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In May of 1934 another member was added to our family. Our youngest sister, Edith, was born May 6, 1934. This time birthing arrangements were made so mother was in Jamestown several days before the birth. She stayed at a home of two women who specialized in providing accommodations for mother's to be. This was cheaper than a hospital confinement. Mother and the baby, "came home from Jamestown on May 15. The baby has been named Edyth Lucille." (SCR, Vol. 30, No. 41, May 24, 1934.)
It was also in May that the Stutsman County Commissioners ceased publishing the names of persons receiving "Mother's pensions" and reporting on the amounts so allocated. (SCR, June 7, 1934.)
The memory of grasshoppers in 1934 is about our attempt to poison the hoppers. There was a great deal of concern early in spring. It was the county agent and the agricultural extension service that attempted to help control the pests. The machine to spread the bait was made from the rear wheels, axle and differential of a Model T. A barrel (hopper) had been attached above a spreader that was attached to the drive shaft. Pulled by a team of horses the machine spread the bait which consisted of saw dust mixed with molasses and arsenic. We spread the bait on the margins of fields. In the long run it was not hoppers that destroyed the crop but drought.
In the fall of 1934 I had not intended to attend high school. My help was obviously needed at home. I would surely be able to contribute more working at home than I could going to school. In the mind of their fourteen year old son, all that our parents needed was more help. However, Dad had other ideas and a few days before school started he informed me that I was going to high school. The dream of helping them succeed faded very quickly. There was to be no arguing about it and even tears did not avail. On the day school started he told me to get into the Model T, gave me six dollars to purchase the books which students had to buy in those days. We went to Montpelier and I was enrolled in high school. I suspected also that Dad had talked with Mr. Roscoe sometime before this day. At least I did not walk the first day. After the day of enrollment ceremony, I walked to high school most days which was a distance of about 3 and 1/2 miles one way. It was a good workout.
In the morning I was with brother Eugene up early enough to milk three or four cows by hand. This was followed by breakfast and then a walk across prairie, coulee, hills and valley to school. The walk was across the Chicago Ranch pasture at a diagonal to reach the road just west of the south bridge across the James River and then proceed on the valley road to Montpelier. After school the walk home was by the same route unless I managed to catch a ride. In the winter time I started out before first light and would often see packs of coyotes on the edge of the bluffs singing their last song of the night. In the winter after school I would arrive home after the sun had set. In terms of a serious illness in 1935 all that walking may have saved my life.
After school there were the chores and tasks of tending the livestock and milking cows. The feeding was a meagre matter in the winter of 1934-35. It was an unpleasant task feeding Russian thistle to the cattle. After supper it was usually necessary to study and do homework. We might have some kind of family board game or a game of cards before going to bed.
It was in early January 1935, that I walked to school when the thermometers in our area were reading -47 degrees below zero. There may be some doubt about the accuracy of thermometers in those years. However, I experienced a very cold morning especially when going down into the James River Valley. I stopped about halfway to school at the home of Frank Millspaugh. They were not yet out of bed when I knocked at their door. They quickly started a fire and gave me time to warm up. I had on winter underwear with a khaki shirt and pants that dad had bought with the cattle money. Over this was a blue melton blazer and a sheepskin overcoat. I do not remember what I had on my feet but they were also cold. After warming up, I continued on my way to school. Upon reaching school, I was as cold or colder that when stopping at the neighbors. I had a Shaeffer fountain pen in my shirt pocket and had to thaw it over the steam radiator before I could start writing state board examinations. In all my life I have never confronted weather as cold as it was that morning.
There were two reasons for going to school that morning. The first is that State Board examinations were scheduled from Bismarck for that day. If not taken on that day the rule was that one had to delay taking them until the end of the following semester. At least that is what we were told. The second reason is that I did not know the temperature when starting for school.
Thinking about that incident much later I realized how rigid the rules were at that time. It also occurs to me that those rules were definitely on the side of the urban and town students and in a way discriminated against those of us who lived in the country. This was in North Dakota, most definitely a rural state. There were no school buses, at least not covering our area. Those students who lived far from school often had a room in town. We were in between as far as distance was concerned. However, even if we had lived five miles from school my Dad wanted me to go to school so badly that he would have made me walk that distance. After having a taste of high school learning, I walked the distance without urging. After once starting high school the idea of quitting never occurred to me.
The situation in our family was no better in 1935. We were not able to recover from the farming disaster of 1934. In June, after school was out I came down with measles and was a patient in the Detention Hospital in Jamestown. "Wm. Cofell is a patient at the hospital in Jamestown, suffering from measles and appendicitis." (SCR, V 01.31, No. 46, Thursday, June 27, 1935.) And, "Wm. Cofell, a patient at the detention hospital in Jamestown for two weeks, was taken to the Trinity Hospital June 30, where he will be operated on for appendicitis." (SCR, Vol. 31. No. 47, July 4, 1935.) And, "Wm. Cofell came home from the hospital July 10." (SCR, Vol. 31, No. 49, July 18, 1935.)
I remember only portions of the time spent at the detention hospital. I was in a coma when there was a siege of severe bleeding. The nurse in charge of the detention hospital explained to me about the coma and bleeding. She told me that they did not expect me to survive. There was a period of seven days of nothing to eat and what is more, I didn't really care whether I ate or not. It was after recovery from the coma that I also remember feeling surrounded with a deep peace. It was as though things were going to be alright whatever happened even death. Death may have been close but there was a presence in tranquillity that was attractive and secure. I have vivid memories of the day that Dad came up to transfer me from the detention hospital to Trinity Hospital. I was amazed at the change that had taken place in the trees and grass--the world had changed. As I have reflected on this experience it was not only the world that had changed, so had I.
The experience at Trinity hospital was without difficulty. The operation went fine and there was a rapid recovery and I was able to go home after the usual hospital stay of that era. It must have been the better part of a month that I was under treatment. I survived. Today, it makes me wonder what that siege of illness must have done to my parents. Another memory lingers also, since I was in the hospital on July 4, 1935 it was enduring rather than enjoying the fireworks that were exploded in that vicinity.
Recovery from the illness makes me wonder at my behavior on returning from the hospital. Re-entry into the family does have it's problems. I took some advantage of the illness and made some requests for food and other considerations that I really did not need. I avoided some work but as I think back the doctor had probably warned my parents about heavy lifting and strenuous labor. My perception was that I was getting out of work and should be ashamed.
No matter my feelings, it was a rough year for our parents. There were no resources that would have enabled them to cover the doctor's or the hospital bills. The bills were eventually covered by some kind of county emergency fund.
Our parents were in the process of making some other important decisions as we moved through the summer. Dad was still working on the PWA or WPA, we were receiving emergency relief from the FERA and still trying to farm. It was getting to be just too much. The crop situation was bad in 1935 and we knew there would be no harvest. In both 1934 and 1935, in addition to drought there had been a plague of grasshoppers.
In September of 1935, the news reached us that Grandma Lawrence had passed away in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. This was reported in an item: "Mrs. F.W. Cofell received word Wednesday of the death of her mother who lived in Minnesota. The Funeral was held September 13." (SCR., Vol. 32, No.6, Thurs. Sept. 19, 1935.) My recollection is that mother was not able to attend the funeral of her mother. Grandma probably died on September 10th. We received the notice on Wednesday and there was very little cash if any to pay her way to the funeral. I do not recall that she rode down with Aunt Edith and Uncle John. This may be in error on my part but I also do not find any thing in the newspaper that would substantiate that she did attend. In fact the death came at the time we were making preparations to abandon farming and move to the section home in Montpelier.
Our family was not unusual, but none of us children remember ever seeing this Grandma, our mother's mother. In the summer of 2001 Lonnie Cofell a nephew stopped at our place with a picture of Grandma holding a baby in her lap. That baby was myself at about four to six months of age, the picture was taken in 1920. People of limited financial means did not travel very far in 1930. Our grandma was apparently not strong enough to travel in those years either and did not return to North Dakota which she had left about 1920. Some farmers in our area did have a minimum crop in 1935, we waited for rain and it never came. We did have a little hay but not enough to carry our livestock through the winter. The Central Life Insurance Company decided they needed another tenant and we were denied another year of rental. It might have been a couple of years of non-rental fees received. Today, I do not see how there might have been any monetary return to the Central Life Insurance Company. Sometime during late summer or fall, Dad turned the livestock and machinery over to the man who held the mortgage and we moved to the railroad section house in Montpelier. We kept a wagon, a team of horses (one of them lame) and a cow. We moved what little hay we had to feed the cow and horses.
Mr. Stott who held the mortgage did not want to take the livestock and machinery. He did not want to foreclose and he really wanted Dad to continue farming and eventually payoff the mortgage. Dad was unable to find a satisfactory farm and in addition the rules in regard to work relief were changing. The situation we were in also created problems for Mr. Stott. Markets being what they were, it is doubtful the livestock and machinery even with the livestock increase equaled the value of the mortgage debt. There were also changes going on with the federal works programs. WPA work would not be permitted to those still attempting to farm. Looking back at that time, it seems to me that about the only thing my parents could have done was to retire from farming. In another way it was a fortuitous decision for the year 1936 was a very bad one for farmers in our area. I think it would have been devastating materially and a mental disaster had they gone through 1936 attempting to farm. It was a year of very cold winter and hot, windy and dusty summer. No one in our area took anything from the land except possibly some slough hay.
Dad kept a team of horses. One was not listed on the mortgage and the other "Dolly" was rather crippled that he had purchased very cheap. So we left the farm. Dad would return to farming in the spring of 1940 with the help of another New Deal program, the Farm Security Administration.
In addition to the CWA, FERA, PWA and WPA, the emergency work programs, there were some farm programs that were initiated under the Roosevelt administration. The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1934 was declared unconstitutional. This and a number of other programs declared unconstitutional angered not only President Roosevelt but a lot of other people in this country. The court was seen in our area pretty much as a tool of big business, banking and industry. This led to later furor when the President attempted to pack the court by adding more justices. There was hope for a court that would be more favorable to programs that had promise of reviving the economy.
The Roosevelt administration made an attempt to respond to a different class of people. It must have been upsetting to a conservative court. The courts had been adept at issuing interpretations favorable to powerful corporations, industry, banking, property and other vested interests. It had seldom been petitioned to review efforts in behalf of farming and laboring people, and the poor. It was these groups that constituted the majority of people in the United States. In addition, poor people did not have the resources which would have enabled them to bring a legal case before the Supreme Court.
There were new concepts that were being tested in this society. The idea that people were totally responsible for taking care of themselves was being tested. The self-made man was supposedly a popular image was also being put to rest. Equal treatment or attempts to equalize opportunity was not supposed to be the business of government was being revised. Those who attempted to explain the depression as being due to people not being willing to work were being challenged.
Some of the farm and other programs did not work as intended. Our father received his AAA allotment on 320 rented acres of the Woodbury farm for the production of 259 bushels of wheat and he could sow a maximum of 43 acres. Considering that in 1934 that wheat was planted for cash crop it was like having $200 a year or less for a family of nine or ten persons. The yield had to be split between land owner and renter. As it turned out there was no crop anyway due to the drought. Although farmers received an allotment for the reduction of acreage. It was no wonder that many farmers had to find other employment on public works programs to insure family survival. The AAA program, itself, was an attempt to reduce the production of farm products since overproduction led to surpluses and this was believed to depress prices. That there was a supposed surplus at the same time people were hungry was not well understood. It has always interested me that some of the most severe criticism of the farm program was directed at killing and burying baby pigs. Considered in the long run it was not a very nice solution to the surplus of pigs. What it did prove was that the law of supply and demand wasn't working too well especially if the demanders have no resources for purchasing what is being produced. In reality, the agricultural programs came too late to help our 1934-35 family situation.
The income earned on WPA was $44.00 a month which amounts to $528 a year. Someone recently said to me, "Yes, but that bought lot in those days." The statement may very well be true. Still, if there were 8 or 9 or 10 to feed and clothe $44.00 a month did not go far enough. At best it was still a sub-marginal existence.
Some of us young people worked on a National Youth Administration program at our school. We learned to repair books, helped clean rooms and served as playground monitors for the elementary grades. We earned $6.00 a month for this work. I spent most of what I earned on groceries for our family. One of the months in 1935 or 1936, I bought ten pounds of macaroni, some canned vegetables, a piece of cheese and some other things. It was a valuable lesson in learning that six dollars did not go very far even in those days.
The six dollars a month from NYA was to insure that we had money for books and school supplies. I also spent some on clothing. A valuable lesson learned while on NYA was learning to repair books. If I had been eighteen or older I would probably have been encouraged to join the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC’s) as so many older youth did at that time.
One other event during the summer of 1936 now suggests the inadequacy of $44.00 a month. Dad took me to Jamestown to have my eyes tested. I needed glasses badly. They were the cheapest one could buy, steel frames and the cost was $15.00. That was about a third of a typical WPA paycheck. I have very strong memories and sensation of day the glasses arrived in the mail. I opened the package at the post office and put on the glasses and could read the signs on the Farmers Produce Company, the Thompson Lumber Yard and the Montpelier State Bank, just across the street. It was like a miracle of having ones sight restored. I had not been able to read those large signs at that distance.
Even though we were poor and perhaps poverty stricken---and we knew we were hard up. It did not deter us from participation in community activity and organizations. The probable reason for this is that so many of our neighbors and acquaintances were also caught up in similar circumstances. We were not alone.
The effect of WPA in North Dakota Rural areas must have been different from the effect on people in urban areas. I have recently read a book by Grace Adams, Workers on Relief, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1939. She wrote about WPA in the City of New York. She describes something greatly different from WPA and the response to it in North Dakota. It might be a difference in people, but I think it was due to circumstances of different social and work conditions.
In North Dakota there were so many things to be built, constructed or improved. There were services to be supplied. So many people were affected by drought and depression there were fewer people who could complain about others being a burden. In North Dakota there was hardly any competition with private business, industry or occupations. Hardly anyone wanted to compete with farmers at that time. The merchants as a whole were glad people were on WPA, it enabled them to buy groceries, clothes and other necessities. In our area roads needed to be built or improved, dams needed to be built, tree to be planted and habitat restoration all were needed.
In large urban centers project planners had to avoid any kind of work that competed with private business, private jobs, private crafts, or private industry. Since the barbers, butchers, carpenters, electricians and bricklayers who were on relief could not do the work they knew best without competing with those not on relief. It was necessary to develop new tasks to create WPA employment. Doctors were teacher's assistant and teachers who were unemployed became recreation directors. It is no wonder that newspaper and magazines carried their curious and furious caricatures about shovel leaners or of silly work situations or projects. It is also no wonder that some of these people found themselves being demoralized.
In our area the people on WPA or PWA projects were doing work they knew would benefit the community. They would be putting no one else out of work. It was before the days of the huge road construction machines that required skilled operators. Nobody had been doing what the WPA workers did. It was still not comfortable to be on WPA or relief but it was better than letting one's family suffer or starve.
There is another interesting contrast between urban centered WPA and WPA in our rural area. We did not withdraw from the social arena or hide ourselves away from our neighbors as occurred in tenement basement. (After all in our area there was no place to hide.) Our family, and I note other families as well, continued participation in community activity and community events both in school, church and other organizations.
We continued in school and even though we were on relief and WPA we participated in almost everything in the community. Participation in Farmers Union Junior work continued for myself. Lois continued her participation in 4-H club activity, Farmers Union and Church activity. Mother was elected president of the Parent Teachers Association and was active in Homemakers and Church activity. Members of our family were not only present at the meetings we were contributors to the organization. I have researched the items in the local columns published in the weekly newspapers. If mention of social participation in the columns is an indication, there is nothing that suggests rejection, ostracism or that we were not recognized in the community. The same can be said of other families. I believe that almost everyone knew there were some families that were down and out through no fault of their own. There were others somewhat more fortunate also realized they were not far from a marginal existence themselves. I am amazed in 2001 at the amount and frequency of our family participation in school events, church, farm organizations, 4-H club, declamation, acting in plays. It certainly does not appear that Dad being on WPA was any bar to social acceptance or participation. There were those few occasions when someone would try to use WPA or relief as a "put down" it was infrequent.
Our neighbors, teachers and acquaintances treated us with respect and compassion. In many cases providing help when we needed it. We were included rather than excluded. In the same measure we can ask was it necessary for the country and its people to go through the suffering and physical and mental pain on the part of its citizens.
What might have been the consequences had the country secured the future of its soldiers and sailors of World War I in some kind of protection and help? It makes me see the contrast between President Coolidge's veto of the paltry Veterans Bonus Bill of 1924---and the benefits provided Veterans following World War II. The veterans benefits following World War II was certainly a compassionate and decent act---it may also have been one of those fortunate events that sustained the integrity of this country. I believe it was a major factor preventing the social and economic disaster that followed World War I. It did this not because it was a kind of dole but because it helped prepare its men and women a wide degree of opportunity as well as protection upon their return to civilian status.
This is an issue that still faces us today when politicians become more interested in reducing taxes and offering tax rebates than they are in sustaining educational integrity and opportunity for all our citizens.