1904 Train Depot - Kingsville Texas

The Hobo Christmas Dinner

In our modern world of vast government safety nets and well organized relief efforts we are very blessed.  Life was a lot different in 1930 and the early depression years.  In our modern economic difficulties it is easy to look around and proclaim how hard times are.  Things could be better.  However, things could be significantly worse for everyone.

The Kingsville Record traditionally had lots of Christmas advertisements from local merchants selling Christmas gifts and good will to the community.  Local merchants decorated the downtown area and had a big event for children to meet Santa and give him their wish lists.  Often there would be a special Christmas shopping supplement.  It was a lot like modern times and the promotion of a commercial Christmas holida.

The clouds of the Great Depression were gathering in 1930.  Christmas in Kingsville had both the traditional advertisement blitz as well as articles about the difficulties people were facing in our community.  An editorial by Mr. Waite of Shawnee, OK., was reprinted in the Kingsville Record stating that the reason for the shrinking of values is that there is a “lack of consumption”. 

Mrs. O. A. Smith, of the local Red Cross, organized a Christmas dinner of soup, venison, vegetables and fruit for 86 transient unemployed men.  Postcards were provided to those men who wished to write home to their families.  These men were the hobos of the “jungle”, the transient camp south of the Kingsville rail yards.  It was a long standing practice of men looking for work or adventure to hop on a freight train and travel to “greener pastures”.  All communities, Kingsville included, tended to prefer that the hobos not stop in their community.  Mrs. Smith’s Christmas dinner was the first such dinner served to the unemployed in Kingsville.

At Christmas time in 1931 the merchants still decorated the downtown.  Santa still came to visit the children.  But things seemed toned down a bit.  There was no Christmas shopping supplement that year.  Missouri Pacific was reporting huge losses in revenue.  There were many comments in the news paper about the economic conditions throughout the country.  Kingsville was lucky that the Valley kept transporting produce and the railroad was able to keep a good portion of their employees working through these hard times.  A “Toy Drive” for Kingsville’s needy children was reported to be a success(Toys for Tots isn't a new idea).  The American Legion provided Christmas dinners for the needy of the community.  The hobos still camped in the “jungle” but there were reports of fights among the transients that year. 

Christmas time 1932 saw local, state, and federal work programs getting the unemployed back to productive work.  Many of the work projects were basic street repairs, brush clearing, and painting of city and college buildings.  Mrs. O. A. Smith was still busy with the Red Cross, appealing for warm clothing for Kingsville’s needy children, and 125 hungry people were fed Christmas dinner that year.

Count all our blessings and then come visit the 1904 Kingsville Train Depot Museum for a look back in history.