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OT: Old FHA program on farm building

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Richard G.

Well-known Member
New friend and I were talking Saturday and he asked if I knew the name of the FHA program in the forties where a large group of people would come in with equipment and build terraces, clear land and even build a house for someone who had just got a farm. I had heard of this before, but we could not remember the name of the program. He went to one as a kid and said it was amazing what they accomplished in a day. He thought the name was "Build a Farm in a Day". My dad worked for FHA in the late thirties after he finished Clemson College and I remember him talking about some programs.
Thanks, Richard in NW SC
 
I have heard of programs like that and I have a pasture book published in the forties that mentions pooling the work and has a picture of a bunch of farmers clearing brush etc. on one mans farm with their own rigs but I don't think it was FHA inspired or lead. I think it might have been FFA inspired.
 
Must have only been in certain areas, definatly not in my area of Ohio & Indiana as there is no terraces here on the flater lands. The WPA only worked on public property jobs, not on farms but mostly bridges on the roads.
 
Speaking of the WPA, some of the buildings used for our county fair are made of limestone rock and have "WPA 1938" painted on the inside.
There is also a hill that is about 15 miles from us that had but cut out to make way for a highway. My dad always called it "Million Dollar Hill" because the WPA workers moved a lot of the dirt from the center of the hill to the bottom of the hill with wheelbarrows. He said they didn't have enough dirt equipment to move it back then, so they hired about 100 men to move the dirt manually. I can't say that the story is true, but he lived through it, so he ought to know.
 
I was traveling with a friend years ago and we passed a farm that was in bad repair and he talked about how that was a gov. project like you are talking about.They went in a built a new barn,silo terreces and a pond.It was a huge feild day just like you are talking about.This farm was located just south of Frederick MD along route 340.I would ask more details but my friend in now in his upper 80's with mind problems.It was in the early 1950's and the farm had just been sold to a new owner.Sadly that did nothing to improve the farm management and the place was run into the ground and latter sold.
 
Some did some didn't. My grandfather (RIP) worked on levies in southern Illinois and his recollection was not piddling. Sawing timbers and horse and steamer drawn scrapers and much shoveling. He worked on a movable steam driven saw mill, Jim
 
I would have to differ with you Leroy,about every county in the United States had some of these farms created.The Goverment took farm land that was lost in the Depression and created a house,barn,small building,root cellar and maybe a silo on either 140 or 160 acres and sold to farmers to help get started(low cost) again.Every house looked the same(1-1/2 story)lot are gone now or have been built onto.Someone had to build them and WPA could have been the ones.Defiance,Van Wert,Putnam,Paulding,Mercer,Allen and Etc.had a lot of them if you knew what to look for.
 
WPA has been or is the blunt of a lot of jokes,but until you look-dig into some of the jobs they did,you can only admire what they did with so little and mostly by hand.A lot of the things they did will still be around many years after todays things are long long gone.Plus like someone else said,a lot of County fair buildings were built at no cost to the county.Yes,I know FED.bailout.
 
You know, it wouldn't be a bad idea if we had WPA today, instead of paying people to say at home and do nothing.
 
Forgot to add a little story about WPA workers. It was said that one drop of sweat from a WPA worker was a sure fire cure for cancer. The problem was in securing that one drop of sweat.
Joe
 
WPA, the Economic Stimulus Program of the 1930's.

My mother says that...
My grandfather was paid around a $1 per day to build a pond for a neighboring farmer.
For some people with a team of horses, they got paid more.

Says she still knows where one of the ponds is. I need to go take a picture of it.

I consider economic stimulus to be a good thing. The benefits are:
1. It gives a job and money to that one person and his family (all the workers)
2. Those people with money spend that money in the community, which creates more jobs
3. They've created something of value, like a pond, that the farmer will use for years.

WPA built/improved roads and put in electricity in rural areas.

It stimulates the economy and helps everyone.
 

There was a REA Rural Electricfication Administration also, that brought electricity to rural areas. A lot of those electrical coops are still in business. The WPA built a lot of state parks in Michigan, and some of the WPA bridges are still in use!!
 
My Grandfather talked about helping with something like that, and around that area. I wonder if that was the same farm. We were looking through a book and saw a photo of that day, and he remembered it. He said farmers from all around came by to help.
 
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