FINANCIAL HARDSHIPS OF 1930S INSTILLED SENSE OF COMMUNITY

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- With a population of about 10,000, Cape Girardeau, like most small towns across the nation, suffered in the 1930s from high unemployment and financial hardship as the country reeled from the effects of The Great Depression.

But the troubled times also fostered a deep sense of community as residents here were more than willing to "lend a helping hand" to neighbors in need.

"During the depression, basically, there were very few people who had much to spare," said Dr. Ray Ritter of Cape Girardeau. "It was tough, but people helped one another get through the difficult times."

Ritter, 86, moved to Cape Girardeau from St. Louis in 1933 to start a medical practice. Ritter and his new bride Helen's first home was a $25-a-month apartment above a dry goods store on the corner of Broadway and Ellis. The apartment also served as Ritter's first doctor's office.

"You might say it was sort of a charitable transaction," Ritter said of the living arrangement. "The practice gradually increased to the point where I was able to make a living to pay off some of the debts I had accumulated."

Ritter said he and his wife often went into homes and treated the destitute free of charge. They also used their meager finances to buy clothing and food for his most needy patients.

"I never felt that was a great deed; we just couldn't set and watch somebody go down the drain completely when we were able to do something to help," Ritter said. "I just always felt times would get better, and they did.

"My wife and I, the only thing we were endowed with, was a willingness to work and serve others."

Ritter said that many in the health-care field in Cape Girardeau during the 1930s were more than willing to sacrifice personal comfort and financial gain for the good of those in desperate need.

"I can remember when at St. Francis the nuns and the nurses that worked most of the day taking care of patients would peel apples in the evenings and can them on the spot to provide some food for the hospital," he said. "They were tough times, but many people stayed there and pitched in through the tough times."

Lehman Finch, an attorney in Cape Girardeau for the past 51 years, said the residents' conservatism eased the depression's debilitating effects here.

"In 1933, when I graduated from high school right during the heart of the depression, Cape, having conservative people, basically, I never thought was hit as hard as other areas," Finch said. "Here we don't go through the boon times as well as some places, but we also don't go through the lows as bad."

Finch's family moved to Cape Girardeau from New Madrid in 1926. After graduating from Cape Central, he attended Southeast Missouri Teacher's College here for two years before transferring to the University of Missouri, where he eventually earned a law degree.

Finch said two banks in Cape Girardeau failed during the 1930s, leaving only Farmers and Merchants and First National as the city's funded banks.

"The Sturdivant Bank went broke, which was catastrophic to a lot of people who had their life savings there," he said. "Also, the Southeast Missouri Trust Co. went broke."

But the depression wasn't the only thing that made Cape Girardeau a much different community 50 to 60 years ago. Horse-drawn wagons transported agricultural goods to and from stores along granite-block streets.

Also, Finch said, "rumblings of war" in Europe began throughout the U.S. during the 1930s as Adolph Hitler began his conquests in Europe. Finch later would serve 3 years with the Coast Guard during World War II.

"This country back in the 1930s was very isolationist," he said. "We were way over here and they were way over there. I think the only reason we even got involved in World War II was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor."

Cape Girardeau was a much smaller city then, with most of its residents situated near the Main Street and Good Hope Street business sections.

"We still had street cars in Cape Girardeau during the 1930s," said Ritter. "They covered from Main Street up Broadway to the area of Henderson Street.

"Capaha Park was more or less the outer limits of the city. Where Southeast Hospital is now was all farmland and where Cape Central High School is, I can remember, was all corn fields."

Ritter said that in 1944, he built a new medical-office building at 1912 Broadway and was chastised by a friend for "making a terrible mistake building way out in the country like that."

The Good Hope Street business district was referred to as "Haarig," Ritter said, a German term for "hairy." "That area of town had several saloons and was just a little bit more informal," he said. "At that time there also was Smelterville, which had a lot of substandard housing nothing more than shanties. It truly was the poverty aspect of society."

The depression also brought new social problems as people began to rely on alcohol to numb the pain of poverty and unemployment. During prohibition in the 1920s and early 1930s, some "enterprising" Southeast Missouri residents took to "moonshining" and illegally sold alcohol along the Mississippi River, Ritter said.

Ritter said there was a "clique" of "unfortunate bums" who would gather in some of Cape Girardeau's alleys nightly to cook their dinners in a metal bucket hung over an open fire. "They would call each other prominent names while they were eating together," Ritter said. "One would be the president of the university; others would be prominent attorneys in town.

"They had a pretty good time, but I imagine they felt pretty bad the next morning. They drank some horrible stuff at that time."

But Finch said that despite the troubled times, alcohol, even after prohibition was repealed in 1933, wasn't the social problem it is today. Finch said most high-school students spent a good deal of time at local "jelly joints" just "hanging out."

He said Dormeyer's, situated across from Houck Field House on Broadway, was popular both for high-school and college students. "You could go in and get a big ham sandwich and a Coke for 20 cents, and, if you were real hard up, you and your date could split the sandwich," Finch said. "They had a small dance-floor and kids would dance and just hang out."

Other popular establishments were the Alvarado filling station and restaurant on the corner of Broadway and Kingshighway, which at the time was "out in the country," Finch said.

"In the summertime, kids used to go on picnics," he said. "They'd take a stove and some steaks or hamburgers, or whatever they could afford. As they got a little older, they began to have a few beers."

Finch said that during the 1930s, the automobile also became more important in Cape Girardeau. "Cars weren't that plentiful, but gasoline was about 10 cents a gallon," he said. "I remember when Henry Ford came out with the Model A I believe in 1929 to replace the Model T, and it cost about $400 or $500."

Finch and Ritter both said one of the biggest changes the city has undergone in the past five decades has been the growth of Cape Girardeau as a regional hub for retail sales, health care and education.

Despite the growth, Ritter said the city has managed to maintain its "small-town," friendly atmosphere. "Cape Girardeau was, and is now, a caring community, and because of that, it's a solid community," he said.