The "Great Depression" affects many lives, including Ted Richmond's.

Soaring unemployment left the brilliant and aspiring author/newspaperman, Ted, with little hope for a career in his chosen field of study. In 1933 unemployment peaked at 25% and there were many hungry mouths for every job opening. Ted had no wife or children, so he could obviously live on a meager sustenance and did just that.

As a former editor/writer of newspapers and magazines, there was little call for his talents in the "Great Depression" and some strange attraction brought him to Mount Sherman in the Boston Mountains. It's unclear if he had previously ventured into the area, even though he worked in a couple of nearby communities -- there were few roads in the Ozarks at that time and no railroads, so travel was limited to a few vehicles, horses and buggies.

Whatever brought him to the area, he was a stranger and the local mountain folk "didn't cotton to strangers", so to speak. The Raney family found him to be an honest, hardworking, and intelligent man and took him under their wings. They helped him build a small cabin to live in and provided guidance and food when needed. In return, he provided knowledge and education that was so desperately needed.