Whittling Away: Resolutions

By Mary Lou Nahas

For Capital Region Independent Media

This week I was rereading one of my favorite local diaries from the 1930s:

Jan. 20: Lots of snow about two ft deep on level. No one could get off hill until night after they went through with snow plow. Heard that snow was bad all over USA. Also heard that King of England died about 7 o’clock p.m.

Jan. 22: A lovely day but lots of snow. J. went to Gilboa trying to get the men ready to work. The wind is blowing some. Roads drifted so badly they cannot work tomorrow.

Jan. 23: J. did not go to work, the weather was terrible, snow and wind blowing so hard you could hardly see the house next door.

Jan. 25: Weather has moderated. WPA men shoveled out bus and got it back to Broome center.  This is said to be the worst storm since 1888.

Jan. 27: A very cold day. J. went with snowplow on the road. Plowed snow 10 and 12 feet deep. 

Jan. 31: Colder and wind blows. The thermometer stays at zero and 10 below for nearly two weeks. 

Feb. 1: Very cold day, 8 below zero.

Feb. 2: A nice day. The bear sees his shadow.

March 2: J. began work on [another] WPA job.

That story made me realize how little I knew about the role of the WPA and the CCC in Oak Hill and Vicinity.

The WPA was the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal agency that employed millions of Americans on public works projects. The CCC was the Civilian Conservation Corps, another New Deal initiative that employed young men to perform conservation work in forests and parks across the country.

I put out a request on Facebook for help in finding information, and people responded. I was referred to Karen Cuccinello, historian of the town of Summit and village of Stamford, the author of over a dozen history books and hundreds of articles pertaining to rural Schoharie and Delaware counties in upstate New York. Cuccinello’s many books are available online. I was also referred to the book, “Another Day, Another Dollar: The Civilian Conservation Corps in the Catskills,” by Diane Galusha, founder of the Historical Society of Middletown, New York.

Fortunately, the Greenville Public Library had a copy of Galusha’s book, which I was able to check out the next day. Also, I had an online conversation with Karen Cuccinello, who was incredibly generous in sending me copies of newspaper articles she had found in her research.  So, even on a snow day in the Catskills I could learn the history to share with you.

“Another Day, Another Dollar: The Civilian Conservation Corps in the Catskills” was published in 2008 to mark the 75th anniversary of the New Deal and the launch of the CCC.

Galusha explains that the CCC was a federal program established in 1933, to put youth to work in the nation’s parks and forests. It paid them $30 a month — a dollar a day. Most of that money was sent home to support families struggling to keep bread on their tables.

“I pledge myself to a New Deal for the American people,” Roosevelt said in his nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention in Chicago. 

When he took office that year, 12 million people, almost a quarter of the nation’s workforce, were out of work. Mortgages had been foreclosed on thousands of homes and farms. Bank failures had swept away savings. Factories had been shut down, cutting industrial production to the lowest level ever recorded. Mines had closed. Railroads had gone bankrupt. Men who had once been able to support their families were reduced to selling apples on street corners or traveling the countryside looking for odd jobs, Galusha wrote.

The situation was even worse for teenagers and young men. It was estimated that this army of unemployed youth numbered five million.  Even when they could find work, it was only in part-time or sporadic jobs. Many who quit school at 13, 14 or 15 to try to help their families found themselves hitchhiking around the country in search of work.

FDR wasted no time in addressing this situation. On March 9, 1933, five days after assuming the presidency, Roosevelt called together a group to discuss an idea to put unemployed young men aged 18 to 25 to work on forestry, flood control, soil erosion and other natural-resource conservation projects. It took only hours for this group to draft a bill that would pass in both the House and Senate less than three weeks later. From FDR’s inauguration on March 4, 1933, to the induction of the first CCC enrollee on April 7, only 37 days had elapsed.

At its height in late 1938, more than 3.3 million Americans worked for the Warwick in 1939 when it was renamed the Work Projects Administration, and employed mostly unskilled men to carry out public works infrastructure projects. They built more than 4,000 new school buildings, erected 130 new hospitals, laid roughly 9,000 miles of storm drains and sewer lines, built 29,000 new bridges, constructed 150 new airfields, paved or repaired 280,000 miles of roads and planted 24 million trees.

The Hunter-Tannersville Central School was constructed by the WPA. These men lived at home as did the “J” from the diary.

CCC members lived in camps; while there were no CCC camps in Greene County, there were seven camps in the Catskills region, some not far away from Oak Hill and Vicinity. 

CCC Camps were little villages, usually with five 40-man barracks buildings, a mess hall, tool house, a garage for a dozen or so trucks and tractors, water and sewage facilities, streets and sidewalks, a recreation hall, a camp store, and an education building where enrollees could take classes in everything from photography to plumbing to prepare them for life after the CCC.  Many camps put out their own mimeographed newsletters.

Veterans of any previous war could join the CCC; they were paid the same dollar a day as the junior enrollees. Camp s-119 in Livingstonville, Schoharie County, which was established there in August of 1925, housed Veteran Companies 2203, 397 and 2234 in its six yeas of existence (a junior company #1246 was stationed there during 1936).

Local doctors, like Dr. Best of Middleburg, were engaged to provide medical care. March 1938 (CI)- Rabbi Samuel Sherman of Schenectady spoke to members of Livingstonville Camp. – May 1938 (KN) – A Solemn High Mass will be celebrated at the Livingstonville CCC Camp by four priests, as a portion of the Memorial Day program.

Enrollees worked eight hours a day, five days a week, and could get passes on weekends to enjoy the local nightlife or go home to visit their families if they could find transportation.

The longest-lived CCC camp in the Catskill region — from 1934 to 1941 — was the reforestation camp near Breakabeen in the Town of Fulton, Schoharie County.

Cuccinello has an amazing collection of newspaper articles that provide local reporting about the camps. The following material comes from her:

• September 1934 (CI) — Miss Fanny VanAuken, of Cobleskill, donated a piano to Breakabeen CCC Camp.
• November 1934 (CI) — Many prominent residents of Schoharie County were among the 250 people who spent an enjoyable evening at the opening dance of the Breakabeen CCC Camp. Next week a prize waltz contest will be held from nine until one.
• February 1935 (CI) — The home of the members of the 222nd Company CCC has undergone many changes since its beginning last spring. At the time, the camp consisted of two rows of tents. Now, 16 well-constructed buildings, lined along evenly laid streets, illuminated at night by powerful electric lights, have replaced the rows of tents. In the center of the camp area “Old Glory” proudly waves from a 65-foot steel pole. The barracks — five in all — comfortably house more than 200 inhabitants. The canteen, where all necessities and some luxuries are available for sale to the members, is reproductive of the general store and the town library. The dining hall takes the part of the restaurant where tasty home-cooked meals are served. The town hall of the camp is the administration building, where all the official business concerning the “town” is carried on. Then there is the schoolhouse — a recent addition to the camp — where trades, mostly along vocational lines, are taught. Across from the administration building is the infirmary where treatment is given for anything from an ingrown toe-nail to an appendix. The recreation hall, as the occasion demands, can be transformed from a club room into a show house or a dance hall. The outlying residential district is comprised of the officers, this IS a town in itself.
• March 1935 (CI) — The 222nd Company CCC is planning on holding its 10th dance of the season at the newly decorated Recreation Hall. New additions, including a drummer, were made to the camp orchestra and it is now said to be one of the best in the county. Dancing from 8-midnight, furnished by the Sixty-Sixers. Vaudeville artists, troupe of 15, from the Actors Equity League of NYC entertained the members of the 222nd Company CCC Camp at Breakabeen. The evening closed with a song fest. Lieutenant Brockway of the CCC Camp at Breakabeen spoke of the fine work done by the CCC men in cleaning up some of the streams. “Not guilty” was the verdict in the first-degree manslaughter case of Arthur Merkley, 23, of Buffalo, a member of the CCC contingent at Breakabeen and Leo Bouck, 19, of Breakabeen. Merkley and Bouck were involved in a street fight in Middleburgh that resulted in the death of Walter Rozea, 29, of Franklinton. – Members of the Middleburgh Business Men’s Club held their meeting at the Breakabeen CCC Camp.
• February 1936 (SR) Facing the prospect of remaining snowbound for the rest of the winter, many farmers along the town dirt roads leading to and traversing state reforestation areas are now able to reach the main highway as a result of work by enrollees of the Livingstonville CCC Camp.
• April 1937 The Livingstonville CCC Camp since its occupation on August 12, 1935 has been engaged primarily in standard forestry operations. A summary of the projects undertaken from this headquarters since work first began follows. Almost three million trees have been planted on 2,224 acres of what was previously barren and practically worthless land. In time to come these plantations will be a course of revenue to the state and in addition will do much to aid in the scenic beauty of the land and protect the soil against wasting away by erosion.

Fences, totaling 960 rods, have been built on areas abutted by private land. These fences are built on a fifty-fifty basis in connection with the adjacent landowner and are equally beneficial to both parties.

Twenty-three new water holes have been constructed on easily accessible lots of the State areas. The holes contain approximately 3000 gallons of water and are important features of fire control work. In addition to the holes, maintenance work was done on 17 other previously constructed holes.

A new truck trail, two miles long, has been built leading to State Area No. Schoharie 10, in the town of Broome. Maintenance work has been done also on several other roads leading to areas. These truck trails afford a means of accessibility to the areas in time of fires and also during winter weather.

Four hundred and fifty acres of both natural and planted woodlots have undergone extensive forest stand improvement work. This work consists of all such operations as release cutting, thinning, pruning and weeding, all of which are carried on with the intention of increasing the value and growth of the stand. Twenty-one miles of fire breaks have been disc-harrowed. These fire lines are located along the edges of plantations and along roads, and are of prime importance in the suppression of fires.

Fire hazard reduction work has been carried out on 415 acres of land and along three miles of roads. This work consisted mainly of removing and disposing of slash and other debris as a forest protection measure. Blister rust eradication is carried out on all State areas having white pine plantations. To date, 3,112 acres have been gone over and the currant and gooseberry bushes upon which this spore thrive have been removed.

In addition to the above projects some work has been done on the Little Schoharie Creek as a stream development project, and on several occasions the boys at the camp have been called out to aid in fighting forest fires and to assist those in distress during floods.

• August 1937 (SG) — The Livingstonville CCC Camp formed a posse to help search for Edna Street, age 11, of Cooksburg. Relatives found her 12 hours later.
• August 1939 (CI) — Lost in the rugged hills of Broome township for more than 30 hours, David Ellett, two-year-old son of Esten Ellett of Cheese Hill near Livingstonville, wandered down a brush-grown woods road and was found shortly after 5PM by several members of the CCC Camp.
• May 1941 (CI) — The Breakabeen CCC Camp has received a quarter of a million trees from the Saratoga Nursery. This will bring the total amount of trees planted by this organization during the past seven years to over eight thousand trees on state land.
• May 1941 (CI) — CCC Headquarters Gives Camp Facts and Figures- The following is a commissary compilation of the semi-perishable foods that was necessary to feed the Breakabeen Camp during March 1941. Beef- 1307 lbs.; bread- 3500 lbs.; butter- 480 lbs.; eggs 510 dozen; milk 4895 ½ pints; onions 400 lbs.; potatoes- 6770 lbs.; pork loins – 273 lbs.; cervelat (sausage)- 200 lbs.; veal- 271 lbs.; bacon- 99 lbs.; cheese- 150 lbs.; and coffee -500 lbs. The above-mentioned articles are all on contract. Staple canned foods are purchased from the US Army Quartermaster in Brooklyn. Fish, vegetables and fruits are purchased locally and from public markets.
• July 1941 (CI)- CCC Camp at Livingstonville is in the process of abandonment. A reduction in the number of camps in the country, from 1,500 to 1,236, decreased appropriation was given as the reason.

This camp, under the leadership of William Bowcott, has had a fine record of accomplishments. The major projects completed were 3,150 rods of fencing, 9.5 miles of new roads, 37 new water holes for fire protection and the planting of 4,600,000 trees on 5,200 acres of land. It completed 1,400 acres of forest stand improvement and 1,254 acres of fire hazard reduction work. Also, 6,800 acres were protected from the white pine blister rust and 1,100 acres from the white pine weevil. One hundred ten man-days were spent in suppressing forest fires and 2,100 man-days on emergency work following severe floods. Thirty-five miles of fire lines were made and 236 miles maintained. One of the major contributions of this camp was stream improvement work along Catskill Creek. For two seasons, part of the camp did excellent work improving the public campsites near Hunter.

When the camps closed, some were sold to become private homes and resorts. The marker along Route 145 tells where the Livingstonville Camp was. The one in West Fulton is on privately owned land.