Chief Askew's Diary: March 29, 1930

Signs of deepening Depression are becoming evident in the country

It was a Saturday in 1930 just as it is today. Chief Askew wrote in his diary, “Large crowd in town this p.m. but most of them seem to be broke. Just seem to be spending their time, but not much money.”

Times had been hard in rural communities for almost a decade, and the stock market crash the previous October is usually seen as a marker of the start of the Great Depression, though it was not obvious at the time. There were some hints that the economic downturn would be a deep one in the local newspaper this week.

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This famous picture of men in a breadline is from the collection of the Library of Congress.