Columnist Bil Paul has written a string of informative historic pieces for Dixon Patch. His latest surveys the impact of the Great Depression (1929-41) on that Solano County burg. Though focused on Dixon, the article reflects what likely was going on in towns across the region.
Bank failures were a central factor in the collapse of the U.S. economy. Some 11,000 of the country's 33,000 banks failed by 1933. "... the major share of the blame rests on those [rural] banks that have failed [due to] disregarding fundamental principles in loaning other people's money," Paul quotes from a Dixon Tribune article at the time. Many depositors panicked and the run on the banks prompted the federal government to close them temporarily to cool things down. It took some time for bankers to convince people to return their money.
Unemployment soared and many farms went into foreclosure in the area, though some local agricultural businesses, such as Dixon's meat packing plant, actually grew.
The Patch column includes some interesting photographs of Dixon residents from the 1930s, courtesy of the Dixon Library archives.
PHOTO CREDIT: Bank of Dixon teller's cage, circa 1930s. Courtesy Dixon Public Library.
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