"We Are Starving to Death": The 1893 Depression in Kansas

Background: In this 1894 letter to the governor of Kansas, Susan Orcutt describes the devastation experienced by western Kansas farming communities caught in the iron grip of the depression (spelling and punctuation corrected).

I take my pen in hand to let you know that we are Starving to death. It is Pretty hard to do without anything to Eat here in this God forsaken country. We would of had Plenty to Eat if the hail hadn’t cut our rye down and ruined our corn and Potatoes. I had the Prettiest Garden that you Ever seen and the hail ruined It and I have nothing to look at. My Husband went away to find work and came home last night and told me that we would have to Starve. He had been in ten countys and did not Get no work. It is Pretty hard for a woman to do without anything to Eat when She doesn’t know what minute She will be confined to bed. If I was in Iowa I would be all right. I was born there and raised there. I haven’t had nothing to Eat today and It is three o’clock.

Source: Lewelling Papers, Kansas Historical Society (1894).