The following is one of a series of article on the Great Depression by local historian of that era, Wilbur Bush.
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In the Depression days, people usually depended on either coal or wood for heating and cooking. Townspeople used much of the coal, which had to be delivered by horse and wagon. Farmers could go to the timber to cut their own firewood.
Since most of the churches had wood stoves, men often went together and chopped wood for them. A 1935 newspaper article related the cooperation of one small church. Thirty men met for a wood cutting and 20 loads of wood were cut and five loads were hauled. Those unable to help with the work contributed $1 to help with the expense. Eighteen women spent the morning preparing the dinner meal, and quilted in the afternoon.
The coal stove served many purposes especially for heating, cooking and warming water. Many teachers who taught in the one-room schools often used the stoves for “hot lunches” as well as for warmth. When the stoves were warm, the teachers could place a pot of soup or other food on top of them and warm it for the students’ lunch.
During these times when money was scarce, people had to depend on what was available for their fuel. One couple went to the timber and sawed lumber to sell to help buy their groceries. The man sawed the logs and tossed them in one pile and the slabs in another to be used for their heating. Another family had a 1930 car they jacked up and sat on blocks for two years. The man’s brother bought it, took the engine out to furnish power for a saw. People brought him wood and had it cut in to pieces for them to burn.
My grandfather had several post piles of both new and used fence posts stacked on his farm. People started to steal them to cut into firewood. He went to the pasture one day and found someone had taken the post from the fence rows. He later purchased a few railroad ties to have cut into chunks for them to burn. When he took them to the sawmill, they told him they had too many rocks in them and they were afraid it would hurt their buzz saw. In the end, he had his boys cut them by using a crosscut saw.
What would school students say today if they were to define what is meant by a “coal shaker,” a “red hot” stove, and an “ash bucket?”