Cayuga County, New York in the 1930s

Work

Milk, shops, prison

County work divided between thousands of farms⁴ and Auburn’s city jobs. By 1939, dairy products supplied 61.1 percent of farm-product value⁴, while directory snippets show carpet, rope, machine, shoe, clerical, teaching, and driving work⁸ in Auburn.

Who lived here

A county slightly shrinking

The county counted 64,751 people in 1930¹, fewer than in 1920 or 1910. Auburn held 30,652 residents¹, so the county’s everyday world was both small-city and rural.

Law & power

Auburn held authority

Local government centered on Auburn, the county seat². State power was also physical there: Auburn Prison stood on State Street⁶ and remained one of the county’s most visible institutions.

Faith

Seminary leaves Auburn

For most of the decade Auburn still had Auburn Theological Seminary², a Presbyterian institution dating from 1818. Its 1939 move to New York City² marked the Depression’s reach into religious education.

Money

Depression on the farm

The farm count fell from 3,865 farms in 1930 to 3,359 in 1940⁴. Across the county, failed credit, low prices, and job insecurity made federal programs and debt questions part of ordinary conversation.

Roads & news

Roads and daily papers

Auburn sat on US 20, with Routes 34 and 38 crossing there², and Syracuse was about 26 miles away. News came through daily Auburn newspapers⁹ and, increasingly, through radio.

What people feared

Walls, poverty, accident

The prison made danger and punishment part of the public landscape: the state prison on State Street⁶ was a major Auburn presence. Economic danger was broader, as banking failures and job insecurity shaped the decade.

Home & table

Farm homes undocumented here

The county’s households included many farm families because 3,865 farms were counted in 1930⁴. But no opened online source describes ordinary Cayuga County farmhouses room by room for these years.

Year by year

1. 1929The stock-market crash began a national depression that reached Cayuga County through credit, employment, prices, and relief politics. the country
2. 1930The federal census counted Cayuga County at 64,751 people and Auburn city at 30,652. here¹
3. 1931Women prisoners at Auburn were transferred to Bedford Hills Reformatory for Women under New York’s 1931 law. here⁶
4. 1933Franklin D. Roosevelt took office and the New Deal made relief, farm policy, and public works national issues heard locally. the country
5. 1933Repeal of Prohibition ended the national ban on alcoholic drink and changed licensing and policing across New York. the country
6. 1938Auburn again had a professional baseball club in the Canadian-American League. here²
7. 1939Auburn Theological Seminary moved from Auburn to Union Theological Seminary in New York City because of Depression finances. here²
8. 1939War began in Europe, and people in Cayuga County would have followed it through newspapers and radio before the United States entered. the world

What the sources say

• The 1930 federal census counted 64,751 people in Cayuga County, down from 65,922 in 1920 and 67,106 in 1910. from the sources¹
• Auburn city had 30,652 residents in 1930, making it the county’s largest city and home to nearly half the county population. from the sources¹
• Auburn was the county seat of Cayuga County and had held that role since the early nineteenth century. from the sources²
• The 1930 census classified 55,953 county residents as native white, 8,237 as foreign-born white, and 541 as Black or other nonwhite categories in the published table. from the sources³
• The agricultural census recorded 3,865 farms in Cayuga County in 1930 and 3,359 in 1940, showing a sharp Depression-era contraction in farm number. from the sources⁴
• In 1940 the county had 552,071 acres of land in farms as enumerated, more than the county’s approximate land area because some farm acreage crossed civil boundaries. from the sources⁵
• In 1939, dairy products accounted for 61.1 percent of the value of Cayuga County farm products sold, traded, or used by farm households in the agricultural census table. from the sources⁴
• Auburn lies at the north end of Owasco Lake, one of the Finger Lakes, and the Owasco Outlet or Owasco River runs north through the city toward the Seneca River. from the sources²
• US 20 passed east-west through Auburn, while New York State Routes 34 and 38 were north-south roads intersecting it there; Syracuse lay about 26 miles northeast and Seneca Falls about 15 miles west. from the sources²
• Auburn Prison, later Auburn Correctional Facility, stood on State Street and remained a maximum-security state prison during the decade. from the sources⁶
• New York State Archives notes that women prisoners at Auburn were transferred to Bedford Hills Reformatory for Women under a 1931 law. from the sources⁶
• Auburn Theological Seminary, present in Auburn from 1818, moved to Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1939 because of financial difficulties during the Great Depression. from the sources²
• Auburn city directories exist for every year from 1930 through 1940, a sign of a town dense enough for canvassed addresses, occupations, and businesses. from the sources⁷
• The 1933 Auburn city directory snippets include factory and working occupations such as carpet work, rope work, machine operation, shoe work, carpentry, chauffeurs, bookkeepers, teachers, and stenographers. from the sources⁸
• The New York State Library lists Auburn’s Advertiser-Journal as a daily paper published to May 31, 1931, and the Auburn Citizen as a daily paper published to May 29, 1931. from the sources⁹
• The modern Citizen descends from older Auburn papers and serves Auburn and Cayuga County; Auburn had a long-established daily newspaper culture by the 1930s. from the sources²
• Auburn professional baseball reappeared in the Canadian-American League in 1938 and 1940, so sports pages and summer crowds could again include a minor-league club at decade’s end. from the sources²
• In national life, the stock-market crash of October 1929 and the banking failures that followed shaped credit, farm prices, job security, and relief politics throughout the 1930s. inferred
• Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal after March 1933 brought federal relief, farm programs, public works, and argument over the proper reach of government into New York communities. inferred
• Repeal of national Prohibition in December 1933 changed legal drinking, policing, tavern business, and tax revenue across New York State. inferred
• No online source opened here gives a room-by-room description of ordinary Cayuga County farmhouses in the 1930s. not known
• No local wage table for Cayuga County factory hands or hired farm laborers in the 1930s was found in the opened sources. not known

Sources

1. Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, Population, New York. U.S. Census Bureau, 1930
2. Auburn, New York. Wikipedia
3. Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, Population, New York, General Characteristics. U.S. Census Bureau, 1930
4. Census of Agriculture, 1940: New York. U.S. Department of Agriculture / National Agricultural Statistics Service, 1940
5. Census of Agriculture, 1940: Cross-Line Acreage. U.S. Department of Agriculture / National Agricultural Statistics Service, 1940
6. Auburn Correctional Facility. New York State Archives
7. Auburn, New York, City Directories. LDS Genealogy
8. Auburn, New York Directory, 1933. Google Books / New York Public Library digitization, 1933
9. Cayuga County Newspapers on Microfilm at the New York State Library. New York State Library

Cayuga County in other decades

Nearby, about the same time