Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Fall/Section017/J.D. (Don) Mashburn

Overview

J.D. (Don) Mashburn was a white 46 year-old male from a small country town in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. During his lifetime, Don faced many challenges in society including being drafted for World War I, the Spanish Flu epidemic, and the Great Depression. His interview was conducted by Douglas Carter on February 16, 1939.

Biography

Early Life

J.D. (Don) Mashburn was born in a rural area of the Appalachian Mountains on June 29, 1893. As a young boy, Don attended a small public school in the mountains, and then briefly attended a local community college. After a year in college, Don decided that he needed to find his way in the world by moving out west. He lived with his Aunt and Uncle in Colorado in order to "find his fortune". While in Colorado, Don attempted to make his fortune through working as a clerk, ranching, and even mining. Through-out this period Don moved constantly, and as he states it, "For 10 years, from 1912 to 1921, I was in a different state on New Year's Day". When Don finally settled on a career in mining, he was drafted shortly after for World War I.

War Life

World War I Medics and their working conditions.

On July 5, 1918, Don entered the Army at Fort Oglethorpe, in Georgia. He then was placed into the medical unit, and was transferred to Camp McClellan, Anniston, Alabama. In Alabama, Don was working in a Hospital equipped for 1,200 people that was packed with over 4,000 patients. Many of the patients were suffering from the Spanish Flu, a very dangerous disease at the time that led to more deaths overall than World War I. Don, luckily, never got sick while working in Alabama for over 3 months. After Alabama, he was sent to New York and was on the way to France. They landed in England originally, and then went to Le Havre, France. The conditions that Don describes while traveling to France are miserable. These conditions included a lack of beds, blankets, warmth, and other issues that made travel and work very difficult. Soon Don found himself replacing another medical unit in France, where finally he was accompanied by warmth, beds, and overall much better work conditions. After spring and summer in France, Don and the unit returned to New York. On July 26, 1919, Don was given his honorable discharge, and left immediately for home.

Career and Family Life

When Don returned home to his family, he decided it was finally time to follow his dream of owning his own business. He then went back out west again, starting by shucking corn in Kansas, then moving to Ohio to work at a rubber plant. While at the plant, Don took night classes about tires, learned the business inside and out, and finally had enough money to start his own business. He and a colleague from the plant decided to open their own tire shop, and finally landed in Asheville, North Carolina for the grand opening. His partner, Myers, didn't last long in the business as he was not used to the Southern hospitality and manners of the south. In the end, Don owned the entire shop, and made a fine living for he and his family. After 17 years owning the tire shop, Don now had a stay at home wife, with three children: a girl (11) and two boys (4 and 1). At the time of the interview, Don liked to spend time with his family, was a deacon at his church, a very important member of the American Legion, on top of enjoying fishing and bowling.

Social Issues

The Great Depression

Between August 1929 and March 1933 industrial production had fallen by more than 50 percent, deeply damaging the world's economy. The money supply had dropped by more than 30 percent, as had the general level of prices, and the financial system had been destroyed by a series of banking crises.The New Deal, brought on by Franklin D. Roosevelt saw many new work programs nation wide, and expanded the involvement of the Federal Government in many areas of citizens daily lives. More specifically, in North Carolina where Don lived at the time, there were many programs set in place to help people to get back to work. These programs included many construction operations, like the construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Fort Bragg, and improvements to the Cape Fear River. Agriculture had the hardest economic downfall in North Carolina specifically, and required large sums of money for relief for farmers and others in the industry. There were many other programs that affected various cities in North Carolina, including Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro, Wilmington, Wilson, and Kinston. These cities were directly impacted by the Federal Writers' Project, where many individuals were interviewed in order to produce a state guidebook and oral history. Many other programs affected North Carolina specifically, including Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), National Recovery Administration (NRA), Social Security Act (SSA).

World War I Medics & The Spanish Flu

World War I medics faced a lot of hardships through-out the war due to various circumstances. World War I was fought mainly in trenches, so issues like trench foot, lice, and obvious battlefield wounds were predominant. On top of these issues there was a serious dilemma when it came to sanitation and medical practices in general at that time. The War occurred from 1914 to 1918, therefore medical practices of the time were highly unsanitary and almost barbaric at times. Amputations of limbs were common, which led to many further complications in soldiers. Sanitation is a key factor in the death toll, especially towards the end of the war because of the new emerging disease, the Spanish Flu. The flu was easily caught and passed around during the times of trench warfare, and it became one of the leading causes of death in the war by the time of its cessation. World-wide, 45,000 Americans troops died from the Spanish flu and 53,400 died in combat. Medics during World War I faced more than combat wounds and trench foot, but also an unseen enemy who killed almost as many as the battlefield did. Medics were sprayed down with disinfectant day in and day out in order to keep themselves healthy from the plague. These medics worked in terrible conditions with the high risk of catching the disease tirelessly in order to save their own. Even beyond the war the Spanish Flu wreaked havoc on the world and the American people. It is estimated that one third of the world's population was infected with the disease at one point. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 deaths in the United States. It impacted all ages and was actually more fatal for those the ages of 20 to 40 years old. It impacted the world's death toll more than the war itself, and left lasting impacts on the economy and families around the world as well.

References

Biles, Roger. "The Urban South in the Great Depression." The Journal of Southern History56, no. 1 (February 1990): 71. doi:10.2307/2210665.

Douglas Carl Abrams and Randall E. Parker. "Great Depression." NCpedia. January 1, 2006. Accessed October 05, 2021. https://www.ncpedia.org/great-depression.

More, Alexander F., Christopher P. Loveluck, Heather Clifford, Michael J. Handley, Elena V. Korotkikh, Andrei V. Kurbatov, Michael McCormick, and Paul A. Mayewski. "The Impact of a Six‐Year Climate Anomaly on the "Spanish Flu" Pandemic and WWI." AGU Journals. September 24, 2020. Accessed October 05, 2021.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2020GH000277.

Natasha Silk "Medicine in First World War Europe: Soldiers, Medics, Pacifists." Taylor & Francis. Accessed October 07, 2021. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00033790.2018.1499045?journalCode=tasc20.

Whitaker, Beverly. "United States Migration Patterns 1920 to the Present (National Institute)." FamilySearch Wiki. June 2012. Accessed October 05, 2021. En/United States Migration Patterns 1920 to the Present (National Institute).