2012 —
Depression is good for Allegany County marriages. Economic depression, that is, not emotional depression.
The Cumberland Evening Times looked at the number of marriages, divorces and separations in the county at the end of 1931 and found a “marked decline in bills docketed while for September and October this year actions in court for separation and alimony have dwindled to almost nil.”
According to court clerks the reason for the decrease was the Great Depression, which had technically been going on for about two years at that point.
The Evening Times noted that a search of divorce records by courthouse clerks showed that when the economy is good, divorces increase, but when times are bad, couples work harder to patch up their differences to avoid the expense of divorce. However, there was also an increase of husbands simply leaving without bothering with getting a divorce.
This trend apparently held true if the wife worked as well as the husband. “It would appear that if the wife has a job and is working, the jealous husband who may have reason to believe he is the badly injured party, thinks twice, and reserves judgment before leaving home and seeing a lawyer,” the newspaper reported.
Even if the wife thought her husband was having an affair, she would wait until the economy was better before seeking a divorce. “As for the wife who has a cantankerous, lazy, indifferent or bad husband, whom she suspects of using the car at night for other than business purposes, the matter of endeavoring to sever the existing matrimonial contract is held in abeyance — until the industrial outlook is better and the possibility of getting alimony payments regularly each month from an employed husband would be more encouraging,” according to the Evening Times.
The clerks told the reporter that before the stock market crash in 1929 when times were still good, “the least little rift in the matrimonial lute, harsh words or domestic spat, frequently sent either husband or wife hurrying to a lawyer’s office, to pour out their pent-up feeling of mistreatment and seek legal surcease.”
Cabmen in the city also reported that increased unemployment hindered weddings because of the expense to even purchase a marriage license. “The cabmen report that a ‘double set’—two couples last week coming through Frostburg from a Pennsylvania town, stole a fine-blooded hound-dog that was friendly, brought him to Cumberland in their car, sold him to a hunter for $4 and financed their wedding licenses.”
Allegany County weathered the Great Depression well at the start. It had plenty of large industries that keep people working. The lifting of Prohibition after Franklin Roosevelt became President certainly improved business for Cumberland’s breweries. However, in the late 1930s, those industries were hit with labor strikes that led to lost jobs and lost pay.
Some people were able to get federal government jobs with the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corp. These agencies worked on a lot of infrastructure projects, many of which still benefit county citizens today.
James Rada - Looking Back
Looking Back 1931: Depression keeps county couples together
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Looking Back: Cumberland votes down daylight-saving time
The United States began its move toward daylight-saving time during World War I. Following in the footsteps of Germany and Europe, the U.S. passed the Standard Time Act in March 1916.
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City council takes action to eliminate rail crossing delays for firefighters
In November 1914, the call went out from 163 Madison St. that a fire was burning in the house and help was needed. The Cumberland Fire Department was quick to respond as the four firefighters assigned to Central Station No. 1 located at City Hall Square climbed aboard the fire engine and it sped out into the street.
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Vaudeville shows predated movies in Queen City theaters
Before movies, Cumberland’s theaters hosted vaudeville shows. These were live theatrical performances similar to a television variety show. Performances might include musicians, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, male and female impersonators, acrobats, jugglers and one-act plays. Vaudeville shows were popular from the 1880s to the early 1930s, when talking movies became commonplace.
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Looking Back 1896: Where was the casket that went with the handle?
In 1896, Frostburg residents seemed to be worried that a grave robber was on the loose. The Frostburg Mining Journal ran an article April 30 under the headline “A Suspicious Find” that explained that a silver-plated casket handle had been found on Maple Street in front of former Justice L. J. Parker’s home.
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Remembering Battle of Antietam in 1937
As Western Maryland prepares to remember the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam in Sharpsburg, no actual Civil War veterans will be attending. The last major anniversary event for a Civil War battle that saw actual veterans in attendance was the 75th. Antietam’s 75th anniversary was in 1937.
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Looking Back 1914: Lake had deep-sea diver
You wouldn’t think that Cumberland, located in the Western Maryland mountains as it is and hundreds of miles from the ocean, would have a need for deep-sea divers. Yet, the city of Cumberland has been known to use them for nearly a century.
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Looking Back 1931: Depression keeps county couples together
Depression is good for Allegany County marriages. Economic depression, that is, not emotional depression.
The Cumberland Evening Times looked at the number of marriages, divorces and separations in the county at the end of 1931 and found a “marked decline in bills docketed while for September and October this year actions in court for separation and alimony have dwindled to almost nil.” -
Looking Back 1920: Plane makes emergency landing in Elk Garden
Nowadays, the sight of a plane flying overhead is no big deal, but it wasn’t always that way. The Wright Brothers made their historic flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C., in 1903, and Charles Lindbergh flew non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. In between, planes and their pilots were a rarity.
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Looking Back: 1923
Thomas Footer knew the formula for wealth. He was a chemist after all. You take one part of good and add to it eight parts of determination and one part belief in yourself.
It was a formula that had worked for him. He was born in England in March 1847. His father was a papermaker, but “he lost both parents in early childhood and began to earn his own living as a boy,” according to the Cumberland Evening Times. -
Looking Back: National pastime deadly for local residents
The team may have been amateur, but the baseball game on July 8, 1928, was considered excellent. St. Patrick’s of Mount Savage were the leaders in the Holy Name Baseball League, which was made up of church teams in the county.
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