Christmas cheer needed help 90 years ago

It was a year not soon to be forgotten.

New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated President Herbert Hoover, who stopped briefly in Newton Oct. 4, in a near landslide in the 1932 Presidential election.

The crime of the century was the Mar. 1 kidnaping of the Lindbergh baby.

Bobby, aka Phar Lap, one of the world’s great racehorses, died.

Zachary Smith Reynolds, heir to the tobacco fortune, died under mysterious circumstances of a gunshot wound to the head.

George Eastman, of Kodak, and Ivar Kreuger, “The Match King,” suicided.

The Bonus Army marched on Washington.

Jack Sharkey won a decision over Max Schmeling to win the world heavyweight boxing championship.

Paul von Hindenburg, 84, was reelected as president of Germany over Adolf Hitler.

John Barrymore and Greta Garbo co-starred in “Grand Hotel.” It played at the Capitol Theatre here Oct. 1 to 3.

A detachment of hunger marchers, reportedly organized in Omaha and “presumably bound for Chicago to join the main column,” passed through Newton on Nov. 23 in trucks and cars. “Large signs bearing demands of the marchers for food and relief adorned the sides of the vehicles,” The Newton Daily News reported.

The Depression affected the Newton business community in a big way in 1932. According to the files of the Daily News, nearly 100 business changes were reported in the city during the year.

Cold and want were all-too-real facts of life for many of the town’s citizens.

Frigid temperatures visited Newton as early as Dec. 10 with “heavy snowfall,” albeit appropriate for Santa’s arrival from the North Pole. On Dec. 16, the mercury dropped to 17 degrees below zero here, setting a new record for the season.

Immediately after Thanksgiving Day the local Boy Scouts and Red Cross were already gathering and re-distributing sacks of food and clothing for the poor and needy residents of Newton.

On Nov. 26, it was announced that the Happy Hearts Club organization, sponsored each year by the Daily News, “will soon be ready to undertake its task of assuring a cheery Christmas to the needy children of Newton.”

The Newton chapter of the Red Cross also endorsed the Junior Chamber of Commerce’s Charity Ball, to be held in the Hotel Maytag ballroom, Dec. 21. Mayor T. A. Pickens purchased the first ticket, commenting “It’s a good thing.”

On Dec. 19, members of B. P. O. Elks Lodge No. 1270 shot 446 rabbits in a hunt, to help the unemployed.

Fourteen dollars in cash and donations of food and clothing were raised at the Knights of Pythias Booster club dance for Happy Hearts.

The good news — if there was any — was that Christmas dinner would be cheaper this year, 20 to 40 percent less than it was in 1929.

“Many items will be sold for less than half of the peak price and this year will be remembered as one that brought Christmas dinners at unusually low prices to those that have them,” Newton grocers reported.

“The first of the Florida oranges are reported to have been received as well as the better grades of the California navels. Texas grapefruits are coming at lower prices and of better quality, while the better grades of Washington apples are lower in price and of fine quality.

“Newton stores are filled with fancy foods, such as candied fruits of various kinds, brandied mincemeat and plum puddings, shelled and salted nuts as well as those in the shell, imported and California figs and dates, fancy cookies and fruit cakes.”

There were 20 grocers doing business in town 90 years ago, the newest being the Newton Food Store, operated by F. M. Leppo, former manager of the local Red Ball store, in the room at 221 W. Second St. N. occupied by Gilbert Dairy; and the Stockton Food Shoppe, operated by Frank and Elvis Stockton, at 321 E. Eighth St. S.

Apparently grocery stores even sold Christmas trees at that time!

“Trees, wreaths and holly for Christmas are selling well,” the Daily News advised its readers on Dec. 16, “wholesalers claiming that there will be a shortage of trees before Christmas, as one of them bought their usual supply.

“Chicago dealers report 70 less cars of trees there than a year ago, and all other jobbing points are in about the same proportion. Some local grocers, however, say they have a sufficient supply on hand at the present time.”

Another “early Christmas present” was the announcement, on Dec. 14, that automobile drivers’ licenses would not have to be renewed for 1933. Sheriff George O. Kelly received the announcement from H. H. Thompson, assistant superintendent of the state motor vehicle department at Des Moines.

That same day the paper ran an announcement (a “Warning”) from Chief of Police L. E. “Link” Simpson to “Newton Housewives and Citizens” to beware of thieves posing as solicitors or inspectors to gain entrance to local residences.

The frigid temperatures notwithstanding, Prohibition was still a hot topic at Christmastime 1932. FDR had campaigned against it (“Happy Days are Here Again!” as Ben Selvin and the Crooners performed it), but booze was still illegal across the country.

That didn’t stop Jasper County residents from celebrating holidays with a bit of “outside help.” Almost daily men were brought up on court charges of illegal possession of intoxicating liquor or intoxication in the days leading up to Christmas.

One man partook so much of “holiday cheer” that he turned himself in to Sheriff Kelly saying “I’m drunk, and I’ve been drunk for 15 days” (!).

To each his own!

Christmas was to be observed in most of the Newton churches. Among those holding services on Dec. 22 were the United Presbyterian, First Presbyterian, Free Methodist and Methodist Protestant churches.

Pageants were scheduled at First Baptist Church and First Methodist Episcopal Church, with a Christmas program to be presented at the Reorganized Latter Day Saints Church.

The Lutheran Church and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church scheduled their annual Christmas programs for Christmas Eve, when the Sunday School children of the local Salvation Army Post were to present a playlet.

The Christian, Congregational and Sacred Heart churches planned their observances for Christmas Day, which was a Sunday.