Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Summer II/Section 12/Dr. Archie C. Waldrep

Overview
Dr. Archie C. Waldrep was a white doctor during the great depression. He was also interviewed by R. V. Waldrep for the Federal Writer’s Project in Red Bay, Alabama.

Birth
On March 10, 1869 in Red Bay, Alabama Edward and Nancy Waldrep had Dr. Archie C. waldrep. Dr. Waldrep was their first born out of five children.

Dr. Waldrep’s Education
At an early age, Dr. Waldrep started attending private schools. He went to a total of 6 schools, including a school that his uncle owned. He went to Miss Florence Barnes, Bill Nabors, Uncle Bill Waldrep, Methodist church, Bullen Place, and the Gates boys school. He did dislike one school which was the Bullen place. Also, Dr. Waldrep attended medical school at Louisville, Kentucky.

Dr. Waldrep’s Career
Dr. Waldrep got into studying medicine because he wanted to have a job where he could own a horse. His mentor and motivator, Dr. Collier helped him study and guide him before starting medical school. Later on, Dr. Waldrep attended the same university that Dr. Collier went to Louisville, Kentucky. After coming back he extended his practice at the Waldrep and Epps store where he managed to take care of his horse and attend to other patients. His clinic did not have high fees.

Dr. Waldrep’s personal life
After coming back from medical school and only with fifty dollars and his horse. He was interested in starting his practice at the Waldrep and Epps store. That is how money started coming in. He also got married, but the first time his wife died. The second time he got married to Ollie Waldrep. They had two kids, a son and a daughter. Besides having a family and practicing medicine he also purchased lands, loaned money and gave away money to charity. Dr. Waldrep drove a coupe to work and he would go to church on Sundays with his wife. He also built an expensive house for his son and one for his daughter. He had no worries other than issues with his children. He died May 26, 1951.

Upper-class vs. Lower Class
During the Great Depression there was a lot of poverty with the lower class. In the 1930s, 5,000 banks collapsed, and six million people lost their jobs. The upper-class did not have economic issues because they either had a job that paid good money or they had other side jobs to help them economically. Dr.Archie was a doctor and he owned lands and loaned money. He was part of the upper-class. The upper-class ruled most of the wealthiness that was left. The wealthy were the ones that had savings. Unlike the lower class they were suffering from poverty. A lot of them were unemployed and had to find other ways to provide for their families. They grew crops and patched the holes on their clothes. These families were in desperate need that women started working in industries since their husbands had a hard time looking for a job or even staying at a job that paid well.

Illnesses during the Great depression
There was a lot of stress and chaos during the Great depression. People developed many illnesses during these times. One of them being depression, which is a mental illness. It was found that suicide was one of the death causes during the great depression. During the recession there was less work to do so people had the opportunity to sleep and work slower. But during the expansion people tend to work more and sleep less. Second disease was cardiovascular/renal disease that peaked in the 1930-1932. Third was tuberculosis which did decrease the mortality rate but then increased. Both cardiovascular/renal and Tuberculosis at times they increased for mortality and decreased. Economics and the health of the people came hand in hand. If the economy was not doing well. People would stress out and especially during the recession where everything was chaos. Poverty and unemployment had so much impact on the population because malnutrition was so bad and other health issues started coming up.