Chief Askew's Diary: April 17, 1930

They are hoping for rain; Will Rogers writes a letter to the editor praising 'rubes'

It was a little cloudy this afternoon, Chief Askew wrote, and “everybody [is] anxious for a warm shower as it will take that to get a good stand on different things alredy planted.”

The U.S. Census was in the process of being taken in Coweta County and there was tremendous concern that a decline in population would be ascertained. Newnan Mayor James E. Brown said the preliminary reports showed Newnan had barely changed in population since 1920, and pled with any citizen who had not been counted to notify the enumerator’s office at the courthouse. The Newnan Herald even printed a coupon that could be filled out and mailed in by people who were uncounted.

Newnan was not alone. Preliminary reports from the 1930 federal census were revealing a continued migration from the country to the city. The humorist Will Rogers wrote a letter to the editor of the Atlanta Journal today urging someone to take action.

Paid subscribers can read on. Click below to upgrade.

The photo above, from the collection of the Library of Congress, shows W.B. Whitley in his general store in Wake County, N.C. in 1939. According to the information with the photo, accessed via Wikimedia Commons, “R. B. Whitley, who was one of the first citizens of the town and is one of its leading citizens, owner of the general store, president of the bank, and owns a cotton mill nearby and a farm. He is a big land owner, owns Whitley-Davis farm and a cotton mill in Clayton. He said he cut down the trees and pulled the stumps out of the main street, and was the first man in that town of Wendell, Wake County, North Carolina.”