Life on a Farm During the Great Depression

Interviewed: Julia C. Cooper

By: Drew C. Garrett

March 27, 2013
MWF 9:00-9:50

Julia Katherine Cobb was born in New Albany on February 19, 1936 to parents Rush
Harold Cobb and Ollie Juanita Bailey Cobb. Also, she had a two year older sister Ollie Fay
Cobb (later Hale). They lived at 1075 County Road 107 New Albany, Mississippi 38652 on an
eighty-six acre farm. She was a sick child who battled Bright's Disease (a disease that effects the
filtering in the kidneys causing them to become inflamed and allows proteins and blood to mix
with the urine) much of her early childhood until she was cured of it around the age of 10. She
was one of the first people to be cured of this disease by using penicillin in Union County. Her
doctor was overseas when he discovered the new drug penicillin, so he shipped it to his assistant
in New Albany, who administered the new drug to Ms. Cooper in the form of bottlelike shots. At
the age of 18, she married John Carlton Cooper and moved to Memphis for two years. They
would move back to New Albany and have one daughter Regina Carol Cooper. They would live
on Oak Street in New Albany for nine years, but would later build a house in Etta, Mississippi to
raise their little girl. Her daughter would marry Mike Garrett and give her three grandchildren
by the names of John, Bo, and Drew. When she retired from working, she had almost 30 years
experience sewing in the furniture industry.
Life on a farm during the late 30's and 40's was quite different than it is today. It was a
harder time for families to survive with far less technology and conveniences than are around
today. The home and social life in which the kids grew up during this time was different because
both were determined by the amount of work needing to be completed and trying to survive on a
farm in the South.
Home life was more oriented around an "everybody working together to survive"
attitude. It was hard to survive without a close knit family helping out around the house to
support the mother and father.

Every member of the family was expected to help on the farm by picking and hoeing the
cotton and corn no matter the age or sex of the sibling. It was not viewed as child abuse back in
these days, because it was the way every farmer survived, as well as the Cobb family. Ms.
Cooper recalls working in the fields when she was so small that they gave her a flour sack with a
strap on it. Also, she learned to can vegetables, using a pressure cooker, to preserve their fresh
garden harvests for their consumption during the winter. Even though she was sick often as a
young child with Bright's Disease, she remembers helping out as often as she could around the
house and farm. She stated several times throughout the interview that they all had to contribute
or else the jobs would not get done.
There were many different jobs besides farming for the mother and daughters. Besides
farming her mom cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner, churned butter, milked cows, gathered
eggs, ironed, cleaned, and washed clothes using a washtub and a rub board. Ms. Cooper and her
sister helped her mom with these chores as much as they could and would rinse the clothes and
hang them on clothes line to dry after they were washed. Her dad, after farming, would cut
wood for the wood burning stove and oven in the house.
When asked if her dad got drafted into World War II, she remembered him almost having
to go, but since he had a wife and two kids to support, his neighbor helped him get out of
reporting. His brothers did have to go and his youngest brother got wounded in the army, but
would make a 20 year career out of the service.
Her family had financial problems throughout the years and would have to go into debt
sometimes to get out of it. Her dad would borrow enough money to make a crop and in the fall
when the crop came in, he would sell and pay off his debts. He was a firm believer in paying off
his debts first before buying stuff for his family. Families lived off what they raised or grew

because it was too expensive to buy it. She said, "You grew your vegetables and meat, and when
the meat ran out, you didn't run to the store to get it you just ate vegetables and eggs from the
chickens." When Ms. Cooper was sick with the Bright's disease, her dad had to sell their milk
cow to pay the doctor's bills.
Social life was not a big aspect of life back then because there was not much time to
socialize with neighbors, friends, and distant relatives. Life was more focused on working hard
from dusk until dawn.
Ms. Cooper started school when she was only five years old and would finish when she
was 17. The school year was a few months shorter then, with the students starting in September
and finishing in April. She passed every grade without failing, but was not in the top tier of her
class. Though they did not have computers or internet back then they did learn to type on
manual typewriters, since they did not even have electric typewriters at the time. The education
she received was more oriented around the basics (reading, writing, and arithmetic) as well as
other things such as: typing; shorthand; and home economics. They learned more hands on
material that could be useful back home on the farm like sowing and cooking, and also she said,
"Unless you played basketball, there wasn't anything else to do, no activities or clubs. Even then
they didn't have baseball, it was just basketball." At schools and other places, African Americans
did not attend or integrate much with the whites. African Americans and whites integrating were
referred to as "a no a" said Ms. Cooper in the society back then. She does not remember when
that changed, but she did remember when they integrated African Americans into the factories,
though she did not remember what year. It was a big deal when the first two African American
women began working at the furniture factory Futorian in New Albany, on the welting machine.

Technology in this day was not thriving like it is today. Ms. Cooper did not grow up with
indoor plumbing, electricity, or gas operated heaters. She drew her own water out of the well for
bathing and washing. The family did not have indoor plumbing, they used an outhouse. She
read using a coal oil lamp since they did not have electricity, though she remembers when they
did get it. They heated the house by using a coal heater in the living room. She recalls the first
gas heaters ran off a bottle or canister of gas. They cooked on a wood burning stove and oven to
prepare their food. They would use a mule and plow in the fields to tear up the ground, discs to
break it up, a section arrow to level it out, a planter to plant the seeds, and a cultivator to keep the
rows clean in between each cotton plant. After the plant was ready to pick they would pick it by
hand and put it in sacks to put on a wagon, which would haul it to a cotton gin to get the cotton
boll out of the cotton. Cars were not seen very often around where they lived, and only one
person in the community owned one that they knew. Stores were miles away and her dad would
walk there to buy what was needed every week or so. They hitched up the mule and wagon to
visit family that was around 10 miles away. They would walk to the highway in order to catch a
bus headed to town to get Ms. Cooper to the hospital to see her doctor.
Communities were isolated back in this time because of all the farm land that divided
each farm. They had few neighbors and the only time they worked together was if someone had
a sickness at their farm and needed help in the fields. Also, they would share with each other if
they had a crop come in early. Church was not like it is today, they had revivals that lasted a
week and half to two weeks, but they only came around about twice a year. They were not able
to attend church regularly until after cars became more popular.
In conclusion, Ms. Cooper feels that she has worked hard all her life, but feels it is what
had to be done in order to survive. "Y'all have it made these days," she said. It is easy to

distinguish the vast differences in ways of life then and now by looking at one's home life and
social life today, and seeing how much they have changed.

Works Cited:
1) Cooper, Julia C. Personal interview. 12 Mar. 2013.
2) Garrett, Mike G. Personal interview. 12 Mar. 2013.
3) Ganzel, Bill, and Claudia Reinhardt. "Farm Life during the Great Depression." Farm Life
during the Great Depression. N.p., 2003. Web. 13 Mar. 2013.
4) Moore, Sam. "U.S. Farmers During the Great Depression." Farm Collector. Farm
Collector, Nov. 2011. Web. 13 Mar. 2013.