Ropesville Resettlement Project

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's what happened out here in Hockley County. It is 1933, and the whole country is on its knees. Franklin Roosevelt is in the White House, and he signs into being the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, part of his New Deal program, aimed square at families getting crushed by the Great Depression.

That alone was something. But then, in 1934, the Rural Rehabilitation Division of that same agency starts zeroing in on a problem that had its own particular weight out here on the plains: farm families. What do you do with the people whose entire world is the land, when the land and the economy have both turned against them at the same time?

The Ropesville Resettlement Project was one of 78 FERA-approved projects trying to answer that question. It got its start from a committee out of Lubbock, twenty miles to the northeast, and they set it down on land near a town that was already on the map: Ropesville. Federal money came in, and with it came homes, wells, and farm buildings, rising up out of that flat West Texas ground.

Now, they did not just take anybody. The first 33 families chosen for this project were selected for two things specifically: initiative and willingness to work. Not wealth, not connections.

Just the desire to get back on their feet. Those 33 families settled into their new homes in 1936. And the project kept growing.

By the end of 1939, 77 families were working and living on the land. They were not left entirely on their own, either. A community manager was there to provide guidance, assisted by a home economist.

Two people helping dozens of families learn to stand again. Also in 1939, a community building was constructed for the people of the farms. That building would outlast the project itself.

The Ropesville Resettlement Project officially ended in 1943, when the Ropesville Farms came under individual ownership. The families who had been helped to their feet were now standing on their own ground, and it was truly theirs. That community building made one more journey.

In 1959, it was moved to this very site. A building built for people who needed a place to gather, now sitting right here as a reminder of what 77 families and a federal program and a committee from Lubbock managed to pull off in the teeth of the hardest times this country ever saw.

What the marker says

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was enacted in 1933 as part of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal program to aid families during the country's Great Depression. The Rural Rehabilitation Division of that agency began in 1934 to work specifically with the problems of the nation's farm families. The Ropesville Resettlement Program was one of 78 FERA-approved projects to help farmers re-establish themselves. Initiated by a committee out of Lubbock (20 mi. NE), this project was located on land near the already-established town of Ropesville. Federal money was used to construct homes, wells, and farm buildings. The first 33 families, chosen for their initiative and willingness to work, settled into their new homes in 1936. By the end of 1939, a total of 77 families were working and living in the project. A community manager, assisted by a home economist, provided guidance to participants in the Ropesville program. The project ended officially in 1943, when the Ropesville Farms came under individual ownership. A community building, constructed for the people of the farms in 1939, was moved to this site in 1959. (1985)