1st Cousin 4x Removed Mattie Bell (Groves) White Was a Works Progress Administration (WPA) Sewer

Some footage of women at work for the WPA (the specific locations of the footage are unknown).

I thought this was an interesting find today as I was hashtagging people in my tree--a then widowed cousin Mattie Bell (Groves) White, employed by the WPA in a sewing room in Hawarden IA in the 1940 Census.

"To Expand WPA Sewing Room"
The Hawarden Independent (Hawarden IA)
Thursday, 20 Nov 1941, page 1, col 4
Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25230049/the_independent/?xid=637 : accessed 8 Nov 2018).

Women to Make Necessities for Relief  

Clients in 30 Counties 

Hawarden will have the only WPA sewing room in Northwest Iowa in a few days.
With the decision of the board of supervisors to close the sewing room at Rock Valley, the Hawarden project will inherit additional sewing machines and the job of furnishing sheets, pillow cases, towels and bedding for relief clients in 30 counties. 

Seven other sewing rooms will operate in the 30 counties, making other necessities for relief clients. 

Twenty or more women will work in the Hawarden project, under the direction of Mrs. Ella Larson.  They will work an average of 30 hours a week, and will receive $47.20 a month [CManczuk note: about $850 in today's dollars]. 

The materials used in making the household goods will be paid for by the counties in which they are used. The sewing room women, however, will be paid by the WPA, as in the past. 

The local sewing room was moved last week from its former location over the Sioux Theatre to larger quarters in the Margolin building.

Mattie's mother Rosetta (Worden) Groves (1857-1912) and children.  Mattie is the little girl on the left.  Probably about 1892.  Image courtesy of Olive Kennedy.

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