At this time of the year, with 2023 about to become history, many folks may be looking back and also wondering about the future. The following information was written by the late Nellie Kraus and appeared in this newspaper in 1990. Nellie was a rural school teacher in this area and lived on a farm a short distance west of Muscoda. Her story is about a period in the 1920s and 30s.
She wrote the following:
“Wheat, rye and corn were raised. The grain was taken to the Avoca Mill and ground into flour or corn meal. The staples, sugar and salt, had to be bought at the store. Coffee was a luxury.
Farm improvements were made as money and knowhow increased. Many farmers became prosperous. New inventions began to make farming easier. A new method of financing, the chattel mortgage, became available. From June 20, 1913 to August 20, 1921, 31 chattel mortgages were registered, three were for cars.
From October 4, 1921 to December 1931 there were 177 chattel mortgages registered, 87 of them for cars. Most of the other mortgages were for tractors and other machinery. The car had made its first impact on the community and then on the economy.
The farmers were quite confidents that the loans could be easily repaid. The economy was booming. Prices and crops were excellent. Little did they think that the coming Stock Market crash, the bank holidays, the closing of the Muscoda State Bank in 1932, the farmers and Merchants Bank a short time later, and the agonizing depression, would wipe out their savings and cause many of the mortgages to be foreclosed.
During the depression Matt Beran told me he sold his hogs for $5.00 each. The average weight of those hogs was 200 pounds. I sold eggs one year for 49 cents a dozen and the next year the same dozen eggs brought eights cents.”

Nellie’s story is short, but interesting and perhaps something to keep in mind as we start the new year.