Memories of Wallace Heritage - Official website of Rev. JO Wallace

and corn which brought in a small income. Cotton sold for $25.00 a bale in 1929, while peanuts
sold for four cents a pound. Corn sold for 50 to 60 cents a bushel. Conditions continued to grow
worse. For weeks no cars traveled the country roads because there was no money to buy gasoline
and tires. Hunters were not able to buy shotgun shells which sold for sixty cents a box so they
fell back to trapping animals for food. Streams were seined for turtles and fish for the
housewife’s table. Along with the wild meat, salads were gathered from the woods. Numerous
varieties included wild "poke sallet", narrow and broad leaf dock, creasy, wild turnip salad,
lettuce, rabbit ear and dandelions. In the fall hickory nuts, walnuts and hazelnuts were gathered
for the long winter nights. Blackberry patches were raided for jellies and jam for the table.
Conditions became so bad that some families had only stock peas to cook in clear water without
any seasoning. Others lived on parched corn for days. Corn was carried to mill and ground into
meal for cornbread. Milk was an important product in those days. Everyone in the country and
many in town kept a cow to furnish milk for the family. Some of the town cows were tied to
front porch posts while they feasted on the green lawn. Wood and coal were the chief heating
products. Farmers cut their own wood and some sold wood to their town neighbors for $1.00 a
rick (8 feet long and 4 feet high). Coal sold for $3.60 per ton and laborers received 50 cents a day
to haul and unload it. The day was at least 12 hours long. Wages for farm labor was 25 cents a
day. Farmers paid 35 cents a hundred to get their cotton picked. They usually swapped labor,
helping each other on the farm. Clerk hire was $1.50 per day in 1933 and 1934. Meals in
restaurants were in keeping with other prices. Breakfast, which consisted of sausage, two eggs,
toast, jelly, butter and coffee was 15 cents while dinners were 25 cents including drink. The one
redeeming feature during the depression days in Decatur County was there was less crime.
Neighbors loved one another and had time to visit. They divided their meager fare with one
another.
Information on the malaria epidemic that is mentioned in J. O.’s email:
This information was taken from: http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/
Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite. People with malaria often experience
fever, chills, and flu-like illness. Left untreated, they may develop severe complications and die.
Each year 350-500 million cases of malaria occur worldwide, and over one million people die,
most of them young children in sub-Saharan Africa
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill that created the TVA on May 18, 1933. The
law gave the federal government a centralized body to control the Tennessee river's potential for
hydroelectric power and improve the land and waterways for development of the region. An
organized and effective malaria control program stemmed from this new authority in the
Tennessee River valley. Malaria affected 30 percent of the population in the region when the
TVA was incorporated in 1933. The Public Health Service played a vital role in the research and
control operations and by 1947, the disease was essentially eliminated. Mosquito breeding sites
were reduced by controlling water levels and insecticide applications.