Joan W. Musbach

My mother was reminiscing about her first washing machine, a Maytag with a gas engine. We were sitting in the kitchen of our Kansas farm home, where my parents had lived since a few months after their marriage in 1933. They had one child and another on the way when my dad brought home the Maytag. On washday, Mother would wheel it from the corner of the kitchen to a window, so the exhaust pipe could be put out the window. She pumped water by hand at an outside well, carried it to the kitchen stove, heated it over a wood fire, then filled the washing machine. Clothing was hung on a line outside to dry. On the same wood stove, she heated an iron for the pieces of clothing that required it. What a difference electricity would make!

I asked when they got electricity. She brought out the farm record books for the 1930s. We found the contract, May 1939. My parents’ farm was close enough to a town that this was not a result of the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), but the REA transformed laundry day for millions of farm wives, just as Kansas Power and Light (KP&L) transformed life for my family.

Their story illustrates why the REA was necessary for more remote farms. KP&L would not set poles and string electrical wire unless they were guaranteed ten dollars per month per mile in fees paid. Basic electrical service was three dollars per month per household. Within a mile of my parents’ farm was my grandparents’ home and that of another farm family. Three homes meant only nine dollars per month; the electrical company refused to establish service. My father tried to talk his dad into agreeing to an additional one dollar worth of service. He refused. Finally, my dad agreed to the installation of an electric range for an additional one dollar per month so all three families could have electricity.

As we studied the entries in the farm record books, I became intrigued by the detail on each page—the value of a dime, the rare expenditures for recreation (ice cream frequently and a “show” infrequently), the regular contributions to the “church budget.” Their many sources of income were also recorded. It was obvious that my parents found many ways to earn money, all of them representing constant, hard work.

As we enjoyed this evening of discovering and rediscovering the past, my mother gave the account books to me to share with my eighth-grade American history students. I have struggled for years to find good ways to help students discover the joy, excitement, and value of using primary sources. These books provided a snapshot of a life so different from their own that it produced amazement. For the most part, the handwriting was legible to them, so they could feel a personal connection to the writers. The math was simple enough that all students could make a contribution as we added expenditures in various categories and the totals for the different kinds of income. Unlike the lesson presented below, we worked with all twelve months of 1935. But the two months presented here, one summer and one winter, provide the essential information to learn a great deal about rural life during the depression.

Among the habits of mind recommended by The Bradley Commission on History in Schools is to “perceive past events and issues as they were experienced by people at the time, to develop historical empathy as opposed to present-mindedness.” To achieve this, they suggest topics in “family and local history, and their relation to the larger setting of American development” and topics that can show “the changing character of American society and culture.” My parents’ farm records helped me do this with my students.

Objectives

Procedure

Begin by having students read the handout, “Rural Life in the 1930s,” which provides historical context for the primary documents. Then divide students into pairs. Give each pair both the original and the transcribed versions of the ledgers. Have students study the documents. Ask questions to help them become acquainted with the documents.

Can you assume that all the expenditures for the month are recorded? Why do you make this assumption? How many people are keeping the records? How can you tell? Who owns the land? What work provided the most consistent monthly income? What member(s) of the family would you assume is/are responsible for this part of the family business? What items bring in the most money at one time? What member(s) of the family would you assume is/are responsible for this part of the family business? Find evidence of a child in the family. What is a 10¢ store?

Distribute the Student Worksheets and the tables, “Income by Month-1935” and “Business and Household Expenditures by Month-1935.” Have students complete the worksheets.

Joan W. Musbach teaches eighth-grade American history and is chair of the Social Studies Department at Ladue Middle School in St. Louis County, Missouri. She is the Missouri liaison for the National Council for History Education (NCHE) and a recipient of the Emerson Electric Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Tips for reading ledger:

December
Magnesia = an “over-the-counter” medication
Pliers = a hand tool
Mantle = piece for a gas lamp
Coal slack = coal dust, fragments
Unionalls = work clothing, one-piece
Hampshire = a breed of hog
Net = income after expenses are deducted
B. A. = Betty Ann

January
Crusader = religious magazine
W.M.S. = Women’s Missionary Society, a church group
Car magneto = small generator used in a car’s ignition

Look at the item for Dec. 7. Does it matter whether the third letter is an “a” or an “o”? Look at the cost of this entry. Look at the prices for poultry sold. Look at expenses later in the month. What conclusion can you reach about this entry?

Student Worksheet:
Expenditures and Income by Month for 1935
Study the tables that total monthly income and expenditures. Answer the questions that follow.

1. What were the total expenses for 1935? What was the total income for 1935? Did the family live within their means?
2. Which income categories represent farm work typically done by women and children? Total those categories. What percentage of the total farm income was derived from these members of the family? What other income-producing labor are farm children likely to do? How does this compare to today’s families?
3. Did this family benefit from the New Deal? Use a text or reference book to identify the New Deal program. What was its purpose? How important was the benefit to this family in 1935?
4. Look at the monthly income for the year. How is this pattern different from the income pattern in your family?
   
5. What problems would a farm family have in creating a budget?
6. What happens to income from eggs and cream in the summer and early fall? What are possible explanations? How is the loss of income from eggs offset in the poultry operation?
7. Which produced greater income, livestock or grain? Can you tell which produced greater profit? Why?

Student Worksheet:
Expenditures and Income for June and December 1935
In answering these questions, indicate specific entries from the documents that support your answers.

1. Below is a list of common monthly expenses for families today. Study the expenditures for June and December of 1935 and indicate whether the expenses appear or do not appear for this farm family.
   • Electricity
   • Telephone
   • Gas
   • Trash Pick Up
   • Newspaper
   • Taxes
   • Groceries
   • Eating Out Charge
   • Cards
   • House Payment/Rent
   • Insurance(medical/auto/home)

Conclusion

Ask the teacher if there is other information about this family to resolve the problem posed in question 10.

What is a capital expenditure? List capital expenditures for these two months. Considering the difference between income and expenditures and the capital expenditures that you have identified, is this farm family in a better or worse financial position at the end of 1935?

Refer to the income statistics in the “Rural Life in the 1930s” handout. In 1934 this was a family of three. Based on 1934 per capita income for farm households, where does this family rate? What is a “median”? Where does this family rate in terms of the national median?

Consider the mental picture you have created of the life of this farm family. Consider what you now know about their relative financial position in the America of the Great Depression. Compare the photographs of this farm family with other photographs of farm families of the 1930s that appear in texts or histories of the Great Depression. What generalizations can you make about the lives of rural Americans in this decade?

What advantages would depression-era farm families have as compared to families in the city? What advantages would urban poor have over those Americans living on farms?

The lives of people who lived through the Great Depression were permanently affected by the experience. What lasting effects can you infer from these documents?

Joan W. Musbach teaches eighth-grade American history and is chair of the Social Studies Department at Ladue Middle School in St. Louis County, Missouri. She is the Missouri liaison for the National Council for History Education (NCHE) and a recipient of the Emerson Electric Award for Excellence in Teaching.