Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2023/Fall/Section18/The Stembler Family (Minnie Stembler)

Overview

The Stembler family lived in Miami, Florida during the Great Depression. Minnie Stembler was interviewed in her home on January 30, 1939, by her friend Elvira E. Burnell, who had become a writer for the Federal Writer's Project. At the time of the interview, Minnie Stembler was in her fifties and was unemployed while her husband worked.

A southern woman washing clothes during the Great Depression

Biography

Early Life

Minnie Stembler was born in Syracuse, New York, but was raised in Georgia on a farm that her parents owned. She finished school up through the eighth grade, then subsequently dropped out for unspecified reasons. She later wished for her daughters to complete high school, as she never had the chance to do so herself. Mrs. Stembler had been an only child, and her parents, especially her mother, wished for her to find a rich husband. Eventually, she married Tom Stembler, who, to the disappointment of her parents, wasn’t particularly wealthy. They soon moved to Miami, Florida where Mr. Stembler got a job at a furniture company and Mrs. Stembler remained unemployed. They bought a two-roomed cottage, tucked near the back of a lot, and raised their four daughters (Elizabeth, Laura, Martha, and Anna) there while consistently adding rooms and renovating the space. While caring for her young children, Mrs. Stembler would often have neighboring kids over to the house to help out the parents. It was such an often occurrence that “people used to think [she] was running a kindergarten.” She was truly a kind and nurturing woman.

Later Life

With their house paid in full, The Stemblers never had to worry about it being repossessed during the Great Depression. However, they were very tight on money for other necessities, and Mr. Stembler was very particular about what they spent it on. The family lived without real windows or sheets for their beds, and all of the paint on their house was chipped, but those weren’t things they had the luxury of fixing. Even still, Mrs. Stembler enjoyed having company over and continuing to take care of people’s kids when needed. She had many friends and could always be counted on to be ready for a chat.

As a very religious woman, she did not care for politics, though she still voted when her husband requested it. One of her most prized possessions was a Bible, which she bought without her husband’s knowledge, and she planned to pay for it in installments with whatever extra money she could save. When Mr. Stembler lost his job at the furniture company and had to settle for a lower-paying one, and she no longer had the budget to pay it off in full, the seller waived the remaining fee and allowed her to keep it. She often tried to convince the rest of her family to attend church with her, but generally went alone. She enjoyed the religious atmosphere and rotated her attendance through all of the different churches in her area so she could learn about the different practices. Like the Bible, Mrs. Stembler bought several medical books in secret, knowing that utilizing different home remedies would be far cheaper than having to call the doctor whenever someone got sick. She didn’t regret being sneaky with her allotment of money from her husband because she always used it for things that she believed were important.

As someone who adored children, Mrs. Stembler wished for grandchildren, but none of her daughters had much success in childbirth. With little access to adequate nutrition and healthcare, the Stembler daughters all consistently appeared sickly, and for Elizabeth and Martha, that meant several miscarriages and other pregnancy-related issues. Mrs. Stembler never gave up hope that she would one day become a grandmother, but she never wished for that to come at the expense of her own daughters’ health. It is unknown whether any of her daughters actually had any children of their own.

Social Context

Women's Roles During the Great Depression

During the Great Depression, men were still the primary members of the workforce, but women, whether working in the home or elsewhere, were just as important in keeping society afloat. “When cash income declined, housewives replaced purchasing with subsistence production. Whether they planted gardens, canned food, remade old clothing, made do with less heat, or moved into poorer housing which required extra effort to keep clean and comfortable, women worked harder.” Many women would also advocate for their husbands and themselves through letters to companies, banks, etc. begging them to provide a job or a loan so they could have enough money to “provide the bare necessities of life and to keep children in school.” “Mothers of adult children could not necessarily rely on their offspring in hard times either.” Many adult children moved home due to financial struggles, bringing their new families with them. With more people to care for, and a very limited source of income, these mothers had to work even harder to make sure everyone’s basic needs were being met.

Familial and Community Responses to Financial Hardship

“A heavy loss of income sharply increased financial conflicts between husbands and wives during the bleak years of Depression hardship.” As the primary breadwinners, men generally wished to have the final say over what their money was spent on, however as the main caretakers of the home and family, women had different financial priorities. This became an increasingly larger issue as pays were cut, people lost jobs, and there was barely enough money for the basic necessities like food. Much of the time, housewives were given a set allotment of money to spend on food and the house, while the men did whatever they wanted with the rest. Sometimes, marital issues were caused by disagreements regarding financial spending, but that seemed to be more common in the previous higher social classes. “Lower-status families [had] greater experience in coping with economic hardship,” because they were used to working with less and had already experienced what it was like to have to budget and make compromises.

Families in Florida went through a particularly rough patch as it “was already in a depression years before the stock-market crash. The Great Depression only compounded the misery.” While each individual family handled the economic hardship differently, it hit pretty much everyone, which provided a sense of “shared struggle,” thus bringing communities closer together. With a lot of people out of work, they had to find different ways to get the things they needed, which generally resulted in enlisting the aid of neighbors. Often, “people helped each other out with favors when they could, and family members helped care for each other’s children.” With a mutual need for help among most Americans, everyone understood each other’s situations, causing “unprecedented levels of empathy.”

Issues With Education

It was very difficult for children to receive a full education during the Great Depression as increased demand and budget cuts fought against each other. In the 1920s, education became much more valued and more and more children were encouraged to attend. Children were also encouraged to stay in school during the Depression so they wouldn’t be competing in the job market against grown men. However, when states started to cut funding, many schools, especially rural ones, “found it necessary to simply close their doors when money ran out.” So, instead of the increased importance of education in American society causing enrollment to rise, “school attendance actually [declined] through the 1930s due to budget crises of local school districts.” This left many children stuck at home and decreased the chances of mothers being able to acquire jobs outside the home because they had to stay back and take care of their children.

References

“Education 1929-2941” Encyclopedia.com, Accessed October 9, 2023. Education 1929-1941 / Encyclopedia.com

Helmbold, Lois Rita. “Beyond the Family Economy: Black and White Working-Class Women during the Great Depression.” Feminist Studies 13, no. 3 (1987): 629–55. https://doi.org/10.2307/3177885.

Liker, Jeffrey K., and Glen H. Elder. “Economic Hardship and Marital Relations in the 1930s.” American Sociological Review 48, no. 3 (1983): 343–59. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095227.

McGuire, John Thomas. The Journal of Southern History 74, no. 3 (2008): 789–90. https://doi.org/10.2307/27650295.

Rust, Owen. “The Sociocultural Impact of the Great Depression” TheCollector.com, October 18, 2021. Accessed October 15, 2023. The Sociocultural Impact of the Great Depression

Revels, Tracy J. The South Carolina Historical Magazine 109, no. 1 (2008): 77–79. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27570949.

“The Stembler Family” interview by Elvira E. Burnell, date January 30, 1939, Folder 99, Federal Writers’ Project Papers #3709, Southern Historical Collection, the Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Folder_99_Burnell_Elvira_interviewer_The_Stembler_Family (1).pdf