During the latter 1920s to early 1930s, the Mt. Pleasant Daily Times was filled with Sheriff's sales where people's homes and property were auctioned to the highest bidder to recover money they owed and could not repay. We did not reprint them here because there were so many and to save people who found themselves in unfortunate circumstances from further embarrassment.
However, the following stories were of a general nature and did not relate to any specific person or persons.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Saturday, January 26, 1929
Articles Exempted From Forced Sale
In Texas, the following property is exempt from forced sale:
The homestead.
Household and kitchen furniture.
Lots in cemetery.
Farm implements.
Tools, apparatus and books belonging to any profession.
Library and portraits of the family.
Five milk cows and calves.
Two yokes of work oxen.
Two horses and one wagon.
One carriage or buggy.
One gun.
Twenty head of sheep.
All saddles, bridles and harness for family use.
All provisions and forage on hand for home consumption.
All current wages for personal service.
Nor are the proceeds from the sale of a homestead subject to garnishment or forced sale within six months after sale.
Limitations: Judgments, 10 years; promissory notes, 4 years; open accounts, 2 years.
Interests: Legal interest is 6 per cent; conventional interest up to 10 per cent.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Wednesday, February 10, 1932
Legion to Assist In Getting Jobs For Unemployed
At a meeting of the American Legion held Tuesday night and a resolution was passed endorsing the employment drive throughout the United States by local posts.
The object of that drive will be to place 1,500,000 men in either permanent or temporary employment, and the campaign is to begin on February 15th.
A committee composed of S. H. Spurger, A. B. Lawrence and E. L. Hart was appointed to assist in placing unemployed people of this county in positions. Anyone who has any sort of work to do, especially in gardens and yards at this time of the year, can notify this committee and an effort will be made to furnish some one to do the work. Any persons who are out of employment at present, and are willing to do this sort of work, should also see them in order to have their names listed for employment.
When other sort of work is available, the Legion intends to extend its efforts to relieve the unemployment situation.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas (007)
Friday, November 23, 1934
New Regulation May Cause Relief Workers To Lose
County Administrator E. M. Cook reports that he has received instructions from the State Relief Office at Austin to make full investigations of the use to which relief funds are made by those who receive them.
The new order will bar in the future the giving of cash to anyone who has been found spending the money for liquor or in any form of gambling. Where families would suffer from negligence through spending of funds for anything but necessities, they will be issued commodities needed, and if the heads of such families refuse to work when not given cash, vagrancy charges are to be filed against them. Court dockets are to be examined frequently to see if recipients of relief funds are charged with drunkenness, and when such are found, they will be dropped from the rolls.
No future relief will be given those who own and operate automobiles. These new regulations will greatly improve conditions in Titus County, and will remove some of the criticism which has been directed against the method of administration of relief.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas (007)
Wednesday, January 30, 1935
1602 Families In Titus County Are On Relief Rolls
Criticism has been given the local Relief Administration for their lack of response to the calls for relief in Titus County, but the fact that there are now 1602 families on the relief rolls will give a fairly accurate account of the immense amount of work being done in taking care of people in this county who are in actual need. To provide work for such a large number naturally takes time and with only a certain amount of money allocated to Titus County steps must be taken to see that each family in need will receive a part of it. At present there are nine Rural Rehabilitation Projects under way, consisting of seventy-two houses that are being repaired or reconstructed. As soon as these houses are finished, a family now on relief will be moved into each of them.
Four new lateral road projects have been approved, calling for five miles of roadbed in each of the four Commissioners' Precincts. One hundred and thirty-two men are employed on each project. The work calls for grading and drainage and will also include sanding of slick clay hills and piecing of clay in the boggy paces.
Aside from the above mentioned projects, the Administration is carrying on the sanitary program, sewing, canning and numerous other programs.
