61 Photos West Virginia Poverty and Great Depression Rare History



See the hard life in West Virginia during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl days.

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45 thoughts on “61 Photos West Virginia Poverty and Great Depression Rare History”

  1. If this is how the Great Depression affected Anglos it burdens my heart thinking how the less privileged fared. I'm sure family bonds were much tighter then.

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  2. ”The graoes of wrath” was allowed to be shown in the sovjet union, as it did show poor people in the U.S. How ever it was later banned as it showed that poor people in U.S could afford to have a car.

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  3. My mom and dad were from Mill Creek Huttonsville Opossum Hollow and Becky's Creek all in Randolph County WV.
    I can still remember and hear them talking about hard times around the old pot belly stove in the living room and I still can smell the coal burning in the stoves to keep the house warm.
    Grandma would get up early stoke the wood cook stove and bake a pan of biscuits with coffee or bacon grease gravy OMG nothing better there them biscuits.
    Every summer family reunions we're in order the loved ones who died being brought back into the house and THE FOOD THE NEIGHBORS WOULD BRING IN.
    THAT was 58years ago and seems like yesterday.
    I guess these old pictures jogged my memory.

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  4. 4 Aug. 2022………
    If the globalists have their way, YOU will be seeing this again in your lifetime.

    We are already seeing empty shelves in grocery stores.
    Long lines at community food pantries and unaffordable housing.
    Your childern are being taught unspeakable things in the schools.

    We are seeing a decided decline in our society.

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  5. If you think that this is something from the past, look at West Virginia NOW ! Or for thar matter anywhere in the rural south or sourhwest. Tbis is what happens when big business runs the state and the politicians, especially the GOP now They want nothing more than a captive work force who will live and work according to the pay that they set and the conditions that they can afford to provide and the GOP is beholden to big business and the tycoons for their power. Therefore the GOP doesn't care about the people who are too old to work, to sick to work, or can't find work. If given the chance they will destroy all of the social safety nets and the laws to protect the health and safety of workers, and the laws concerning education that would make people more than just lower middle class people depedent on big business for employment. Big business and the GOP want to destroy the middle class and turn this country into semi-literate drones who do as they are told to do.

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  6. The rains come… winds blow… rivers flow… the crops grow… people say grace… for food on the table… children play… the faithful pray… that poverty goes away…to vanish with time…. prosperity finds a way… for a better day… and life goes on. The look back is greatly appreciated, for one who had the privilege of being born and raised in the beautiful hills of Mingo County… in southern West By God Virginia.

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  7. The context is this: Things were bad for many. But not all. Look at the miner's shoes for instance. Some of the best work boots ever made were worn by them. Miners were well paid by the 1930s. Some of those stores shown were well stocked and well managed. Life in these hills and hollows was not as hard as some outsiders believe. As long as you had land, work and a home in a community, security was a relative thing. Of course, some people of that time did not have these things. And this is why we must be Progressive in our policies, and Liberal in our concerns.

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  8. Everyone needs salvation here are the words of salvation please forgive me jesus im a sinner come into my heart and save me from my sin I no that you are the savior and I no that you died for me on calvary and I no that God raise you from the dead and you are alive and I thankyou for your salvation in Jesus holy name amen and its important to always ask for forgiveness everynite

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  9. This is a side of America few have ever seen or even know about. Truth.
    ALOT of these places still exist in 2022. Almost like it's a secret.
    The poor people don't always have a voice. Only God will have their reward. What a shame.
    ❤️🙏🌹

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  10. My mother was born in Cass, WV in 1915. This video illustrates what happens when good, hard working people allow themselves to be OWNED by robber-baron coal company owners. West By God Virginia has long been OWNED by the coal companies. They seek to keep people as poor as possible. They don't want YOU to starve to death, but they want you to come as close as possible. They believe you can never be too poor and that they can never be too rich. If you work for a living and vote Republican, you have no one to blame but yourself. They keep you poor, uneducated, in debt and distracted by bullshit causes while they suck the blood from your veins.

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  11. My grandparents on my father's side lived in West Central Pennsylvania. During The Great Depression, Grandpa was only allowed to work in the coal mines for one day per month. On his days off, he and Grandma would walk along the railroads, looking for lumps of coal that had fallen off of the railroad cars leading away from the coal mines. When they had gathered enough coal to fill a metal bucket, Grandma would go to one of the nearby chicken farms, and exchange the bucket of coal for some eggs for food. It was a barter system, because very few people had any money, and those that did, the money did not buy a lot of food and other provisions. Somehow, my grandparents, my father in childhood, and his older sister, survived The Great Depression, and Pa was exempt from being drafted during World War II because he and Grandpa worked in the coal mines.

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  12. Pocahontas County WV. My parents were born in 1916. My father went to school until the 8th grade. My mother the 4th grade. I once asked them what it was like living through the Great Depression. They said they didn't know anything about it until it was almost over. They was always poor and never noticed anything different. My grandparents on my father's side had 8 children. But my grandparents on my mother's side had 16 children. Kids usually had to work around the farm as soon as they were able to do chores.

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  13. My grandparents were in their 30’s in the 1930’s. They were in a small town in Western Kansas. Raising a family in the Dust Bowl with what little money that was available for the work my grandfather did (he was a mechanic for farm equipment but who had a working farm in dust bowl states?). My grandmother taught piano and my grandfather would work on other peoples cars or trucks (since few people had the money to buy a new car) or whatever machinery that required repair. 99 percent of the time he was paid cash but there were times folks didn’t have the cash to pay so he’d get a ham or eggs or a loaf of bread in exchange.
    Then after almost 11 years of the Depression we became involved in 4 years of World War 2 and rationing.

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  14. I was born in McDowell County WV in a small town named Algoma, near Northfork. Some of the best years of my life but before my time my Mother and Father and their parents had it rough. My father worked thirty two years in the coal mines,making sure my brother had the things we needed to eat and proper clothing and shoes for school. Mother's parents lived in a small log cabin with no electricity or running water. They cooked and heated their house with a wood/coal burning stove that heated water in a tank on the side of the stove. The best people I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know came from WV. Tears still come to my eyes when I hear John Denver's "Take me home country road".

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  15. My parents were born in the late 30's and into poverty in northern Maine. We were a working poor family, highly dysfunctional and completed fell apart when I was 14 years old. I don't know this kind of poverty but it's distant cousin is close to me… not in a bad way. It makes me incredibly grateful for everything my family has today and all that we're able to give to others; time, energy, effort, and resources.

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