An Addition to the Roll: Company 755 and Camp Lebanon

Recently I came across a photograph that identified a previously unknown (to me at least) Civilian Conservation Corps company that worked in Kansas. According to the C.C.C. Legacy camp lists, Company 755 worked on projects in Oregon and Nebraska. Apparently they also slipped in a short stint in Kansas over the winter of 1933–1934. The photograph in question is a panorama of camp buildings with the caption "C.C.C. Camp – Co. 755 – Lebanon, Kan. – Jan. – 1934".

Company 755, Camp Lebanon, Kansas- 1934 (Scott Stanton Collection).

The photograph is part of the family photograph collection of Scott Stanton whose grandfather Douglas Stanton, Sr. served with Co. 755 from the end of November 1933 through early April 1934 when he was discharged to accept employment back home at Logan, KS. Stanton served as a Local Experienced Man (L.E.M.) at Camp Lebanon.

Douglas Stanton, Sr., Camp Lebanon, 1934 (Scott Stanton Collection).

Interestingly, two accounts of C.C.C. alumni in Glenn Howell's "C.C.C. Boys Remember: A Pictorial History of the Civilian Conservation Corps" (1976) refer to work at Lebanon without noting Co. 755. However, Hugh Glenn's account mentions his friend "Doug Stanton" who he split costs with on rides home to Logan occasionally. Glenn's account is illustrated with several pictures, including a shot of Camp Lebanon from a different angle, as well as shots of the crew and the L.E.M. crew including Doug Stanton.

Company 755 crew in the field (C.C.C. Boys Remember- Hugh Glenn Collection).

Reviewing the Lebanon Times from September 1933 through April 1934 provided a nice account of the work of Co. 755. The company worked on a number of farms in northeastern Smith County, generally north of Lebanon. Their focus was soil conservation, much like that of the nearby Esbon camp, reshaping and filling gullies and building small earthen check dams, brush dams, and pond dams. The C.C.C. presence was the result of extensive work by the "Commercial Club", an organization of local business leaders. It is clear that local efforts hoped to land a major project building a lake in the vicinity of where the camp was located and disappointment is apparent in the eventual project focus although enthusiasm for the C.C.C. presence was overwhelming. It is also clear that those business interests that sought to bring the camp to the Lebanon vicinity were rewarded through the economic boost the camp naturally brought with it in purchasing supplies for camp construction, contracts for daily consumables, and the more limited, but still notable buying power of 200 young men during the duration of the camp.

Early on it was noted that the company that would be arriving was provided in part to keep a company from more northern climes in a location that would allow them to continue to be active during the winter. Presumably, although never explicitly mentioned, the company would head back north in the Spring. That is exactly what happened when Company 755 broke camp in Kansas and headed for Albion, Nebraska in mid-April 1934. The company, while coming from Oregon, was stocked primarily with new recruits from Nebraska when it arrived in Kansas. This and the fact that several thousand new Kansas recruits were coming into the C.C.C. during the third enrollment period led to the Nebraskan dominated Co. 755 to be placed on projects in its "home state" making room for a Kansas crew a short time later.

A number of details converged to complicate identifying this project previously-

1) The location of the camp was only about 6 miles west of another C.C.C. camp near Esbon. Lebanon is mentioned in other newspaper accounts I have researched from late 1933 and early 1934 (Scott County Record and Toronto Republican for example), but I had assumed that the proximity to Esbon simply reflected an alternate reference to that camp.

 2) Lebanon was the location of a camp only three months after Co. 755 moved on to Albion, NE when Veteran Co. 1778 arrived from work on Frontier Park at Hays. While it remains to be demonstrated, I assume that the original camp location on the Neal Brown farm north of Lebanon was re-occupied by this later company.

3) No camp newspaper to identify it in CCC newspaper collections. This also occurred with Co. 731 and Camp McGinnis north of Scott City at Scott State Park, another camp that was not noted on available lists of Kansas camps.

4) The short duration of the work. Company 755 and (the original) Camp Lebanon were only occupied between October 1933 through mid-April 1934. Again, this is a comparable situation to the Scott County camp.

Company 755 makes an addition to my roll of Kansas projects and camps. Now that I've had a couple of instances where projects and companies have limited visibility in the record (apart from National Archives research), I am going to have spend some time tracking down a few other inconsistencies  I've come across in my research mentioning the C.C.C. in places that had no camp nearby. With so much other research awaiting me, I've generally not given these oddities much thought. It is clear however that there is a whole facet of the Kansas C.C.C. history that will require some additional diligence to bring to light.

Woodson County Wanderings

Yesterday marked the first time in quite awhile that I made a field visit to a CCC project location. The destination was Woodson State Fishing Lake located a few miles southwest of Yates Center, KS. With the family in tow and a small lot of period photos to help identify construction and camp activities, we set out on a brilliantly sunny, breezy, late January afternoon.

Kansas Wildlife & Parks brochure PDF 

What a beautiful, secluded location! Tucked into a small valley in the oak filled hills of the Cross Timbers region, the 75+ year old lake still shines like a jewel. Despite the nice day, we had the place to ourselves.

Woodson State Fishing Lake looking northwest from CCC quarry locale.

Two CCC companies (Co. 1715 and 1709) were initially responsible for carrying out the lake construction, while a third (Co. 2735) worked here in the latter stages of the project, bringing it to a successful conclusion. The photos in my collection primarily depict the work of Co. 1709 from the earliest phases of construction to lake impoundment.

Mule teams and Caterpillar power (note Camp Woodson in background).

Lake Fegan dam and spillway from quarry locale.

A common decorative style using local stone to create columns and a castellated wall along the dam drive was employed at Lake Fegan where sandstone blocks form a row of columns on the downstream side of the dam and a decorative and functional castellated wall on the impoundment side.

Woodson State Fishing Lake- decorative stonework along dam road.

I have not always been successful in relocating remnants of CCC camps, even when having maps or photographic evidence of their locations. Camp Woodson was by comparison, fairly easy to identify with several landmarks tying historic photos to existing remains starting with a fireplace and chimney standing in a pasture adjacent to the lake property. Other areas of sandstone blocks, brick piers, brick and stone rubble, and scattered evidence of roads and other camp features were noted across the same short grazed pasture. Visible evidence of Camp Woodson was more limited on the lake property where thick stands of native grass and scattered thickets and trees obscured visibility. Additionally, it is clear that developments associated with the activity of the lake over the past 75+ years have impacted the remains of the former camp, but enough remains of the camp to warrant more formal documentation and mapping to record visible features. Interestingly, Camp Woodson was one of those early Kansas camps where boxcars were relied upon for some of the camp buildings (at least early on). I was pleased to see several instances of correlation between my period photographs and the modern landscape.

Fireplace and chimney of former CCC camp building.

My son and his big find- the flagpole base inscribed "CCC, Co. 1709, 1934".

Photo of Company 1709 at retreat (note flagpole and chimney).

The Veteran in the CCC

Although the typical CCC enrollee was 18 to 20 years of age, a portion of the allotment  was set aside for the enrollment of veterans of the Spanish American and, more often, the World War (I). While provision for these men was not made initially, Roosevelt made an allowance by signing Executive Order 6129 on May 11, 1933 as a concession to the second Bonus Army march on Washington, D.C. authorizing enrollment of 25,000 veterans. Qualifications differed from the junior enrollee; one needed to be certified by the Veterans Administration by application, they could be any age, and married or single as long as they were in need of work. Veterans were mostly assigned to camps comprised only of fellow veterans although this wasn't always the case. Company #4755 for example was comprised of junior and veteran enrollees initially before being divided during the work at Marion.

KANSAS VETERAN CAMPS

Company	Project #	Project Type	Nearest Town	Date Established
Co. 1778	SP-1 SCS-2a	Park Development Soil Conservation	Hays  Lebanon	7/22/1933 6/16/1934
Co. 1779	PE-206 SCS-2	Soil Conservation	Esbon Burr Oak	7/23/1933 9/1/1934
Co. 4718	SCS-4 SCS-36	Soil Conservation	Spivey & Osage City	9/26/1935 8/6/1940
Co. 4755	SCS-27 SP-3	Lake Construction	Marion & Meade	2/3/1936 2/1/1939

Lake Garnett, Camp Anderson, and Civilian Conservation Corps Co. #1715

 Photo of Company 1715, July 9, 1935

Source: Anderson County Historical Society collection (Merritt McDonald donation)

I finally had a chance this week to stop by the Anderson County Historical Society in Garnett to spend some time researching. I was met by longtime ACHS president Dorothy Lickteig who had mentioned in previous correspondence with her that they did have some photos of the CCC camp in their collections. While I spent the afternoon looking through Garnett area photos, pulling photos of the lake and camp, and scanning them, Dorothy graciously copied relevant notes from ACHS history publications highlighting the project from the perspective of the local paper.

The project itself involved the construction of a dam to form Lake Garnett, located on the north side of town. The lake and surrounding park property continues to be a center of recreation for the community today and was recently nominated as an "8 Wonders of Kansas" in the customs category.

PDF of Garnett's "8 Wonders of Kansas" nomination

Besides the lake, the location includes a number of New Deal era resources constructed by WPA and NYA crews in the late 1930s after completion of the lake including a swimming pool, football stadium, shelterhouses, restrooms, and picnic tables, of local stone and concrete creating a great rustic look to the park development.

Company 1715 came to Garnett in November of 1934 from the project near Toronto where work was ongoing to construct what is today called Woodson State Fishing Lake. The Garnett project received the support of former governor and then longtime U.S. Senator Arthur Capper whose hometown was Garnett. The work on dam construction was largely complete in the latter half of 1936 with other work wrapping up in late summer 1937.

 C.C.C. Camp Anderson Under Construction, October 26, 1934

Source: Anderson County Historical Society collections

Lake Garnett Construction- Clearing Location.

 Source: Anderson County Historical Society collections (Kenneth Knouse donation)

 Lake Garnett Shortly After Completion (note C.C.C. camp in background)

Source: Anderson County Historical Society collections

Former Birger Sandzen Student Turned Camp Artist- Joseph A. Johnson

 

While researching Company 4718 through the stories in their camp newspaper "The Gully Guardian" a number of engravings by the veteran enrollees were prominent in several issues. Some are not identified to a specific enrollee, but several images are attributed to a Joseph A. Johnson.

"The above linoleum cut by Joseph Johnson, a member of the camp, portrays the barracks skyline at the camp."

A couple of notes in the camp newspapers and a little follow-up research identifies Johnson as a former student of Birger Sandzen at Bethany College between 1924 and 1926.

"Joseph A. Johnson, war veteran enrollee of the Kingman county CCC camp toils on the soil conservation crew during the day, but that does not keep him from bringing his art to his environment. Horses, galloping across the prairie and pausing near the crew for a rest gave him inspiration for the linoleum cut presented herewith.

Johnson, formerly a student at Bethany college at Lindsborg has produced paintings which have won the admiration of students and fellow enrollees. A painting of an Indian girl has been exhibited recently in the window of the Kingman furniture store. An accomplished violinist, Johnson has provided music in local church services."

"Horses, galloping across the prairie and pausing near the crew for a rest gave him inspiration for the linoleum cut presented herewith."

  

Johnson's tenure as "camp artist" was relatively short as his contributions to the camp news come to an end in February 1937 when the editor notes that, "the two sketches drawn for this issue were the efforts of Joseph A. Johnson who has been our camp artist. He has checked out to try his luck in other territory. The Gully Guardian will miss his contributions, but we are sure his artistic ability and good nature will not go unrewarded on the outside."

 

 With that, Joseph A. Johnson fades into CCC history. There is relatively little information on him that I am able to find at this point, and even his time in the CCC may represent something new to anyone who knows of the artist.

The work of Co. 4718 continued in Kingman County until the end of July 1940 when the company moves "out of the dustbowl" and into my backyard to near Osage City in Osage County, Kansas. That's where my research was headed that day when I encountered Mr. Johnson and perhaps we'll visit these later exploits of Co. 4718 sometime down the road...

Giant City State Park

Okay, you got me...not Kansas, but it does have a personal connection so bear with me.

I just finished a new (2010) book by Kay Rippelmeyer entitled Giant City State Park and the Civilian Conservation Corps: A History in Words and Pictures. I had been eagerly anticipating the release since happening upon it on Amazon a few months ago with a "preorder" option. While I am interested in almost any of the recent publications detailing the work of the CCC around the country, this one holds my interest even more since I lived just a few minutes from Giant City State Park while working in Southern Illinois in the mid-1990s. The park is a great slice of the Southern Illinois landscape and that in itself makes it worth a stop for those who might be making a trip through that part of the world- the fact that it was developed by the CCC is a bonus. A visit to Giant City Lodge is a must if you make the stop at the park.

Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources- Giant City State Park

Giant City Lodge

The park was home to two camps, one positioned in each of two counties (Jackson and Union), in part to ease tension in local politics where different political parties were in control in each county. Work included constructing infrastructure to make the park more accessible and user-friendly as well as conservation work of the park's natural and cultural environs.

The background focusing on this particular park development, the history of the work at the park, and the numerous illustrations of the work through period photographs and other documents (186 illustrations total) is what I enjoyed the most. I can hardly wait to go back and visit again now that I'm armed with this guide to the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps at Giant City State Park. If you're interested in the work of the CCC in park development at the state level, this is an excellent and focused history of such work in Illinois. I look forward to Rippelmeyer's future publication on the Shawnee National Forest and the CCC for much the same reason. Check it out if you get the chance...

"The Future of the CCC"

From the The Adjutant, the CCC newspaper coming out of the Headquarters Company at Fort Leavenworth, comes this editorial concerning one man's thoughts on the future of the CCC. Published January 18, 1936, in the midst of discussion about making the Civilian Conservation Corps a permanent entity, the editorial offers thoughts on the meaningful conservation accomplishments of the organization in under 3 years time. His concluding comments concerning the future remembrance of the CCC were of particular interest to me as I research the work of the CCC in Kansas. While there are in fact statues and monuments erected to the "C.C.C. lad", some in memorial to the fallen, others to commemorate their accomplishments, there are many more public works projects that continue to see use today that stand as silent testimony to their achievements. Indeed, all these years later, "the work accomplished speaks for itself".

THE FUTURE OF THE CCC

There is hardly a day that passes in which one does not hear the question "I wonder what is going to happen to the CCC in the years to come." It is the editor's opinion that the C.C.C. will be a permanent organization. It is possible that details pertaining to administration will change, but the aim to conserve natural and human resources will remain its primary objective.

An organization less than three years old, the C.C.C. has accomplished great things. A nation has had brought home to it in a vivid way the need for recreating our heritage of invaluable resources, particularly in regard to forest, field and stream.

Thousands of acres of denuded and scarred hillsides have been planted to trees where nothing but barren rock would be present in a few short years. A before and after photograph in the January issue of American Forests shows better than words can tell what magic can be wrought by building check dams, and planting young locust trees on a ravished hillside in the Tennessee Valley. In order to save the washing of the mountainsides in the Coastal Range of Southern California, mustard seed has been planted to perform wonders in preventing soil erosion.

Innumerable state parks have been made places of pleasure and healthful recreation for the large urban and rural populations. Dividends will be paid in health and mind, body and soul of those who visit these delightful refuges from a rushing world.

In a few short years the necessity for the prevention of soil erosion has been demonstrated to a large number of the rural population, thus forestalling the event of more sub-marginal land, lower farm incomes, and higher food prices. With the continuance of such notable work, the people of the great Mississippi Valley need not envision for the next century the horrible scene of a desert-like place as pictured in an article by a member of the new deal. He contemplated abandoned cities, a landscape void of vegetation and life, dry rivers and deserted cities.

Nimrods of the future will thank their lucky stars that the C.C.C. carried out grand schemes for conserving their favorite game, and anglers will not have "fisherman's luck" when they cast their lines into a shady pool.

Children of future generations will be grateful for the historic sites which have been restored by the activity of the C.C.C.

Statues of the soldier, the pioneer, the explorer, the ruler and others have been erected. Boys, it would not surprise me that as old men you will visit the public squares and there find a statue erected to the C.C.C. lad. You can swell with pride, perhaps brush away a tear in memory of "old times" and stand with head bared and say in your heart, "I am glad that I was on the Boys."

The C.C.C. has grown in favor with the general population; relations which at one time strained have been healed in large measure. Hundreds of thousands of boys have been saved from the demoralization of idleness. The work accomplished speaks for itself.

(emphasis mine) 

...a pleasant, wholesome and constructively helpful stay in the woods.

 By July 1, over 250,000 young men were enrolled in 1,463 camps. Enrolled war veterans, Native Americans, and local experienced men (LEM) added to this total. The rapid enrollment and expansion of camps tested the capabilities of all agencies and leadership involved.

In Kansas, six camps/companies were established on five projects by July 1 with two additional camps and projects added in mid-July, and two more late in the year in October and November. These were the only camps established in Kansas during 1933.

Company	Project #	Project Type	Nearest Town	Date Established
Co. 735	S-203	Mined Land Reclamation	Scammon	6/16/1933
Co. 736	S-203	Mined Land Reclamation	Scammon	6/16/1933
Co. 1709	S-201	Mined Land Reclamation	Pittsburg	6/20/1933
Co. 1711	S-202	Mined Land Reclamation	Pittsburg	6/20/1933
Co. 1715	S-204	Lake Construction	Toronto	6/23/1933
Co. 767-C	SE-206	Lake Construction	Reading	6/26/1933
Co. 1778-V	SP-1	Park Development	Hays	7/22/1933
Co. 1779-V	PE-206	Soil Conservation	Esbon	7/23/1933
Co. 731	SE-210	Lake Construction	Scott City	10/15/1933
Co. 755	N/A	Soil Conservation	Lebanon	11/10/1933

Roosevelt addressed this newly formed conservation army on July 8, 1933 by way of the organization's newspaper. In it we see the hopes of the president for this new enterprise.


I welcome the opportunity to extend, through the medium of the columns of Happy Days, a greeting to the men who constitute the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Congratulations are due those responsible for the successful accomplishment of the gigantic task of creating the camps, arranging for the enlistments and launching the greatest peacetime movement this country has ever seen.

It is my belief that what is being accomplished will conserve our natural resources, create future national wealth and prove of moral and spiritual value not only to those of you who are taking part, but to the rest of the country as well.

You young men who are enrolled in this work are to be congratulated as well. It is my honest conviction that what you are doing in the way of constructive service will bring to you, personally and individually, returns the value of which it is difficult to estimate. Physically fit, as demonstrated by the examinations you took before entering the camps, the clean life and hard work in which you are engaged cannot fail to help your physical condition and you should emerge from this experience strong and rugged and ready for a reentrance into the ranks of industry, better equipped than before. Opportunities for employment in work; for which individually you are best suited are increasing daily and you should emerge from this experience splendidly equipped for the competitive fields of endeavor which always marl; the industrial life of America.

I want to congratulate you on the opportunity you have and to express to you my appreciation for the hearty cooperation which you have given this movement which is so vital a step in the Nation's fight against the depression and to wish you all a pleasant, wholesome and constructively helpful stay in the woods.
Source: http://newdeal.feri.org/speeches/1933e.htm

"I propose to create a civilian conservation corps..."

Franklin D. Roosevelt, letter to Congress, March 21, 1933

Three Essentials for Unemployment Relief

To the Congress:
It is essential to our recovery program that measures immediately be enacted aimed at unemployment relief. A direct attack in this problem suggests three types of legislation.

The first is the enrollment of workers now by the Federal Government for such public employment as can be quickly started and will not interfere with the demand for or the proper standards of normal employment.

The second is grants to States for relief work.

The third extends to a broad public works labor-creating program.

With reference to the latter I am now studying the many projects suggested and the financial questions involved. I shall make recommendations to the Congress presently.

In regard to grants to States for relief work I advise you that the remainder of the appropriation of last year will last until May. Therefore, and because a continuance of Federal aid is still a definite necessity for many States, a further appropriation must be made before the end of this special session.
I find a clear need for some simple Federal machinery to coordinate and check these grants of aid. I am, therefore, asking that you establish the office of Federal Relief Administrator, whose duty it will be to scan requests for grants and to check the efficiency and wisdom of their use.

The first of these measures which I have enumerated, however, can and should be immediately enacted. I propose to create a civilian conservation corps to be used in simple work not interfering with normal employment, and confining itself to forestry, the prevention of soil erosion, flood control and similar projects. I call your attention to the fact that this type of work is of definite. practical value, not only through the prevention of great present financial loss, but also as a means of creating future national wealth. This is brought home by the news we are receiving today of vast damage caused by floods on the Ohio and other rivers.

Control and direction of such work can be carried on by existing machinery of the departments of Labor, Agriculture, War and Interior.

I estimate that 250,000 men can be given temporary employment by early summer if you give me authority to proceed within the next two weeks.

I ask no new funds at this time. The use of unobligated funds, now appropriated for public works, will be sufficient for several months.

This enterprise is an established part of our national policy. It will conserve our precious natural resources. It will pay dividends to the present and future generations. It will make improvements in national and state domains which have been largely forgotten in the past few years of industrial development.

More important, however, than the material gains will be the moral and spiritual value of such work. The overwhelming majority of unemployed Americans, who are now walking the streets and receiving private or public relief, would infinitely prefer to work. We can take a vast army of these unemployed out into healthful surroundings. We can eliminate to some extent at least the threat that enforced idleness brings to spiritual and moral stability. It is not a panacea for all the unemployment but it is an essential step in this emergency. I ask its adoption. (emphasis mine)

Source: http://newdeal.feri.org/speeches/1933c.htm

Senate Bill S. 598, the Robinson-Wagner bill, was introduced on March 27. It passed both houses of Congress and was on the President’s desk to be signed on March 31, 1933. Roosevelt issued Executive Order #6101 on April 5, establishing the organization and appointing Robert Fechner as its director. The first enrollees were ushered into the new organization two days later on April 7, only 34 days after Roosevelt's inauguration on March 4. 

What followed were a little more than nine years that changed the lives of over 3 million men in an organization that was arguably the most successful and popular of the Roosevelt's New Deal era "alphabet soup" organizations.

"Old Sod House Comes Back for C.C.C. Boys"

More accurately described as adobe structures, a number of early C.C.C. camps in western Kansas were comprised in part of adobe buildings as a unique and short lived variation to what became the standard frame structures. The following article is from the Scott City, Kansas News Chronicle, Thursday, December 14, 1933 and provides some insight into the construction process.

Old Sod House Comes Back for C.C.C. Boys

Kinney Dam Builders Will Live In Rude Quarters

Dodge City- A throwback to the days of the pioneer, sod houses are being built again on the Kansas plains.

Ten such crude homes are nearing completion between Dodge City and Garden City, calling up memories of those years when ox-drawn prairie schooners bore settlers to the prairie country.

"Soddies" is the plainsman's term for the houses which are to shelter Civilian Conservation Corps men this winter while they work on Kinney dam to form a 780 acre lake.

When it was decided for economy's sake to build soddies, advertisements had to be placed in county newspapers to locate persons who knew the art of their construction. Sixty men responded from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska.

Sod Was Too Dry

Even the old-timers were stumped at first when it was found that the summer's drought had made the sod too dry and brittle to hang together. Charles Woodrum of Garden City, in charge of the soddy crew, conceived a plan upon noting that an old windmill near at hand still was in working condition.

Tubs were used in devising a homemade mixing machine. Water and chopped prairie grass were added to brittle earth. Then 40,000 "sods", grass-bound chunks of earth measuring 10 to 15 inches wide and two feet or more in length, were cut.

The procedure from that point in the words of an authority, W. M. De Voe of Dodge City is:

Need Eye, Spade, Arms

"The only other things a man needs are good eyes, and a sharp spade- yes, and I guess you might say a couple of strong arms. A double row of sods are first laid lengthwise all around. Then crosswise, then lengthwise, and so on until you have 'er as high as you want 'er."

The return of the sod house adds a whimsical twist to the prediction of an anonymous news dispatch from Salina in 1920:

"This is the year of the passing of the sod house in western Kansas," it read. "Except those kept as souvenirs of the early days and through sentiment, there will be scarcely any of them left after this fall. In the years of figuring and worrying to make both ends meet the farmer of western Kansas was content to live in a soddy. But now prosperity is here and the sod house has passed with the poverty of former years."

Photo of CCC Camp, Atwood, KS (Co. 731) ca. 1934.
Note stack of adobe blocks in foreground.

Source: Howell- C.C.C. Boys Remember, p. 46 (Nick Haller Collection).