The Depression Years

Back when Alverda Kilts had graduated from high school and was working as a bookkeeper at the Yorkville Produce, it was called a depression—The Great Depression—and it affected everyone. For Ed Kilts who was living with his parents in Plano, he was fortunate to have a job as a mechanic for the railroad.

During the Great Depression, Kendall County was an overwhelming farming county . Unlike today, the prices for farm products fell dramatically so that it frequently cost more to transport corn to market than the corn was worth. In addition the weather was extreme with droughts in 1933 and 1934 and dust storms blowing from the Great Plains. The droughts provided ideal conditions for the chinch bug which devoured grain crops and then the corn.. Yet the farm families could survive with their gardens and animals as long as the banks did not call in their mortgages.

Plano was the only area of Kendall County that could be called a factory town. Most residents had large gardens and maybe chickens but their income came from factories. By 1932 two manufacturing concerns had suspended operations and it was estimated that 81 families in Little Rock Township needed assistance.

The county supervisors diverted money from the state motor fuel tax along with state funds to the relief fund. It was thought that four dollars per week would feed a family of five. By 1935 Roosevelt had pushed through the Social Security plan which helped those over 65 years of age. Also helping was the WPA (Works Progress Administration) which provided public works jobs and the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) which provided jobs for young men. For many families in the “dirty thirties”, chickens and the eggs which they produced helped the family survive. Almost all farmers had large flocks of chickens at that time. The farm family would “trade” their eggs for merchandise at a local grocery stores. The stores would sell these eggs to local middlemen such as the Yorkville Produce. These establishments would in turn sell the eggs to Chicago wholesalers along with live chickens and any extra eggs a farmer might have. Chickens and eggs helped the farmers survive the Great Depression and provide Alverda with a job.

Living through the Great Depression molded the people of that era including Alverda and Ed Kilts. Frugality became a way of life and you watched your pennies. Being financially prudent and learning how to make a profit in difficult times with eggs explains, in part, how the Kilts would have the financial resources to establish the Kilts Foundation in 1988.