Nita Thurman

In 1929, a banner headline in the Denton Record-Chronicle shouted “Wall Street Panics.”

Big banks predicted investment buying would salvage the “demoralized stock market, wrecked in a nationwide cyclone of selling.

A small accompanying story announced the suicide of a Chicago “tycoon,” his death attributed by his wife to despair over losses in the crash of the stock market.

The decade of the 1930s was approaching. So was the Great Depression.

A combination of problems brought on economic ruin for many. A devastating drought affected farm crops and market prices. Unemployment kept going up; wages — if there were any — kept going down.

Banks across the nation closed. In Denton, two of the four banks closed.

Denton Mayor C.W. McKen­zie called a public meeting in November to plan United Charities work for the coming year, inviting churches, civic organizations and individuals to come to the meeting to help devise a plan to get through the winter.

The mayor hoped the need would not be as severe as the previous winter, when the city had to provide food and beds for transients during the worst of the winter weather.

The Record-Chronicle an­nounced ads for jobs would be run free of charge.

The Chamber of Commerce expressed optimism that the worst was over.

By 1933, however, the United Charities was out of money and sending out an urgent plea for more funds.

Even with federal agency jobs now becoming available, the demand for charity continued to be heavy.

By 1932, the crisis was so bad that police guards were protecting Wall Street offices, and cuts in spending were announced by the city of Denton and the city schools.

The City Commission, in special session, approved a preliminary budget that would cut city salaries about 10 percent.

The cuts would affect the mayor, all department heads and all city employees making more than $100 per month.

The reduction was expected to save up to $4,000 in operating costs.

There were some protests about eliminating the position of one of the two police officers who patrolled the college areas, and the city attorney protested his pay cut, asking the $150-a-month paycheck be cut only to $125, not $100.

The commission, in a split 3-2 vote, stuck to its guns, however, and the full cuts went into effect.

The city school board also approved a 10 percent cut in salaries affecting all faculty members, principals and the school superintendent.

The cut meant the minimum salary for teachers would go from $100 to $90 a month.

School board members also eliminated paying bus fare for student teachers who had to go from the Texas State College for Women — now Texas Woman’s University — to teach in public schools.

 The overall savings was estimated at about $10,200.

In the summer of 1934, unrelenting drought and heat continued with no hope of relief. Crops were dying in the field, as were vegetables in home gardens.

Insect damage was increasing and so was damage from rats, estimated at more than $12,000 — in 1934 costs.

Poison was placed at 269 businesses in Denton as part of a federal campaign against the growing rodent population.

The eradication program was later expanded to Lewisville, Justin and Sanger, and all other towns in Denton County.

In Austin, Gov. Miriam “Ma” Ferguson announced that the unemployment situation in Texas was grave.

State relief funds were ex­hausted, she said, and pled for “every dollar” possibly available from private funds be given to the relief effort.

The decade closed with war sweeping across Europe.

Nita Thurmanis a resident of Shady Shores. Her e-mail address is nitathur@aol.com .