1886: Drought stricken Central Texas made the Dallas Morning News in September: “The very air is now quivering and throbbing with the cries of the poor and needy for bread to eat and food to sustain life. Those who are able are leaving their homes in search of employment in more favored localities , while those who remain, to continue the battle, are driven to the wall.” C.D. Williams of Desdemona, wrote to The Dallas Morning News: “There has been considerable grub sent here by the good people of the East, and I will say that parties that it are mostly those that don’t deserve any help, for I know that they lay around town a week waiting for the rations to be issued, when right here in sight of town they cn get plenty of cotton to pick at 50 cents per hundred.” King, 1965