Final answer:
A notice of foreclosure or foreclosure summons is the document that would dictate a foreclosure sale, leading to a property being auctioned at a sheriff's sale. Such events were especially common during the Great Depression when farmers often faced foreclosure due to inability to pay their mortgages.
Step-by-step explanation:
If a sheriff's sale is held, the document that dictated the foreclosure sale was typically a notice of foreclosure or foreclosure summons. This legal document initiates the process of repossessing a property due to the owner's failure to make mortgage payments. The foreclosure process can be initiated by the lender or a government entity if the lender is unable to fulfill the loan obligations. The property is then auctioned off at the sheriff's sale to the highest bidder, which can sometimes result in the property being returned to the original owner or transferred to a new owner.
Foreclosure is often a last resort by the lender after multiple failed attempts to recover the owed debt. During the Great Depression, as highlighted by your reference to the LibreTexts, many farmers faced foreclosure when they couldn't make their mortgage payments, leading to a high number of sheriff's sales. The economic hardship led to protests and in some extreme cases, even violence. The situation started to improve with the election of Franklin Roosevelt and changes in federal policy regarding mortgages and foreclosures.