The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
How many times did Dad (Elmer) refer to The Great Depression as “The Dirty Thirties”? There was this deep foreboding look and spirit that overtook Dad when he talked about that time. It was clear that whatever happened, you sure as heck didn’t want it happening to you. Unrelenting fear of another Depression plagued Dad for life.
Long, slow, and agonizing, the Pick’s bravely fought to the bitter end to keep their farm. This story actually begins in 1896 with the Adam Pick Family (Adam, Mary, and infant, Frank) moving from Remsen IA to nearby Alton IA. By 1903 Adam had a recently purchased 240-acre farm - his first - and one mortgage; 1913 brought the establishment of an exemplary dairy herd of Holstein cows.
*From here on, italics denote a family member’s memory - edited to fit this narrative. Most are from Joe Kronlage (son of Mary Pick’s sister, Elizabeth Rolfes Kronlage)
Along came World War I (1914-1920) and never-before-seen prosperity for Iowa farmers as they grew more corn and oats, and raised more hogs, horses, and cattle than ever before to supply war-torn countries and troops with food. Making hay while the sun shined, they borrowed money to buy land and equipment as they increased production.
Paying the princely sum of $235/acre, Adam purchased a 2nd parcel of land in 1918 bringing his total land holdings to 439.69 acres, all in Alton, Iowa/Sioux County/Nassau Township, Section 12, making him a large landowner according to standards of the day.
By 1919, prices for farm products had doubled followed closely behind by farmland prices in 1920. However despite of this unprecedented prosperity, Adam’s 1st parcel had gained two additional mortgages during the war years.
This sharp increase in farm assets resulted in the growth of farm mortgage indebtedness as farmers took out larger-sized loans for overvalued land.
The Pick’s had all kinds of big equipment. Instead of having a single-row cultivator, they had 2 2-row cultivators put together. I think they were using horses & cultivating 4 rows at a time. They were big operators.
The farm had a fantastic machine shop on it. Really fancy for those days. Inside is a blackboard with all of the sections drawn on it.
It really was amazing when we would go out there, the way they did the farm work.
Any cost advantage over buying a tractor vs. keeping horses was penciled out. The Pick’s traded three teams with some cash for their first tractor, a Waterloo Boy. Theirs was the first tractor in the Alton farm area, and the first farm to have electric power.
After the war ended, overseas countries imposed tariffs on imported foodstuffs and foreign markets suddenly closed causing prices for land and commodities in the United States to collapse; 1920 saw a drop in farm product prices followed in 1921 by a low less than half of the highest price reached in 1919. This decline continued through 1924; debt-burdened Iowa farmers slogged dismally through the rest of the decade.
Although reduced farm income did cause a gradual decline in farmland values, the real culprit was outstanding debt from farm mortgage indebtedness that grew as existing debts, often including unpaid interest, taxes and operating expenses came due. The boom went bust.
Assuming 1920 was the year, trouble set in. Adam had 14,000 bushels of corn for sale. Corn was ($1.40?) per bushel but with a rail car shortage, the bottom dropped out of the market by the time he got the crop loaded. Adam sold for (14¢?) bushel. Depression swept over Adam and he started to go downhill.
During the Prohibition Years, 1920 to 1933, making and bootlegging moonshine was a profitable business in northwest Iowa where corn was plentiful. The profits helped many a farmer support their families through tough, economic times. But that was something the Pick’s did not consider.
Suffering a stroke, and on his deathbed, August 27, 1922 (As told by Joe Kronlage): Adam told Mary to sell the farm because there was no way she could pay off the debt they owed on it. Mary was going to sell it but the story is she talked it over with her parish priest who told her the Lord would help them - she didn’t have to worry about losing the farm. Mary had a big family; all of them would feel more at home on the farm, so she should keep it. They would make a go of it.
After Adam died, Frank J. Pick is listed as Manager. The farm operation lacked leadership; Frank suffered from depression, as he did for the rest of his life, and had a nervous breakdown. He had a couple of them. He holed up in the tool shop all day (for weeks). Frank had a lot of responsibility on him after Adam died - all of the responsibility.
Frank had problems with depression. He seemed to be bipolar, really happy or really down and depressed.
The Pick boys learned to play pool in the basement (of the family home) where Fr. Henry had a pool table. When it was too hot to be upstairs, they went to the basement (to play pool). The indentations from the table legs are still there.
Dad (Andrew) played the violin in the Pick family band; Fr. Ray played the saxophone; Sr. Aiden (Josephine) played the piano. They played for family and non-family functions.
Fr. Henry was always good to the family. Grandma (Pick) didn’t have money for Christmas gifts so Fr. Henry bought them for everyone. Frank cashed in his life insurance so Sylvester and Elmer could go to school, and buy overalls for them.
Sylvester and Elmer walked the three miles to St. Mary’s school in Alton IA. We (the Klein’s) were neighbors to the Pick’s. We drove a horse and buggy to school and stabled it at our grandparent’s house in town on school days. If Sylvester and Elmer were walking to school along the road, they hitched a ride with us. The Pick’s were big into dairy so chores took up a lot of Sylvester and Elmer’s time.
“I (Joe Kronlage) was born in 1922 after Adam died. When we were little kids we’d go to the Adam Pick farm in Western Iowa to visit once a year. Elmer would always give us these great swing rides. We never had such an elaborate swing set as they had. Elmer always took care of us young kids when we visited making sure we had a good time. It was great to be there.
Frank was the manager after Adam died. Frank really was a heck of a nice guy. He was so considerate. The whole Pick family was that way. The family had a great quartet; really good singing. The Pick’s were a good-looking family.”
By the late 1920s, the entire nation was sliding into the Great Depression with farm product prices falling more than 50 percent between 1930 and 1932. Again, farmland values followed suit. Foreclosures were the new normal.
Iowa’s mortgage foreclosure procedures, in place since the 1850s, clearly could not meet the current foreclosure crisis; emergency relief legislation was desperately needed.
In 1929 Frank took out a $200 line of credit on his life insurance and took the check to the Alton bank. Although the teller wanted him to deposit the check, Frank insisted on getting cash. He got his cash. The bank closed the next day.
Everyone hated President Herbert Hoover (1929 to 1933) and used magazine papers with his face as toilet paper (in addition to corn husks), and they (the Pick’s) ate a lot of corn, cornmeal, cornbread, etc.
My guess the year was 1932: There was a time when the corn needed to be shelled before selling it. They had a small broken-down corn sheller but before Frank fixed it, the bottom fell out of the corn market leaving the corn pretty much worthless.
From 1933 through 1939 the Iowa General Assembly enacted laws that delayed or cushioned the effects of mortgage foreclosure proceedings. Those laws were not without their problems. Too little too late.
The Minten’s were the Pick’s neighbors. My mother (Rose Minten) drove the children to school in an automobile and sometimes we brought Elmer home. He was in 11th or 12th grade. This was probably in the early thirties because Sylvester didn’t go to high school.
Grandma Pick wanted to write President Roosevelt (1933 to 1945) to ask for his help so they wouldn't lose the farm for back taxes, but the family told her it wouldn't do any good and talked her out of it, something the boys regretted doing in later years; what harm could it have done. Maybe the President could’ve done something.
The worst winter and summer northwest Iowans had ever been through came with the arrival of 1936. Never again be seen amounts of snowfall and rock bottom temperatures hit Iowa. Severe drought and record-breaking heat made July the hottest July on record - dust-ridden and parched ground, dried and withered crops, lots of wind.
The Pick boys made the paper:
Seeing no future in farming after the Depression set in, Frank went to work as the maintenance man at Briar Cliff (College, Sioux City IA, 1936). Lawrence, Sylvester, Elmer were left to farm the home place. In the summers, Fr. Ray came back to help out. While Frank was at Briar Cliff he had a breakdown and came back to live with Andrew and Lawrence for a year.
I would go to the Pick farm in Alton to stay after school when I was in grade school in the late 1930s. Grandma always played 2 handed pinochle with me.
When the milk cows were sold (1938), that was the end.
For Mary Pick, farm legislation staved off the inevitable giving the family a few more years on the farm but it came with a high price. At long last the Pick’s ordeal was over - the 3rd and last parcel of land - gone in 1940.
The Pick’s borrowed money from the bank and from other people too.
They had lots of debts. Those people were pretty upset because they didn’t get their money.
There were people who wanted Lawrence to assume the debts for the farm (countersign for the notes) but he wouldn’t do it. Fr. Henry wanted Lawrence and Sylvester to remain single and work to pay off the family debts for the farm but Lawrence said no – only if you pay your share and everyone else pays their share.
Farms lost to foreclosure were bought up by those more fortunate - sometimes a neighbor, relative, or friend. Not too difficult to understand why there were hard feelings.
George Henrich bought some of Adam Pick’s farm after the Pick’s lost it – for $72 or $74 per acre. The average price for land that year - $79/acre. George got a deal.
Lawrence managed to save enough money to salvage the 40 acres with the home place on it and 40 more later on. Elmer eventually ended up with 80 acres.
Elmer summed it up this way: If we could’ve held it together two more years we would’ve made it. But, then we wouldn’t be humble.
Reference sources:
http://www.iptv.org/iowapathways/mypath.cfm?ounid=ob_000047&h=no
