would can here [the canning kitchen] and even swap one food for the other to help each other out." Thus, families in the community learned to preserve food to provide for themselves as well as others. Home demonstration agents not only provided help in the form of canning kitchens, but also aided the general adjustment of White Countians to life under the New Deal. Home demonstration agents helped in "the necessary plans in order that the farm people of the county may [might] get the full benefits from the…cotton control program…and other relief plans." This helped citizens increase their self-sufficiency.

An additional area of increased self-sufficiency was in women’s domestic economic activities. Several women in Searcy, relying on a "federally inspired" idea of self-sufficiency, sold their own goods such as "beaten biscuit," "cottage cheese," "bulbs, plants, cut flowers," and "hooked rugs" in order to make extra money for their families. Effie Doyle of Pangburn put full cans of milk outside by her mailbox, where they were picked up and then "shipped to the Sugar Creek Creamery in St. Louis where it [the milk] was made into butter," which added extra income for her family.

People were also given the means to be self-sufficient during the Depression through the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a federal agency established under the New Deal. Under this agency local people worked on construction projects and the building of such things as roads, thus providing relief for the unemployed in the local area. The WPA gave Americans as a whole self-esteem in the face of hardship, and the people of White County also benefited. One WPA project in White County was the construction of a community auditorium in Judsonia. Another WPA project later in the New Deal administration was the building of Burr houses, which were "tuberculosis isolation cottages." These cottages were moved to the property of tuberculosis sufferers so that they could be isolated, and so they would not spread the disease to others. The WPA projects enabled the people of White County to increase their self-sufficiency by relying on their own labor and acquiring components that would aid their community in the future.

The skills afforded by the federal government during the New Deal not only increased self-sufficiency but also enabled citizens to increase their abilities for the good of their communities. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was one way the federal government instructed the citizens of White County and provided new abilities for them. President Roosevelt especially favored the CCC, and young men in the CCC built wildlife reservations, planted trees, and ensured soil conservation in many areas of the country. Many White County men participated in the CCC and while enlisted built roads and fought forest fires. R.C. McCourt of Pangburn was a member of the CCC, and he and the other men at local Camp Heber "built miles and miles of fences, sodded acres and acres of land…and built dozens of dams, ponds, and bridges for farmers in the area." The work experience these young men received enabled them to bring better skills back to their communities. They not only learned how to conserve White County’s natural resources, but the "skills learned while working for …CCC were not forgotten once the men returned to their homes," and were used on future building projects.

Building skills were not the only instruction the people of White County received thanks to government aid. Public schools received help so students could continue attending classes. Even before the depression "education in Arkansas…had been notoriously poor. The great depression limited public education even more." Therefore the federal government, under relief administrations, assisted schools with things such as teacher employment aid and also encouraged citizens to provide tuition payments so students could continue to attend school. The county benefited from the federal government’s aid to its public schools because its children continued to be instructed, which increased the knowledge of its inhabitants, creating a valuable commodity for the community.

The federal government set up agencies that not only influenced skills, but also imparted to the county lasting practices. A major practice the federal government initiated was the installation of the White County Fair. Its annual establishment was due to the federally initiated state extension service and the home demonstration clubs of the county. The canning factories, with which inhabitants learned to properly preserve their food and which were a part of the home demonstration program, held day-long picnics which had extra activities such as air circuses; these events eventually developed into plans for an actual fair every year. "The depression years witnessed a permanence in the White County Fair which had been lacking."

Another practice the federal government initiated resulted from the influence of the federally funded Works Progress Administration (WPA), which gave people skills and employment. It also encompassed projects such as the Federal Art Project and the Federal Writers’ Project. The Federal Writers’ Project in Arkansas led to the production of a guide to the state of Arkansas and led to the production of literary works related to life in rural Arkansas. Thus the federal government inspired the custom of recording and preserving the way of life of the rural people in the Ozark Mountains, the foothills of which are in White County. Romance, a community in White County, began a publication called The Ozark Magazine, which claimed to be "chock full of spicy, sparkling fiction, legend, romance, and folklore as truly Ozarkian as the native ‘hillbilly.’" Though the magazine only lasted through one issue, its creation evidenced the influence of the WPA’s Federal Writers’ Project on White County. It showed how local people sought to showcase rural Arkansas life to outsiders, as did those people in

the Federal Writer’s Project.

The practices the federal government inspired in White County sought to bring outsiders to the state and county by publicizing its way of life and its rural and agricultural base. Although the practices the federal government helped create under the New Deal were important, perhaps more important were the qualities imparted to White County during the depression. The relief agencies under the New Deal gave citizens a sense of the qualities of cooperation and trust in themselves, each other, and the federal government. The federal relief agencies made the lives of Americans better by changing them, and that during this time in history Americans gained "an unprecedented sense of mutual responsibility" where people were responsible for the government and the government was responsible for the people. This was no more evident than in the New Deal agencies that promoted the quality of cooperation with the federal government and others in the community. One such agency was the Agricultural Adjustment Agency (AAA) which was created out of the Farm Relief Act of 1933. It was established to stop the overproduction of farm goods, and it sought to reduce production acreage and stop falling farm prices. The federal government urged farmers to cooperate with crop control, and county farmers learned that if they cooperated they reaped benefits. White Countians had never experienced such direct federal government control over their lives, but most decided it was best to cooperate. Eventually there were enough signers of the cotton contract to insure that it would work. After the plan had gone into effect, the cooperating farmers found that they had "profited from an increased price for cotton…due to the government efforts at stabilizing prices." Eventually the AAA was ruled unconstitutional because of its limits on individual farmers’ crops, but the county found in the AAA a means to survive by cooperating with the federal government and their neighbors.

Inhabitants also cooperated during the time of the National Recovery Administration (NRA). This was one of the first New Deal agencies, and it sought to acquire a minimum wage and workweek, as well as no child labor. This was to help Americans survive the depression. White County was willing to cooperate, and "the Blue Eagle, the symbol of the National Recovery Administration with its motto ‘We Do Our Part,’ was proudly displayed in Searcy’s stores and industries…." Searcian Deener Hicks said during the time of the NRA, "it is up to us to turn to the little things that each of us can do and by co-operation [sic] build our own neighborhood." This was evidence of the spirit of cooperation that the federal government instilled in White Countians during the hard times of the depression, and it was also evidence of the realization that with cooperation they could better build their own community.

If people were inspired by the quality of cooperation, then it was because of the trust they had in the federal government to provide money and assistance to their communities. The federal government instilled the quality of trust, and this trust was found in the reception of the various relief agencies the federal government set up during the New Deal. One White County citizen enthusiastically exhibited his trust in President Roosevelt when he exclaimed "Hurray for Roosevelt. The prophesied prosperity is now here because Roosevelt is in the White House…." Roosevelt’s New Deal indeed helped people by setting up relief agencies that enabled them to obtain assistance from the federal government or to work to provide assistance to themselves.

The trust in the government’s New Deal programs was great in White County, as was evident the day the Civil Works Administration (CWA) disbursing officer for the county was named and "the courthouse was filled…with men anxious for an opportunity to go to work." The CWA was one relief agency that provided temporary work to people, and it enabled them to construct roads and other projects. The CWA projects in White County provided much needed relief to citizens. The CWA- sponsored plans for the building of an airport provided thirty thousand hours of work to the unemployed of White County. The CWA also provided needed projects that White Countians could not have completed without help from the federal government. Two such projects near Searcy cleared a creek of debris and cut away thickets to destroy mosquito breeding places; these projects "rid more than a mile square of territory of mosquitos [sic]" and reduced the risk of malaria for local inhabitants.

Another relief agency that the people put their trust in was the Public Works Administration, which also provided work for the unemployed in White County and provided facilities for the improvement of the county. Seventy-seven men obtained work on a local construction project that was the "extension of [a] sewer system and building [a] new septic tank." An additional relief agency that instilled the idea of trust in the government was the Emergency Recovery Administration (ERA). The ERA had various objectives, and one objective was to make people more able to survive on their own. It aided families by taking them off relief and setting them up on their own so they could "grow food and feed crops for their family and stock," and the federal government had "mules and mares brought into White County…for some of the people in the program." The ERA also provided work on projects in Judsonia such as school repair, park landscaping, and the construction of a Legion Hut.

The people thus gained an increased trust in the power of the federal government to help them in their need, and they realized that they must be willing to cooperate with the government to make their community a better place. The federal government instilled the important qualities of cooperation and trust in the government to supply relief and assistance. With the qualities of cooperation and trust, the depression was made less difficult for White County citizens. Also, the qualities of the citizens were influenced so that the New Deal was successful and White County became a better community.

The ideas of cooperation with and trust in the government resulted from the New Deal programs that fulfilled their promises of relief and employment. For the most part, inhabitants were satisfied with the relief the federal government provided, but some citizens thought the government was not doing enough for the disadvantaged in the county and that the concerns of the community were not being properly addressed. The government seemed to be trying to make things better, but to some people not all that needed to be adjusted was being made better. Americans in general grew disappointed with the way things were not improving. White County had its own dissatisfied citizens, and their disillusionment was manifested in the formation of clubs that reacted against the New Deal, such as the Share-the-Wealth Society. Senator Huey P. Long of Louisiana began this program nationally, and it called for a redistribution of wealth where the overabundance of the richest people in America would be taken and redistributed to the rest of society. In White County approximately thirty Share-Our-Wealth societies were "organized in the county with a total membership about 2,000" and some societies even had a rally in Searcy to make their support of the program known. Support for this reaction against the New Deal eventually waned, but it was testament to the idea instilled by the New Deal, ironically, that people needed relief and direction during the hard times of the Depression.

A Townsend Club, an additional alternative to the New Deal, was established as well. The Townsend Plan was nationally established by Francis Townsend, and it held that Americans over the age of sixty needed to retire, but would receive two hundred dollars a month if they agreed to spend it all by the end of each month. This would allow younger people to have more jobs and would put money into the economy. A Townsend Club was organized in Searcy in 1936, and it showed support for the increased self-sufficiency instilled in people by federal initiatives under the New Deal, though it seemed to go against the New Deal. The Townsend Plan evidenced the belief that people could take initiative to bring their own communities to good fortune and that by doing this "they could lift themselves by their own bootstraps," thus exhibiting self-sufficiency, which was encouraged by New Deal programs. In fact, by taking the initiative to form the Townsend Club, White County contributed to the resulting action of the federal government. Townsend Club formation throughout the nation prompted Congress to pass the Social Security Act of 1935, which was to provide for the welfare of all Americans. Thus, the quality of self-sufficiency given to citizens by the government actually prompted the federal government itself to take measures to better aid society during the Depression. The New Deal’s prompts of self-sufficiency and the reaction against the New Deal in the form of Share-Our-Wealth Societies and Townsend Clubs worked hand in hand to give citizens something they needed and desired. Inhabitants realized that the people of the county needed some other form of economic relief, so they formed clubs and societies that pressured the federal government to help them more, such as passing the Social Security Act to aid its people. The quality of trust and the ability to be self-sufficient, given by the government, influenced the direction of federal government policies in the county and the rest of the nation, just as the quality of trust and self-sufficiency influenced citizens in the building of their community.

White County, along with the rest of the nation, emerged from the Depression with the onset of World War II. Although the Great Depression was an extremely difficult period, the efforts of the federal government under Franklin Roosevelt made it bearable. The federal government’s initiatives during this period provided inhabitants with skills, customs, and ideas that lasted long after the Depression ended. The legacy of the New Deal programs helped White County grow into a better community. The CCC not only gave citizens building skills they could use in their communities, but it also gave them a sense of conservation that enabled them to preserve their community’s natural resources in the future. Likewise, the Home demonstration program gave citizens the opportunity to learn how to properly preserve their food, and also instilled an appreciative value of rural community endeavors by establishing the White County fair as an annual event, a tradition that continued into the twenty-first century. The CWA had a lasting effect on the county because of its building program. The Community House and Legion Hut built in Searcy by CWA funds was instrumental in the community after it was built by providing a place for "recreational and social activities." These activities continued long after the Depression ended. These and other New Deal initiatives shaped White County’s future. Though some resistance to the New Deal government was found among residents of White County, the resistance was in itself and outgrowth of the skills, practices, and qualities the New Deal imparted. The government of the New Deal believed that " if the nation possessed a healthy body (infrastructure, agriculture, regional development), perhaps a healthy mind (economy, society, politics) would follow." In providing New Deal agencies and federal initiatives, the federal government gave White County a healthy body. In providing this healthy body, the federal government gave it skills, practices, and qualities that constituted its healthy mind. The federal government during the Depression therefore influenced White County’s culture, and it was made into a better community because of the legacy of the New Deal.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Miller, Alyene Yocum. "The Years of the Canning Kitchen." White County Heritage, 26 (1988).

The Ozark Magazine, Jan. 1942, 1.

Unpublished Sources

The Memoirs of R.C. McCourt, "Growing Up in the Depression Ozarks," TS. Regional Collection. White County Library, Searcy, Arkansas. .

The Memoirs of Christina Doyle Spear. "Something Money Can’t Buy." TS. Regional Collection. White County Library, Searcy, Arkansas.

Hamilton, H.M. Letter to Governor Harvey Parnell. 9 Jan 1931. Box 3, Folder S, Governor Harvey Parnell Papers. Arkansas History Commission, Little Rock, AR.

"Captain Andrews Named Disbursing Officer for White." White County Citizen. 29 Mar. 1933, 4.

"Cotton Campaign in White County Declared Success." White County Citizen. 14 Feb. 1934, 1.

"Cotton Reduction Campaign in White County Next Week." White County Citizen. 21 Jun. 1933, 1.

"County-Wide Picnic to be Held Here Saturday, Aug. 11." White County Citizen. 1 Aug. 1934, 1.

"Farm Relief." White County Citizen." 5 Apr. 1933, 6.

"$412,152 Paid to White County Farmers by AAA." White County Citizen. 28 Nov. 1934, 5.

"History of ERA in White County Is Shown In Report." White County Citizen. 8 May 1935, 1.

"Home Demonstrator and County Agent Favored by Court." White County Citizen. 15 Nov. 1933, 2.

"Local Members C.C.C. Unit Selected Today." Searcy Daily Citizen. 22 May 1933, 1.

"New Demonstration Agent is Greeted by 100 Women." White County Citizen. 7 Mar. 1934, 5.

"$194, 825 Allotted to White County." Searcy Daily Citizen. 10 Jan. 1934, 1.

"Plans for Airport Here Approved by Federal CWA." Searcy Daily Citizen. 6 Feb. 1934, 1.

"Romance." White County Citizen. 8 Mar. 1933, 2.

"Roosevelt." White County Citizen. 15 Mar. 1933, 4.

"School Days." Searcy Daily Citizen. 23 Sept. 1933, 1.

"Schools in White County Get Aid." White County Citizen. 28 Mar. 1934, 1.

"Searcy Canning Center Proving Huge Success." White County Citizen. 15 Nov. 1933, 3.

"17 School Districts in White County to Receive Help." White County Citizen. 21 Mar. 1934, 2.

"77 People Given Work on Local PWA Project." White County Citizen. 27 Feb. 1935, 5.

"Share Our Wealth Society in Rally." White County Citizen. 11 Apr. 1934, 9.

"State Farmers Back Crop Control." Searcy Daily Citizen. 14 Mar. 1938, 1.

"Townsend Club Organized at Meeting Here." Searcy Daily Citizen. 13 Mar. 1936, 1.

"Valuable Sanitation Work Near Searcy." White County Citizen. 14 Feb. 1934, 1.

"White County CCC Members Visit Home." White County Citizen. 5 Jul. 1933, 1.

"White County Leads in Burr Units in Area." Searcy Daily Citizen. 14 Mar. 1938, 1.

"White County School Districts Receive Aid." White County Citizen. 5 Dec. 1934, 2.

" ‘Work, Not Worry’ Motto for Beating Old Man Depression." Searcy Daily Citizen. 24 Mar. 1933, 1

Bibliography

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Cook, W. Bruce. The History of McRae, Arkansas and Surrounding Area. Searcy: Harding University Press, year.

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Johnson, Ben F. Arkansas in Modern America, 1930-1999. Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas Press, 2000.

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McElvaine, Robert S. The Great Depression: America 1929-1941. New York: Random House, 1984.

Mitchell, Steve, Jill Bayles and Ken Story. History and Architectural Heritage of White County. Series by Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. Little Rock: Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, 1991.

Muncy, Raymond Lee. Searcy, Arkansas: A Frontier Town Grows Up With America. Searcy: Harding Press, 1976.

Orr, W.E. That’s Judsonia. Judsonia: White County Printing Company, 1957.

Rison, David Ellery. Arkansas During the Great Depression. Ph. D. diss., University of California at Los Angeles, 1974. Ann Arbor Mich: UMI, 1991.

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