Oral History Program Hyrum B. Wheelwright Interviewed by Mack S. Taft circa 1960s Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Hyrum B. Wheelwright Interviewed by Mack S. Taft circa 1960s Copyright © 2016 by Weber State University, Stewart Library iii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. The working files, original recording, and archival copies are housed in the University Archives. Project Description The Great Depression in Weber County, Utah, is an Oral History Project by Mack S. Taft for completion of his Master’s Thesis at Utah State University during the summer of 1969. The forty-five interviews address the Great Depression through the eyes of individuals in several different occupations including: Bankers, Laborers, Railroad Workers, Attorneys, Farmers, Educators, Businessmen, Community and Church Leaders, Housewives, Children and Physicians. All of these individuals lived in Weber County from 1929 to 1941. The interviews were based on what they remembered about the depression, how they felt about those events and how it affected their life then and now. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Wheelwright, Hyrum B., an oral history by Mack S. Taft, circa 1960s, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. 1 Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Hyrum B. Wheelwright. Mr. Wheelwright recalls his experiences in the lumber business and in an LDS bishopric during the Depression. He talks about government policies and Marriner Eccles in particular. The interviewer is Mack Taft. MT: Where did you live during the years from 1929-39? HW: I lived at 2425 Jackson Avenue. MT: What was your business during those years? HW: I was in the lumber business. MT: What do you remember about the lumber business during that time? HW: I remember I kept the records for a long while. The total sales in Ogden, in February 1932, were $7,400. That’s the low point in lumber sales for the year, anyway. February is the low point for the year. MT: Were you connected in any way with the Wheelwright Construction Company? HW: No, they bought from us occasionally. The reason our sales were that high, was that was the time that Williamson Auto Body was establishing here in Ogden, and we were selling to them. They were manufacturing bodies for automobiles. MT: You were in the bishopric of the [LDS] 12th Ward during that period. Now when was that? HW: I was in the bishopric from September 1925 to December 1936. MT: How much construction and building was going on during that time? HW: Well, I don’t know unless I would go back into some records. But there wasn’t very much building going on in Ogden at that particular time. In fact, I figure that we were losing about $500 in our little business. We had taken our surplus and 2 we started building up a surplus in 1919, 1920. So 1929-34 we had lost half of the money that we had built up in surplus to operate the company. MT: When did things start to seem easier as far as your business is concerned? HW: About 1934, or 1935, and by 1936 or 1937, we got out into the profit line. MT: Is there anything in particular that seems to account for that? Something the government did, or that you did, or others? HW: Well, the government at that particular time went into this homeowners loan deal where the mortgage was payable by the month and they released the money. So that was one factor on new construction. Then the homeowners loaned money on these default mortgages that they would rehabilitate the homes on this homeowner’s loan. That brought in a lot of business. MT: Would you say that construction in general might have picked up during that time? HW: I would. At that particular time, too, we saw an opportunity in 1931 in re-roofing houses. At one time, we had five shinglers going, and that saved us... We would go out and just finish houses that looked like they were out and needed re-roofing. Then we would send them an advertisement, and we picked up a lot of work... We were one of the first yards in Ogden to take advantage of this Title I repair renewal that the government put out. And I think that helped quite a bit. But I don’t think that became a factor until 1935 or 1936. MT: What do you remember about the WPA and the CCC and some of those organizations? Are you acquainted with some of those? HW: Well, I know people who were working on them. They were working in the parks 3 and they were working around in Ogden, in the cemetery. I know that later on this order went out into the woods, and into the mountains, and established those camps and took the boys out there and worked them, and gave them the opportunity to earn some money. They needed it. MT: How do you evaluate those programs now that you’ve had a few years to evaluate them? Do you think that they were worthwhile and necessary? HW: Well, I think that where they put the boys into the canyons and cleaned up the canyons and cleaned the woods, I think that was of a great deal of value. And of course the make-work projects that they had – the followed Marriner Eccles’s idea. His idea was a different one from Hoover. Marriner’s idea was to get the money out to the public so that they could buy the products. And if they bought the products, then the factories would start. And if the factories started, then the businesses would start. MT: Do you remember anything about church welfare at that particular time? HW: Yes, I think as a bishop in our stake, I think Earl Paul did a better job on that. He really organized it, and they did a great deal of work. So they organized and went out into the fields and picked the fruit, and then they took it into the wards and canned it, and put it up so the people had something to eat. That was the beginning of the [LDS] church welfare project. MT: Do you think of any amusing incidents that happened through these years...? HW: Well, no, not anything particularly amusing. I remember one man who was a very successful builder and had about five houses for sale in 1929. He held his price too long, and then by 1932, when he finally had to sell, he lost his home and he 4 lost everything that he had, but that’s not amusing. I remember his wife said that she thought that the Lord would provide a way for them. But at that time, we needed a caretaker and the bishop was trying to get hold or her and him to take care of it. He took care of it, and he came out of it in later years, and paid off his bills, that is paid off his portion of it. We organized it, and he paid it off over a number of years.