Transcript The New Deal - Eaton High School

Mr. Flynn
What is this?
Harmon Field
Harmon Field
 Harmon Field was established in 1925 through a
generous grant from the Harmon family
 Miamisburg has played football there since 1930
 The field was already established before the WPA
came in, but they did extra work to clear the field
making it considered a WPA project
The New Deal
 The New Deal was a series of economic programs
passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the United
States, from 1933 to 1936.
 The programs were responses to the Great Depression,
and focused on what historians call the "3 Rs": relief,
recovery and reform.
 That is, relief for the unemployed and poor; recovery
of the economy to normal levels; and reform of the
financial system to prevent a repeat depression.
What was the WPA?
 Works Progress Administration (WPA), began in 1935
to give people jobs with the government to earn money
 While men were given unskilled manual labor jobs,
usually on construction projects, women were assigned
mostly to sewing projects.
 Women also were hired for the WPA's school lunch
program.
 Both men and women were hired for the arts programs
(such as music, theater and writing
Eaton Mural
Eaton Mural Story
 "Murals which are to be placed on the walls of the Eaton post office, located on
East Main Street, near the Main and Barron Street intersection, will show
scenes enacted at the trading post established here in a log cabin in 1806 by
Cornelius Van Ausdal, this town's first merchant. The scenes will recall some
interesting local history. Mr. Van Ausdal arrived in Eaton when William Bruce,
founder of Eaton, was laying out the town.
 There is some connection between the site of the post office and the life of
Eaton's first merchant. A house, built of brick, probably handmade, and wood,
cut from virgin timber, occupied by Harvey Van Ausdal, Cornelius' son, was
razed to create room for the federal building. Part of that house now forms a
part of the local youth community center structure.
 The story of Cornelius Van Ausdal's life is closely interwoven with Eaton
history, for local mercantile records begin with the establishment of his trading
post. His business grew and developed into large proportions. Other trading
establishments located here and followed the trail blazed by Van Ausdal & Co.,
so the success of that organization played a part in making local history.
Other programs
 Many rural people lived in severe poverty, especially in the
South. Major programs addressed to their needs included
the Resettlement Administration (RA), the Rural
Electrification Administration (REA), rural welfare projects
sponsored by the WPA, NYA, Forest Service and CCC,
including school lunches, building new schools, opening
roads in remote areas, reforestation, and purchase of
marginal lands to enlarge national forests.
 In 1933, the Administration launched the Tennessee Valley
Authority, a project involving dam construction planning
on an unprecedented scale in order to curb flooding,
generate electricity, and modernize the very poor farms in
the Tennessee Valley region of the Southern United States.
WPA posters
 http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaposters/highlight
s.html