Cash Clothing Johnny

Cash Clothing Johnny

Cash Clothing Johnny

Johnny Cash was born in the year 1932, to a poor farm couple, Carrie and Ray Cash. Johnny was the fourth of seven children. Ray Cash suffered greatly during the depression and when Johnny was born, the family lived in a rundown house, next to the railroad tracks in Kingsland, Arkansas. The house did not have glass in the windows and during the winter, Carrie hung blankets over the windows to help keep the cold out.

New Deal Farm

In 1934, Franklin Roosevelt’s new deal was taking effect and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration offered resettlement to farmers displaced by the depression. The offer consisted of twenty acres of land, a house and barn, a mule and cow, and groceries for a year. The house was not free, but came with a no money down mortgage. The government expected the farmers to grow cotton and make payment after the first harvest.

Dyess Arkansas

The Cash family relocated to Dyess in the Northeast corner of Arkansas. A government truck picked up the family and transported them to their new home. To the Cash family the new house was a marked improvement over the rundown shack in Kingsland. The new house had a living room, dining room, kitchen, two large bedrooms, and a front and back porch. An outhouse served as a toilet. However, the house did not have running water or electricity. A government crew of thirty men built the entire house, barn, and smokehouse, in only two days.