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.

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

...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