Feggen Jones and family

Feggen Jones and family.
Zebulon, North Carolina. 1942
Photo by Arthur Rothstein

Arthur Rothstein made a photo-study of the Jones family—an example of a successful farm loan recipient.

He noted that, “Mr. and Mrs. Feggen Jones live with their 14 children on an 86-acre farm purchased with assistance from the Farm Security Administration. The farm’s electricity is supplied by the Rural Electrification Administration.”

These New Deal initiatives were creating a healthy small farming population by transforming the old system of sharecropping cotton that had exhausted the land, and the people.

Farmer Jones was formerly a sharecropper in this area. Rothstein’s photo-captions documented the result of this modest government loan. “He now has 2 cows, 3 mules, 4 hogs, and 200 chickens. He owns a Ford truck and an Oldsmobile sedan. His cash crop is 7 acres of tobacco. He also farms 5 acres of cotton, 7 acres of wheat, 12 acres of corn, and 2 acres of vegetable garden.”

Rothstein’s pictures also showed Mr. and Mrs. Jones curing meat and canning vegetables to provide healthy meals throughout the year.

Photo & narrative source: The Arthur Rothstein Legacy Project