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171 “in the spring of 1933 agricultural prices stood at 40 percent of their 1926 level; farmers threatened a general strike.” —amity shlaes, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression (2007) “nineteen thirty-three was a hungry year in the western world.” —timothy snyder, Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin (2010) n 1932 father suffered a fatal heart attack and passed away, leaving mother with two daughters and a pile of debts,” began frances geinzer’s story of her iowa childhood. “all of father’s relatives who he had borrowed money from wanted their notes clear. Daddy died without a will, leaving the whole farm at risk, and mother could not pay it off, as those years were in the heart of depression times and we were very poor. the land was all taken from us and rented to some of the neighbors. mother only had four acres, which was given her as a homestead.” still, her family’s tragic dilemma did not disintegrate further during the depth of the great Depression because they found the strength and determination to carry on and build anew. “But my mother, my aunt, my sister, and me all worked hard and with the help of a good hired hand,” continued geinzer, “we rented land wherever we could to make feed so we could keep our livestock.” Years later, geinzer and her husband were finally able to purchase 220 of her father’s original 320 acres as well as additional land to create a 1,400-acre ranch.1 C O N C L U S I O N the depth yet the crest Iowa’s Dilemmas by 1933 i the depression dilemmas of rural Iowa, 1929–1933 172 the geinzers would actually be a success story of an iowa farm family who had persevered through the depths of the Depression and carried through the crest of the family-farm era when many operations would either be lost or transformed into specialized industrial and corporate agricultural systems . the years in iowa from 1929 through 1933 not only became the depth of the great Depression but also presented the crest of the family farm, the final tucking under of the wave’s high point before the sweep into a new pool of water—the tidemark. the Depression’s force acted as the undertow —pulling the crest of the family farm down and under. “we trust that when the final history of the revival of iowa agriculture is written,” reported ray murray, iowa’s secretary of agriculture in 1933, about iowa’s recent agricultural crisis, “that proper chapters will be given to these men who have given so freely and so generously of their time and talent to aid their more unfortunate and distressed neighbors.” even as so many iowans tried to countervail the early Depression era’s waves, the multiple troubles had proven too great a force for many farmers to preserve their family farms. “time alone will tell of the service they have rendered,” concluded secretary murray in his year-end letter, “the sorrow they have averted, the suffering they have prevented, and the sacrifices they personally have made. to these gallant farmers of iowa, and to their loyal helpers, the iowa farm wives, i offer my sincere tribute.”2 the depth of the Depression had encouraged a certain type of resourcefulness rather than passivity, a brand of creativity rather than resignation, and a style of community rather than hopelessness. throughout these four years, iowans had transformed from an enthusiastic belief in the possible leadership of the newly elected president Hoover that would be sadly dashed along the way, and in turn iowans had looked even more directly toward their internal leadership at the state, county, association, club, neighborhood , and family level rather than federal intervention. although this resourcefulness could not ultimately weather the economic and technological storm, the culminating crest of the family farm held strong throughout these early years of the 1930s. tumultuous wave after tremendous wave has shaped american agriculture over the last century. the golden era of agriculture was ushered in at the turn of the century and lasted until the end of the great war in 1919, creating an era when farm markets and land values proved particularly profitable with the increase in wartime needs. “world war i forced farmers,” as iowa historian David faldet notes, “to think of themselves as producing food for a nation.”3 this time frame would be remembered and analyzed as...

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