073
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073
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THE DEPRESSION
There have been two times in my life when I could have taken a 3-year vacation, gone fishing or sight seeing and have been better off financially. I would not want to go thru these experiences again, but there were valuable lessons learned. The depression of the 1930s was one of these times.
October 1929 to September 1932 was for us the great depression. We lost all our money and were in debt. It was to take us 15 years to get these debts paid.
Verna's parents lived on a cattle ranch in Custer County Nebraska. They were 30 miles south east of Broken Bow, the mailing address was Cumro, a rural post office, that no longer appears on the map. Cumro consisted of a filling station, a general store and the post office. The ranch was located on the South Loup river six miles from Cumro.
Verna's father became ill in the summer of 1929, and was no longer able to do the heavy work. He asked us if we would take over for awhile. He was willing to keep the cattle and pay us for operating the unit, or he would sell all live stock and equipment if we wanted to buy.
On October 1, we signed a contracts to buy the cattle and ranching equipment. Verna had $1,400 that she had saved from teaching, and I had $750 that I had expected to pay tuition for the next two years. It would take $2000 to make the down payment, so we borrowed $7,500 from the bank and our parents for the remainder. To-day this seems a small amount of money, but under to-days values the 150 head of livestock and haying equipment would be worth $400,000. Now our address would be Cumro Nebraska.
On Oct. 29th the stock market took its first fall. For the next three years it continued to fall. We had borrowed money at the Mason City bank, and by January 1932 they were getting anxious for more money from us. The president of the bank was my Uncle, Will Redmond, and I knew that he was taking a lot of pressure for us to make some payments on the loan, I knew that he was trying to protect us.
In July of 1932 it happened. A notice, issued by the Federal Land Bank. "We will no longer make loans on ranches that are not operated by the owner." The loan was due October 1932, and this meant that Verna's parents had to return to the ranch or lose it.
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Metzger Memories
