| Summary: | Folder contains 15 pages of Alabama short stories compiled by George S. Barnard for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the late 1930s.•
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A History of
Dale County,Alabema •
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Page.No.__
A I7ELFARE WORKER'S DAY (Continued,page.no.2)
Yesterday I ran into so msny differsnt kinds of cases,
thst, svsn tho I sm s Presbrberian, I hope the Same thing doesn't
happen today.
I left about 8;30 yesterday and wsnt out ebout 12 miles on
the paved rosd to Echo, and then took a dirt road to the Lewis
SchJol House community, and visitsd the Bandean family. Thay
are white people. The res son for my visit wes that Urs. Bendeen's
daughter had an illegitimate child, a boy, and in my work it WaS
necessary to go out there occasionaly end sorter supervise the
Care of this child. In other worda, check up on how the child was
being traated and getting along.
You want to know about the history of this csse7 Well, Mr.
and llrs. Bendeen are tenant farmers, and ths mother of ths child
is a daughtsr of Urs. Bandeen by her first husband; she and "her
present husband having bs married abollt '1 years, 8I.d t:'~:1 hev
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a girl eight years old, and a boy five, but this particular child
_s only about s year and a half old. They ars not recsiving any
county assistancs, nor are they on relief, but the supervision snd
csre of this child comes under ~y gurisdiction. r. Bendean farms
on"Halves", the "old Way" which maens that the landlord !tIrnishes
ths land and a place to livs, and half the sssd and fartilizsr, and
tha tsant doss all ths work; the tsnant ususly buys ths stock, for
which the landlord eithsr furnishss or ths tsnant buys it on credit;
Hs runs what is csllsd sons mule crop, that is hs cultivatss about
thirty to forty scres, which is about two thirds cotton,and the
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• A History
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Dale County, Ale bama. Page.No • •
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-A WELFARE WORKER'S DAY ( Continued, page no.3)
balance is in corn, peanuts, potatoes, snd othsr crops.
Th y livs in e three room unpainted frame houee, which is
not~ ceiled, and tha entire houee hee only one window in it
with gla $ in it; there ie a fire place in ona of the bad-rooms,
and a stove in the kitchen. Thay all liva right thsra, :r.& :"rs •
Eendesn, the two~
ths bsby's mother
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children of thsir own, snd this particular baby;
is now in Birminghsm in the Home up thers. This
house hss absolutelJ no ssnitary co vsniecies--not eVen a privy--
or beck-house--not even a barn I They have to go to the woods 1
rlhicl, fortunately, are close by. heir w6ter su.'pl.' ie from a
well, end the ater i~ drewn b~ lettin down e bucket, to hich is
attached < ro e, whic', runa thru e ,ulley, an is '70und over a
lOB, wit e handla to it. T' e '11 rbpably recevies some 11rfece
et r w e it rains 1 The touee ie ver. 1 rl~ furnis ed, wit o"le
~ron e " e woode bed, d there are ver faw kitc en te"lsils.
o .ver, ever.t i g i t 8 ou e, i c. d~.
a. a tel, nor e rte1 s on • e
1 .< a, no r r "on t s f1 r.
c een.
8 ress
t air clothee
re are Ver' •
t e f1
tree eloos y.
re re 0 flo ers in t e ere,
ie
eVers a • e ,le ir t sir eire at nees,
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ir~ of s ruba, a'th
h ra ere no or Fer'.
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.)0 t l'
nor
e ta f r os, iti Ization a d f t're neells f t e
ed t a elf re De srt e t
t t
to Q
Q e
r 8
a
" a referred
ter wea • r _nept,
b 'rs. er: e
d a a
w s Sa! nct out
lld.
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History of Dale County
.A.1.abep;a.
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Page No.,__
A WELFARE WORKER'S DAY (Contd.Pg. ~)
They are penniless, had no property of any description,
outsids of a few meager household furnishings, and are
absolutely dependent upon their monthly A.D.C. allowance •
&ll:ounting to about $14.00. This home bad no sanitary
conveniencies, and the well. and its curbing wae so poorly
constructed that surface waiter seeped into; the house
leaked badly. As a result of which ths family kept con-tinuous
colds and were verf much run down and sickly.and
verf unhealthy. aid of an increase in their allow-anc~,
they were able to d did move to a much better home
in a good community, where I this day visited them. They
now receive $16.00 per month. The new place they live in
isaLso an unpainted frame house, in the rural section,
was faily well built, had glass in ths windows, has a
priT,Y, and a chicken house and a garden spot. They have
recovered their spirite to a great extent, an, are taking
a great pride in thsir new home, plantsd flowers in the
• front yard, planted vines by the front porch, outlined the
walks around the nouse, and even have a cheap rug for the
front room! Since moving there thsy have practically no
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colds, and their health bas improved one hundred per cent;
in addition their spirite have improved wonderful!y on
account of their social relations; they have neighbors;
(she attended 27 peanut ehellinge the paet season 1)
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and they have been accepted into ths social life of ths
cOllllLunity, which, of course is very rural. The three
largest childrsn go to school regularly and make ~ood grades,
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A
History of Dale County
Alaba:r.a. Con t .,=P"-__
A Welfare Worker's Day Cont .E$. 6
and their health is gpod also. There have been no ~isbehaivor
proble s prs~ented at all. and the children bear a good
reputation in that neighborhood. Mrs. Wright is well tnught
of, but she is inclined to De the helpless, dspendent,
t~'Pe. end is taking quite a while to learn how to manaae
without the leaderehip of her husband.
Tne reason for ~ visit to this family on this day was
a supervisor3 one to tind out if the children had entered
school. and had their books and tne proper clothing, which
I found they had, w1th the exception of tne litt~e girl
who 11eece,:. "reRsee bh.• l·. Ths health of the children wae
found to be good. n~ 0 eepecial proble~s had CODe up
aince tl.e last visit was ȣdei e. Wright reported that
one of the ~rl 's wae in ~s. E. 's roo~ t ie ear
at l-c1'.o ecrool, Fhe was afrc.id c ~i1 ht e:..ve E'o;;e
tr ubl there, nIl trJS,t ""'0 £: of t-.c ch11~ren ~1"ecl us.
'lOt 1 ke h r. But I am of the opinion thie is just one
of those rural school things. and the proble~ will pro~ly
adjust itself later.
I stayed there about an hour, but had to hurry back
to Ozark to see Judge Dees. the Probate Judge of Dale County
on a case involving do~estic relations.
Wote: At this point of the interview a Deputy-saeriff
called ~ss Waite to co~e to the Courthouse at once. so ehe
had to leave hurriedly).
Geo.S.harnard.Ozark.Ala.
Dec.2-6--J.938
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COUITY
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IN BELL
P '1E to. -
In the early days and up to 1889 when the
first railroad came to Ozark from Eufaula, being the
Central of Jeorgia, freight was hauled by wagons, which
were drawn by four mules; theese wagons would £radually
get together on the way up until there would be eighteen
or twenty in a train, from various small communities on
the old road to Eufaula.
l,Irs, J. L. "alker, aged 75 years, a re sident
of Ozark, Ala., formerly an for over 70 years has
live in this country, and ur n the t me the trains
went by Baker n 11 (now in Barbour county)she 1 ved
there, and re~embers quite well thes, wagon trains
co=ing by her father's eOllw; it was an interest ng
siJht; one could hear them coming a long way (own tee
,'oad, not only .from the no se and the s lout s of the
dri ers, and t e dust hat arose, bat also from the
~ELLS. All the large freighters, that is those sh ppers
w~o ad several wagons in the train, always ha a lea
team, and there Was a ell attacl.e to the bSJ!Bess of
the lead mule, which rang and tinkled at every movement.
This ell waS roun an about the s ze of an
oro nary dinner bell; tte top of it had two small p eces
of iron f xed in a sem'-c rcle. Th ollar on the mule's
neck ran up to a point, or po nts, at 'he top,ald a two
sIDall brass knobs; the ames held the collar toJether; and
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A
History of Dale County
Alab8Jl'8.
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»,ge.llo.__
• -A F1 eh Baeket· (Contd.pQ:.3J
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they would go out of doore and the early morning etar
would be ehining eo brightly, an4he dew would be all
over the grass, and it would be kinder cool; they
would call'" ·Ruler·, who was the old hound dog
that they all loved so well, and who always went With
the on their trips; so~eti~es he would be away when
they started out, and when they got back old ·Ruler·
look
would/like he had been insulted .' Anyway, they would
start ofr towards the swamp and the river, whibb wae
about a ~ile and a half fro~ their houss.
/; ....e
It would bS just ' and the
chickens and the birds get up and cackle
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anddp eing, and the crickete • uld II to • Sputter·:
and away of hear the ttle low. --1hey
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would go off down to the swamp thru the lane, and the
fields, with the dew on the grass; they would finally
co~e to the sw~p, and would gO down a little part and
finally co~e to a littls stream of water, and it was
very ~arshy all around it; and it was ~shy too; it
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wae too wide to jump, although it wae very dsep, but she
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had her 6hoes on so she couldn It wade it; anyway she
was always afraid of snakes. So they had to cross th*s
little stream by walking a foot-log acrOBS it; old
·Ruler· would always go ahead and scare away the Bankes J
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History 01 Dals County
Al.abama • .
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Pags.Ho.,__
• !,.F,~is::h:...:B::a:.:e:.:k:.:.:.:.~· (Contd 'pg.# 6)
to whsre thsy kept the boat, and hid it again, and tied" it
up, and put the !"ieh in a eaok and started back homs. On
the .ay thsy found ths old aLligator wallow, which had been
ime, at least a few monthe, and it s-.lled aWful,
and the place thie alligator went down to the river from
his wallow looked like a broad path--it was jUB~ smooth thrQ&h
the underorush of ihe swamp--, but they didn't stay around
to find the allisator that morning. However another morning
they all went down there to try to kill the alligator,
that is, all the men did, but Ih. went along. But I will
tell about that at some other time. They carried the fieh
on home, and put them into barrels of fresh water,and ate
them whenever they got ready, but, grandmother said they
were always ready to eat freeh fieh, so they didn't last
ver-.f long.
When they got home it was just after day_break, and gre.t-grandmothsr
was cooking breakfast of pan-cakes and ham and
eggs. They wers vsry hungr-.f and sat down and ate lots.
Wsll, sometime, if you want me to I will tell you about
ths 'Coon hunt, and whsn the Red Bird got into Uncle John's
pants and bit him on the belly, and when the rattle enakes
got after him, and lots of talss like that which grandmother
has told ms of what happened when she girl a long,
long time ago. "
Dec.8th,l938.
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