Information Updates

Yet, another follow-up detail from the pages of the Sherburne County Star News. 

Recent research noted a depression era program offering mattresses to farm families in the county.  A program offering low income families an opportunity to “make your own mattresses.”

Although this image originates from the mattress program
 in New Orleans, it provides an understanding of the entire
mattress making process. 
Photo courtesy of the National Archives

In a follow-up article from 1941, the newspaper reported families requested and made 470 pieces of bedding in Sherburne County during the first six months of the year.  Operating out of Bowles' Garage in Zimmerman and the Clear Lake Town Hall, the program provided quite a few families with mattresses in this brief aid experiment.  Under the direction of Mrs. Charles Hetrick in Zimmerman and Mrs. John Leitha in Clear Lake, the Sherburne County Extension Office taught families how to make the mattresses and expedited the process to provide comfortable sleeping for county residents. 

Although the program offered opportunity to low income families, “Make Your Own Mattresses” developed as a plan to reduce surplus cotton supplies in the Southern United States.   Although the plan originated with the Agriculture Adjustment Administration, a second, lesser known agency provided assistance in the program. 

The National Youth Administration, another New deal agency, provided job training and work to young people between the ages of 16 and 25.  The N.Y.A. uniquely trained women and men for work outside of the home.  In the case of the “Make Your Own Mattress” program the N.Y.A. employees assisted in the construction and sewing of the mattresses.

"Make Your Own Mattress" in Sherburne County

“Make Your Own Mattress:” served as a program developed by the United States Department of Agriculture in the Fall 1940 to eliminate a cotton surplus from the South.  The USDA targeted Sherburne County as a potential location to benefit from the program.  Although small in economic impact, it provided some aid to local families.

According to reports from Washington. D. C., an over-abundance of cotton hit the market in the fall of 1940.  The Agriculture Adjustment Administration, a depression era program to help farmers, created the “Make Your Own Mattress” program to reduce the cotton surplus.

The preliminary plans reported by the Sherburne County Star News, noted an undisclosed warehouse will store cotton and “good grade ticking” so that individuals might sew their own mattresses.  The government developed the program for low income, rural families in Minnesota.  Income could not exceed $500 for a family of four and households received one mattress for two household members, not to exceed three of the mattresses.

Adult family members paid a fee of one dollar to cover the cost of needles and thread, the newspaper reported.  The families worked in the warehouse as a team to sew their own mattresses and take them home.  The County Extension Office and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration provided trained instructors to supervise the manufacturing process.  

Although a minor event in the greater activities of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, the “Make Your Own Mattress” program serves as another example of the multitude of Depression Era economic experiments to aid Sherburne County.  Although smaller than the WPA or the CCC, “Make Your Own Mattress” and other AAA projects certainly provided significant aid to the county.