Sherburne History Center Blog

Young men, most likely from the NYA, taking a break  from working on the Handke Stadium, a joint NYC and WPA project in Elk River Recent blog posts regarding Depression era programs in Sherburne County suggest a number of county residents received federal assistance.   Further reading the pages of the county newspaper, the Sherburne County Star News , shows the county nearly dependent on federal programs for survival.   Several articles in the newspapers report the Sherburne County farming community received significant support from Franklin Roosevelt’s economic programs.   In 1940 and 1941 nearly 90 percent of the farms in Sherburne County received benefits from the Agriculture Adjustment Administration.   In 1941, 1630 farms in Sherburne County, out of a total of 1822 farms, received some payments from the AAA programs.   In addition to farm aid, depression era programs included the construction around Handke Stadium.   The Works Progre...

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 ma...