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Communities & Health Care
Families at Sabine Farms, Marshall, TX, 1939
Families at Sabine Farms, a New Deal resettlement community for displaced tenant farmers near Marshall, TX, pooled their resources to employ a physician, Dr. Lee, 1939
Courtesy Library of Congress
There were great shortages of doctors, nurses, and hospitals in rural areas of America, creating a need for communities to secure access to health care collectively. During the Great Depression, the government encouraged the creation of medical cooperatives in rural areas. The resettlement community at Sabine Farms was one example of a medial cooperative; families drew their resources together to hire a physician to tend to the sick.