Oral History Program Arch L. Christensen Interviewed by Mack S. Taft circa 1960s Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Arch L. Christensen 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: Christensen, Arch L., 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 Arch L. Christensen. Mr. Christensen discusses working as a county agent in Weber County during the Depression, agricultural products and prices, family patterns, and so on. The interviewer is Mack Taft. MT: Were you working here as a county agent during the depression years? AC: I came in here as the county agent in the fall of 1925. MT: You were here then— when did you retire? What do you remember about those years? AC: They cut my salary some. MT: Do you remember what your salary was prior to the depression year? AC: I don't remember but they cut me about 25%. MT: What do you remember about the farm condition at that time? AC: I remember when I would go out to make my farm visits, I would find somebody home at practically every place that I went. The first thing we see when the depression hits was that the farm people went back home. They would come back on the farm and build them a little in the corner someplace, and settle down and raise a family. MT: Do you remember any contrast between the city and the rural areas in the way people lived and so forth? AC: You see, your farm people had someplace to go. They'd go home to day and double up, and they got along and your city people didn't have that combination. 2 MT: I note here by your paper here that you retired after thirty-seven years of service. Is there anything else that you remember about the farm prices, or things that took place there on the farms that might be of interest? AC: Most of them at that time grew grains - wheat and barley, hay and feed. Many had dairy cattle. MT: What do you remember about Weber Central Dairy through those years? AC: They were organized the same spring that I came in here. It was a going organization it was all thoroughly legalized and everything and each town was organized into a dairy group and had a local. They were going ahead in pretty good condition during the depression. James R. Beus managed it during the depression years. He also helped organize the beet growers. At that time, each commodity was organized separately. We had the dairy people and the canning trucks and the sugar beets but that's about all. MT: What do you remember about the prices of agricultural products at that time? AC: Well, it was the low prices, you see, that forced them into the organizations. At least that was one of the factors. MT: Were there other things about your job that you remember that might show us the economic conditions of that time? AC: We had the 4H celebrations. We organized a dairy show, had a Jersey organization that carried the Jersey cattle, the valley people had Guernsey cattle up there you see. I organized a show at Huntsville, and we had the black and white show held at Plain City. We had shows going at that time. MT: Was there a good effort going to improve livestock at that time? 3 AC: Yes, we had cattleman's association going too. They were going dairy cattle all the time. MT: Now you started in the county agent work in Toole, is that correct? And how long did you stay down there? AC: About eight years. MT: And then you came to Weber County in 1925. Are there any of the people in agriculture who were very influential then that are still around? AC: Yes, there's one man that was around at that time, a young fellow by the name of Ralph Robson; Ralph was one of the younger fellows at that time. He's out at Plain City right now; he's the only one that I can recall.