New Deal Era Dead Records Slated for the Salt Mines

The National Archives’ massive collection of New Deal era records, including the cherished Civilian Conservation Corps (RG35) documents, is embarking on a historic move.

color image of shelves metal with boxes of archived records, left side of image shows the rough carved out limestone walls in Federal Reserve Center salt mines NARA Lexana KS — New Deal Era Dead Records Slated for the NARA Salt Mines similar to the Federal Records Center in Lexana, Kansas. NARA

Ever wonder about those old New Deal era records that were turned over to the National Archives by various government agencies for a Preliminary Inventory (PI) when their programs ended in 1942?

One of those vintage collections is Record Group (RG) RG35 containing agency Records of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC was initially named Emergency Conservation Work (ECW); the program was commonly and later (1937) officially known as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the name under which they are cataloged.

The files in RG35 may be over nine decades old but they remain a fascinating and insightful collection of Great Depression documents, letters, appeals, CCC camp inspections, investigations, visuals and dispatches from the first, longest-lasting, and most popular of the 60 New Deal agencies, the CCC. They may be vintage, but they are far from forgotten by history enthusiasts, genealogists, and researchers alike.

New Deal Records Unavailable

In early November 2024, a research request was sent to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in College Park, Maryland, for Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp Inspection Reports found in Record Group RG 35. The reply was unexpected – the RG 35 stack is closed and slated to be moved to the NARA Federal Records Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Unfortunately, the records will be unavailable until 2025.

Disappointing? Yes. But there’s more to this story and the New Deal era collections.

What can be established is that thousands of New Deal era textual records, deemed inactive, will be stored offsite deep beneath the Kansas and Missouri prairies in one of NARA’s underground man-made limestone caves, much like the subterranean storage facility in Lenexa, Kansas pictured above. The caves are within driving distance of the Kansas City NARA and, good news for researchers, parking is free.

A complete listing of the RGs moving to the salt mines is listed on the NARA website titled “What’s New For Researchers” for October 2024.

composite image of items found in RG 35 CCC Inspections Reports — A composite image of documents found in RG 35 NARA, Entry 115, the CCC Inspection Reports. Many folders contain more than just the standard reports. Inspectors would often include news reports, photos, announcements, brochures inviting community involvement and a sampling of items that would enhance and compliment their CCC camp inspection reports. ©2024KathleenDuxbury

The Custodial Why, How, and Where of New Deal Era Records

This news was confirmed in conversations with the acknowledged go-to source and expert for all things New Deal at the College Park NARA, Eugene Morris. What follows is the gist of our correspondence, beginning with:

“Gene, what’s happening?” Say it ain’t so. What Record Groups are moving in 2025? Is there a list?.. . Also, WPA, the work projects and art programs (microfilm, photographs & textural). Are the New Deal records being moved?

Gene answered …

It mostly has to do with the fact that the New Deal era records are mature, dead records (nothing new coming in). They don’t require a lot of additional work. They don’t have PII or restricted information.

Stack 530* is being taken over by the Presidential Libraries unit, so everything in there has to move out, either elsewhere in the building or to KC. The New Deal cluster of records, RG 35 (CCC), RG 69 (WPA), RG 114, (NYA) and RG 135 (PWA) are all slated to move to KC. This will probably happen in the March to May of next year.
*Stack 530 is a very large room with 50+ rows of movable shelving in it. It’s being taken over by the Presidential Libraries unit to house records and items from the Trump and Biden administrations until their respective libraries/museums are up and running. Then it will continue to provide that service to subsequent administrations.

CCC records in other RG’s will still be here, like RG 79 (Park Service), RG 95 (Forest Service)… RG 407 and the little bit in RG 121.

…the special media, the records in Still Pictures, Motion Pictures and Cartographics, will remain here in College Park.

The records should only be closed for 6 to 8 weeks. The year I mentioned is the time it will take to get a staffer familiar enough with the records to do good reference work.

Some material in Stack 530 is not being moved to KC and is being moved to other stacks here. Because we’re so strapped for space, that means some records in those other stacks* will move to KC to make room for the records from Stack 530.

Building new buildings is expensive. Digging out a chunk of an old salt mine in suburban Kansas City and framing rooms inside is much cheaper. We have had “caves” in Lenexa and Lee’s Summit, Missouri for 25+ years. Both sites are roughly 30 minutes to an hour’s drive from our KC branch.
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New Deal records research will become more challenging. Perhaps, the National Archives’ ongoing digitization initiatives will prioritize these popular RG35 New Deal era records slated for the salt mines. As technology becomes available perhaps scans of these records will be considered for inclusion in their online catalog given its historical significance.

It stands to reason demand will grow for digital access to these and other archival New Deal records once the highly anticipated release of the digitized Civilian Conservation Corps Individual Records of Employment, Form No. 1 are freely uploaded and made available to the National Archives Catalog before the end of 2024.

The research and New Deal stories continue.

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NOTES:
Image: Lexana, Ks Federal Records Center, The National Archives Goes Underground, Spring 2016, Vol. 48, No. 1 | The Historian’s Notebook
By Jessie Kratz

C.C.C. Origins & Labor Secretary Frances Perkins

“Mr. President, we haven’t got an
employment service … Make One, Create One.”

New Agency, New Forms – Origin of CCC Individual Enrollment Records

As the CCC Individual Enrollment Records are being digitized the backstory of White House discussions addressing the recruiting, accounting and fundamentals of establishing the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) are legendary. By establishing this new government agency, which provided jobs for millions between 1933 – 1942, a collection and variety of forms, regulations, and reports were generated. These documents are a part of our national story, a record filled with questions answered by millions who were touched by hardship and need between 1933 – 1942.
By digitizing these CCC records and making them freely accessible another catalog of New Deal history will be open for research, insight and education before the end of 2024, I’m told.
_______________________

“Mr. President, we haven’t got an
employment service.”

Francis Perkins, Secretary of Labor likened President Franklin Roosevelt’s method of getting things done,
“to put dynamite under the people who had to do the job and let them fumble for their own methods . . . This great brainstorm about giving the unemployed relief by taking them out into the woods to do forestry work. I first heard this from the mouth of Franklin Roosevelt, without any preparation at all . . . I thought it was a pipe dream . . . He thought you could just take everybody who was applying for relief and put them in the forests . . . He just thought of all the unemployed, not just of the young men. The young men were my idea later . . . ”

I said “how are you going to recruit? If you are going to pay them money, how are you going to get them:.” He said “Use your employment service” I said “Mr. President, we haven’t got an employment service.” . . . He said “Make one. Create one.”

Which she did.
________________
On April 5,1933 Executive Order No. 6101, issued by the President, set in motion a new government agency, originally called the Emergency Conservation Works (ECW), but better known as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).
As Secretary of Labor, Perkins was in the rooms where it happened. Her vivid recollections, from the first 100 days of FDR’s first administration, describe the genesis of the CCC and the vital role played by the Departments of Labor, War and other government agencies. There was a remarkable coming together of government agencies to devise and implement a system, as mandated by FDR, which allowed for the inductions and placement of over 250,000 junior CCC recruits in yet-to-be organized reforestation camps by early summer of 1933.

Local relief offices were swamped with applicants, in some cities they were told to return; forms and guidelines had not arrived from DC.
The Army, in anticipation of the CCC program, was prepared with new regulations dividing the country into nine Corps areas for administrative purposes. Upon induction, either at the camp or Army recruitment center, new enrollees were examined, swore to the Oath of Enrollment, assigned a CCC company, fed, clothed and transported to their newly organized reforestation camp. Before they climbed into their assigned bunk that first evening they had answered questions, signed forms and passed examinations, all, presumably, in compliance with C.C.C. Form No. 1.

Continue reading “C.C.C. Origins & Labor Secretary Frances Perkins”

THE NEW DEAL: Looking Back, Moving Forward

Honoring and preserving the New Deal 1930’s legacy.

THE NEW DEAL:
Looking Back, Moving Forward

Available April 5, 2024. THE NEW DEAL: Looking Back, Moving Forward, authored and published by the National New Deal Preservation Association.

Invitation and poster announcement of the April 12-13-2024 NNDPA event titled: The New Deal: Inspiration and Hope in Santa Fe, NM.

THE NEW DEAL: Looking Back, Moving Forward is a collaborative effort by the NNDPA to honor the legacy of the New Deal by creating and publishing a book which chronicles efforts to conserve the ideas and artifacts of the New Deal launched by Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during the Great Depression, it is richly illustrated with images of public art, public works, communities, and people and their stories.

You are invited to an exciting and memorable gathering, conference and event which honors Kathryn Flynn, Director of the NNDPA and the joint book launching of THE NEW DEAL: Looking Back, Moving Forward Santa Fe, New Mexico on Friday and Saturday, April 12 – 13, 2024.

Registration, lodging and conference details may be found on the NNDPA website.

A Table of Contents for the THE NEW DEAL: Looking Back, Moving Forward may be found here. Continue reading “THE NEW DEAL: Looking Back, Moving Forward”

2023 New Deal WPA & CCC Calendar Art

2023 marks the 90th anniversary of the New Deal

2023 marks the 90th anniversary of the 1930’s New Deal. To celebrate this milestone two unique calendars are offered highlighting the art of the
Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Revenues from both calendars will support the organizations and endeavors that keep this Great Depression New Deal history relevant.

2023 New Deal art calendars by Kathleen Duxbury are $19.33, plus tax and shipping and are available here.

2023 – New Deal 1939 WPA Federal Art Project Poster Division Calendar

2023 New Deal CCC Art – Marshall Davis – Artists of the Civilian Conservation Corps

Thank you for your support.

2023 calendar – repurposed 1939 WPA Federal Art Project calendar originally created in 1938 by the NYC Poster Division of the FAP

B&W illustration by CCC artist Marshall Davis — 2023 New Deal CCC Art – Artists of the Civilian Conservation Corps – Marshall Davis

Calendar orders will be accepted and fulfilled by the LULU print-on-demand

Harry Everett Townsend – WWI Combat, CCC & WPA Artist

Harry Everett Townsend ( 1879 – 1941)

This article profiles a struggling time, 1933 – 34, in the life of artist Harry Everett Townsend. His story is one part of a much larger New Deal narrative that will circle back to the National Archives (NA) and the inadvertent retention and rediscovery of “orphaned” * New Deal “business files”. These financial files were generated during the short lifespan of the first federal art program, the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), they dovetail and compliment other known New Deal collections at the NA and add factoids previously unknown.

There are a wealth of books and articles written about Harry Everett Townsend, but none address this soul crushing and devastating Great Depression period in his life. Suffice to say, Townsend, although well known and established, was an artist desperate for work. He would come to find relief and purpose with the various federal art programs; employment which saved him financially and emotionally.

It wasn’t until he was sent to depict the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) that he was once again in his element. As a WWI veteran combat artist he saw his employment with the PWAP as an opportunity to repay a debt to America, fulfilling a commitment he felt was long overdue.
_______________________________

Harry Everett Townsend
1930’s HARD TIMES

” I am in trouble and truly sick at heart . . . one is ashamed to face the world.”

1934 Feb. 19th – Harry Everett Townsend, sent an impassioned letter to PWAP Reg. 2 Director Julianna Force, imploring her to reconsider and continue his PWAP artist employment. He had been one of eight WWI American Expeditionary Force (AEF) combat artists sent to France in 1918. Now sixteen years later, Harry was again one of eight artists in his region selected to depict an army of another kind, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), affectionately known as FDR’s Tree Army. images NARA

Continue reading “Harry Everett Townsend – WWI Combat, CCC & WPA Artist”

1935 Labor Day Hurricane – CCC First Responders – Part II

Great Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, WWI Veterans in Storm’s Path and the C.C.C. First Responders – by Kathleen Duxbury

Part I can be found here

Florida Labor Day Hurricane of 1935

During the dark and treacherous evening of Monday, September 2, 1935 the most intense recorded storm in Florida’s history slammed directly into the Florida Keys. Hundreds of War Veterans at the FERA relief and rehabilitation camps #1, 3 and 5 were left in the path of this monstrous storm.

NOAA Central weather map surface analysis of 1935 Florida hurricane September 4, 1935, composited image to demonstrate location of the three FERA Veterans camps that were in the direct path and decimated.

A call for an evacuation train from Miami was made too late, when it arrived it was minutes before a massive tidal surge engulfed the keys. The vicious winds were up to 183 mph, during this tornado like pass almost all ramshackle structures in the Upper Keys were destroyed, hundreds were dead, missing or injured. Killed by a powerful force that sandblasted, crushed, drown, or washed them out to sea, many never to be identified or found.

Numerous investigative stories written by local reporters were published, the FERA authorities would blame the weather service and call it an “act of God”, one of the first on the scene was Earnest Hemingway, he would write a scathing article “Who Murdered the Vets?” for the socialist newspaper The New Masses; attracting the attention of the FBI. National newspapers were filled with pages of gruesome images of the death and destruction. The nation was shocked.

Before the end of September the FERA closed all camps and shelters to new applicants and, by then end of November 1935, all transient activities were liquidated. Injured veterans were transferred to VA medical facilities. Employable veterans would receive jobs with various WPA projects, those who declined or were rated unemployable were returned to the States of their origin.

In 1936, there was a Congressional hearing for passage of a bill, H.R. 9486, regarding compensation for the widows, families and survivors of the veterans.

First Responders – CCC Company #1421

Between Sept. 2nd and 9th, inclusive, the labor of CCC Co. #1421 was diverted to relief activities in the Florida Keys. Their previous visit had been for sport and recreation, but this trip would be for search and rescue, a mission that would quickly turn to the gruesome task of recovery.

The national newspaper of the CCC was Happy Days, the efforts of Miami CCC Co. 1421 was featured in a full page article.

At least 120 bodies were recovered by the boys from CCC Co. #1421, it was a traumatizing experience.

After the hurricane C.C.C. Co. 1421 published their camps newspaper The Wander. CCC artist and reporter, Douglas W. Reynolds, created this haunting cover image. From the George Smathers Library, Univ of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, CCC Records, special and Areas Study collection

The next edition, September 12, 1935, of their CCC camp newspaper, The Wanderer, used a haunting cover image drawn by camp artist and reporter Douglas W. Reynolds. Included were numerous articles on the CCC company’s response to the disaster and first person accounts.

COMPANY SPENDS NIGHT IN ARMORY . . . COMPANY AIDS IN CLEAN UP OF VETERAN’S CAMP . . . COMPANY SPENDS THREE DAYS IN STORM STRICKEN AREA . . . New Mascot . . .KITCHEN FOLLOWS COMPANY TO KEY LARGO

“Company 1421 was well prepared for the storm on September 2. When storm warnings were posted for the Miami area, Ensign Cain decided to place the company in the Dade County Armory during the storm. Each man carried his own pillow and blanket. The storm lasted the entire night so nearly everyone slept on the floor.”

The next morning the CCC boys answered a call to assist the Red Cross and Coast Guard for search and rescue on the Keys. They left Miami at 5:30 am arriving at Key Largo by 9 am. This was the furthest south they could travel; roads and bridges had been washed away.

The boys in the company who volunteered for relief work on the storm-stricken Keys were split into three different groups. One of the groups went searching for bodies on the Coast Guard cutters…one cutter was unable to find the channel at night and several enrollees spent the night on board… Another group were pressed into stretcher service and other group worked on a temporary bridge.. The temporary suspension bridge was thrown over the swollen Snake Creek…bridge was fifty yards in length . . . constructed by two strands of cable and salvaged lumber from the original bridge … the only means of communication with Windlass Island and the other lower Keys… Later in the day a group was sent across to Windless Island to search the debris for bodies.

Temporary bridge over washed out roadbed – Snake Creek, Plantation Key. 1935. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.

“Heavy rains and wind kept them from sleeping during the night” . . . after “All the living had been transferred to places of safety… the entire company searched for the dead.”

“From then on it was something in a bad dream. The wind and a succession of tidal waves had tossed many of the bodies into trees or out to sea. Others were found under fallen buildings.” . . . bodies were badly decomposed, by Friday, due to the strong rains and the strong sun.”

“Practically the entire company had seen service on the relief work, as only a small work outfit was retained at the camp to care for necessary duties.”

“Though handicapped by almost primitive cooking facilities…the kitchen force worked from morning until late at night…feeding from fifty to two hundred men at a time…The menu was not varied…no one complained.”

Could this be Hurricane Fanny, the dog recused by CCC Co. 1421 after the hurricane? photo circa 1936-37, ©Kathleen Duxbury CCC collection of S. George Salter

“Hurricane Fanny, a small fox terrier is new mascot of Co. 1421. She was found on top of a house between Matecombe and Snake Creek. Fanny and a cat were the only living things left there.”

“Chaplin Neville made his bi-weekly call to the Miami CCC camp…but did not hold services. On Friday he went town to Snake Creek and conducted Services for the veteran dead.”

“Every man who had been on the island had worked and gone through an experience they never wish to have again, before they were finally relieved by FERA workers from Miami.”

“The storm . . . brought death to the remnants of the Bonus Army. They had survived the fury of the World War…May they find in death, the peace, which they seemed to have found but little of in life.”

Douglas Wolcott Reynolds, Labor Day Hurricane, Florida Keys, September 4, 1935, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the General Services Administration, 1974.28.69

A New Camp

“This excitement was hardly over when another hurricane struck with full force and utterly destroyed the Miami CCC camp on November 4, 1935.” Within months a new modern camp would be constructed, the new home of Co. 1421 became one of the most beautiful camps in the entire 4^th CCC Corps area.

CCC Company #1421 Miami Florida 1936 – situated N. Kendell Drive, south of Miami Florida, ©Kathleen Duxbury CCC collection of S. George Salter

CCC ARTIST DOUGLAS REYNOLDS

Douglas Wolcott Reynolds, (b 1913 d 1995) was a resident of Jacksonville, Florida when he applied for admission into the CCC art program. He was a “graduate of Lee High School and attended a term at Ringling Art School, Sarasota, Florida, but was compelled to give up further training because of family financial difficulties.”

An epidemic of Mumps rode through camp in May 1935, Reynolds used this illustration for the cover of the Myakka Rattler. From the George Smathers Library, Univ of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, CCC Records, Special and Areas Study Collection

Reynolds was assigned, on December 30, 1934 to CCC Co. # 1421, then stationed at Myakka State Park in Sarasota, Florida. He would be somewhat prolific in the art he would send, as required, to the administrative offices of Edward Rowan, in Treasury Department of Painting and Sculpture, Washington, D.C.

Rowan was sometimes critical of the oil paintings Reynolds shipped. Reynolds was young and untried and requested critiques from Rowan who responded, in April 1936, that he saw “possibilities of very interesting pictures, but I do not believe that your technique is sufficiently developed or your palette satisfactory. May I suggest that for a period, at least, you discard black from your palette”.

Rowan would continue to counsel the young CCC artist Reynolds until he was honorably discharged in June 1936. A large number of Reynolds CCC paintings were allocated back to both the Myakka State Park and the South Miami CCC camp superintendents.

Reynolds fit in well with CCC Company #1421 and became a feature writer and cartoonist for the camp paper the Myakka Rattler and later The Wanderer. He got along well with the officers in charge and the technical staff. That is until a new commander was assigned to the Miami camp.

In an April 19, 1936 letter Reynolds writes Rowan . . .”The new Captain came. He seems to think that I am a cross between a tractor and a convict…I understood when I entered that I would be exempt from extra physical labor, while abiding by the rules and regulations. I do not object to sweeping out the barracks . . .but I do object to . . . swallowing insults from a commanding Officer who hasn’t enough fairness or decency to run a stock yard. If this labor was a punishment for some misdemeanor I would not write, but it is a regular duty and it interferes with my painting.”

On June 30, 1936, at his own request Reynolds received an Honorable Discharged from the So. Miami, Florida CCC Co. #1421. His manner of performance, as an Artist, was rated Excellent.

This oil painting titled “Florida Hurricane” would be transferred, in 1974, from the General Services Administration to the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, where it is today. It appears Reynolds experience with the relief effort of his CCC company and a photograph, printed in the Miami Tribune, of the hurricane rescue by the Coast Guard and CCC boys was the inspiration.

While in the CCC, Reynolds, was awarded a scholarship to study art at the University of Miami. He would later receive his BFA from Yale University School of Fine Art and earned a Master of Arts in Art and in Art Education from Columbia University. * During his long career as an abstract expressionist he became the Art Director at multiple universities and retired as Director of Art from Hampton University in 1978.

Douglas W. Reynolds died on February 11, 1995 in Williamsburg, Virginia.

2022 – correction to degree type

The works and writing of Florida historian Jerry Wilkenson at can be found at the Jerry Wilkenson Research Library in addition to the stories and research he has written on the keyshistory website. His writings helped me better understand the three FERA veterans camps, #1, 3 & 5, decimated in the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane. Thank you.

1935 Labor Day Hurricane – CCC First Responders – Part 1

Great Labor Day Hurricane of 1935,
WWI Vets in the Storm’s Path and
the C.C.C. First Responders – By Kathleen Duxbury

The Great Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 is described as the most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall. It is listed as a Category 5 tempest; highest wind speed was recorded at 183 mph. Many of the hundreds of people in its path, on the Florida Keys, were World War I veterans. The vets were living in temporary relief camps while working on construction projects for the Florida Road Commission. The September 2^nd storm was a horrific event, the vets should have been evacuated, instead they were sandblasted.

Sadly, over time there would be accusations and assumptions that would percolate, naive statements later reported that these Florida camps were Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) veterans’ camps. For decades, the CCC was blamed and shamed for the part they allegedly played in the disaster, and in some cases still is.

The truth and hard facts are documented – there were absolutely NO CCC camps, of any kind, south of Miami, Florida, during the summer of 1935. The morning after the historic storm passed the young CCC boys from Co. #1421 in Miami rushed to the scene of the disaster, they were among those first to arrive and what they encountered was shocking.

As we remember this storm 85 years later it is time to recognize, correct and honor the CCC legacy as First Responders.

Letter to Eleanor Roosevelt

On August 27, 1935, Albert C. Keith, composed a heartfelt letter about the Veterans relief and rehabilitation camps in the State of Florida. He sent a package to: Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, The White House, Washington, D.C. with a return address of Editor, Key Vt. News, Islamorada, Florida.

Albert C. Keith, Editor of The Key Veterans News sent a letter and copies of the newspaper to Eleanor Roosevelt, August 27, 1935 ©2016KathleenDuxbury

These veterans camps were organized as temporary emergency relief measure to assist unemployed World War veterans who had returned to Washington D.C., during the summer of 1933, demanding a promised “Bonus” payment for their services in World War I.

The Florida veterans’ camps were administered by the state of Florida Emergency Relief Administration. The state of Florida received funds through their Governor, the monies were allotted by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration in Washington, D.C., both confusingly known as the FERA.

The Florida Relief Administration employed civilians to administer the three veteran’s camps in the Florida Keys. These FERA administrations differed dramatically from the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) junior and world war veterans’ camps, the CCC camps were administered by the Army and a separate CCC federal agency.

One of The Key Veterans News sent sent by Albert C. Keith to Eleanor Roosevelt, August 27, 1935 ©2016KathleenDuxbury

Keith, himself a World War I veteran was writing from the FERA Camp #1 Islamorada, Florida where he was Editor of The Key Veterans New. Included with his letter to Eleanor were ten copies of the FERA vets newspaper.

Keith described the extensive FERA work being done on the Florida Keys. He stressed how these jobs offered the many homeless men the opportunity to once again financially provide for themselves and their families. He spoke of the sanctuary it offered to those unable to “carry on”, and referred to the many veterans who were unable to enter the C.C.C. veterans’ camps “due to their physical handicaps.”

Concern was voiced over the rumor that these Florida FERA camps would be discontinued the following November. Keith stated, “in my opinion this would be a death sentence.”

Little could Keith realize that to stay on the Keys would be the death sentence; it was hurricane season in south Florida.

Within two weeks of Keith’s communication the camp he was writing from and two others would be obliterated in the historic and devastating Labor Day hurricane of September 2, 1935.

Keith’s parcel was received at the Congressional Mail Sub-Division in Washington D.C. on September 4, 1935, two days after the hurricane. It was forwarded to the Correspondence Division of the F.E.R.A, where it was stamped received on September 12, 1935.

Letter from Albert C. Keith stamped received and dated. ©2016KathleenDuxbury

Then it was answered on September 18, 1935 by Elizabeth Wickenden, assistant director of transient activities for the FERA at Washington. She addressed her response, sixteen days after the disaster, to Mr. Albert C. Keith, Editor, Key Veterans News, Islamorada, Florida, stating “Mrs. Roosevelt has asked that I reply to your letter of August 27^th . . .Wickenden explains that the “federal relief grants will cease November 1… plans have been made to have veterans that meet the requirements sent to CCC camps and those that do not will be taken care of in other ways.”

Sixteen days after the Florida Keys were decimated Elizabeth Wickenden, FERA Administrative Assistant, responds to Albert C. Keith in Islamorada, Florida.

In a 1992, interview (1) Wickenden states: My immediate boss was the deputy administrator of the FERA, Aubrey Williams. And much of our contact with the local and state administrators was handled by Aubrey Williams. I was his assistant, really his alter ego.

Immediately after the hurricane Aubrey Williams, assistant to the director of the FERA, along with Col. George E. Ijams of the veterans Administration, took off by seaplane to view the devastated area. They were directed to personally investigate the events leading up to the fatalities and destruction caused by the hurricane. Their preliminary report, sent to President Roosevelt, in essence, determined that “it was impossible for us to reach a conclusion of negligence or mistaken judgement” on the part of those responsible for the safety of the veterans on the keys. “the catastrophe must be characterized as an act of God.”

It’s troubling to learn that Aubrey Williams’ “alter ego” and personal assistant, Wickenden, posted a letter to Keith addressed to the very decimated location he had seen from the air and reported on, two weeks prior.

In March 1936, a Congressional hearing on the “Florida Hurricane Disaster” was convened. During this hearing, the total number of fatalities was stated as: 485 bodies recovered, 257 were war veterans. For years to follow remains would continue to be found.

Miraculously, Keith would be listed among those who survived from Veterans Camp #1 in Islamorada.

By 1940, Keith was living with his wife Mary, in Atlantic City, Georgia. His occupation was “W.P.A. Writer” on a “W.P.A newspaper”. Keith, who would become a U.S. Marshall, continued his letter writing. Many of his Letters to Editor of the Atlanta Constitution in support of politicians and also to champion the causes of those who suffered the injustices from poverty and homelessness can be found. He died in 1952 at the age of 53.

PLAY BALL

On the front page of the August 24, 1935 edition of The Key Veterans News sent to Eleanor Roosevelt was a blurb mentioning a baseball game to be hosted the next day by the All-Star Veterans. The All-Stars were a baseball team comprised of WWI veterans from the various FERA camps on the keys. The Vets had recently entered the Dade County baseball league. Their opponents would be, The Wanderers, a team from Miami C.C.C. Company # 1421.

This CCC company of junior of enrollees were new to Miami, having taken up residence on the east coast of Florida just five days earlier.

Miami Daily Tribune, August 20. 1935. Five days later their company baseball team The Wanderers would play a game against the All-Star Veterans on the FERA camp #1 Snake Creek diamond. ©Kathleen Duxbury CCC collection S. George Salter

The Miami CCC camp had been abandoned earlier in the month of August by CCC Co # 264. Ironically, when Co.#264 was still in Miami they were planning a Labor Day baseball game with the All-Stars, but their CCC company was abruptly relocated to South Carolina. On August 20^th, the new company #1421, formerly from Myakka State Park, arrived in Miami. They were more than pleased to be near the bathing beauties who frequented the beaches of Miami. The baseball game with the All Stars and the CCC boys was rescheduled for the following Sunday, August 25^th and would be played at the Vets camp #1 in Islamorada.

A unique aspect of CCC Co. #1421 was an enrollee who was an official CCC artist, Douglas Wolcott Reynolds. He moved from Myakka State Park with them to Miami.

The war veterans in the Key West FERA camps looked forward to hosting visitors and teams to their improved ballpark, the Snake Creek diamond. They were proud of their baseball field built with seating for hundreds of spectators and worked hard to level off an adjacent lot which they had spread with loads of gravel to accommodate visitor parking.

It was a 90 mile journey from Miami to the FERA camp on the Keys. When the CCC boys and fans arrived the morning of the scheduled game they brought along their older bats, liniment, and mitts. The game was to be called at 2:30 pm. Prior to the cry of “play ball”, the junior CCC players were offered dinner at the Islamorada Camp #3, and after the game supper was provided at Camp #1.

The young C.C.C. ballplayers returned to Miami victorious, reporting in the next edition of their camp paper The Wanderer how they “came from behind to down the Key West Veterans by the very close score of 3-1.” The date of this CCC camp newspaper was August 29, 1935. Two days later ships in the vicinity of the Bahamas told of squally weather and strong winds; the season’s first tropical storm was developing.

PART II – Continued
The Great Labor Day Hurricane 1935 –
CCC First Responders

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1 -Interview with Elizabeth Wickenden , conducted by Blackside, Inc. on January 23, 1992, for The Great Depression . Washington University Libraries, Film and Media Archive, Henry Hampton Collection

Presidents Birthday Ball – Eradicating Polio

“No single agency, whether it be the doctor, the hospital or the research laboratory, can cope individually with this great problem; we can do it only by joining our efforts.” FDR 1936

On January 30, 1934, a majestic full moon illuminated the winter sky from Campobello Island to Hawaii and Alaska to the Virgin Islands. A stimulating setting for the young and old, the rich and poor, all those who came out, en masse, in formal and informal attire to attend the first of the Presidents Birthday Balls.

During one of the cruelest periods of the Great Depression, the social elite and the average citizen would gather, nation-wide, from coast to coast and border to border for a noble purpose. One that honored the new president, but also created an endowment through which the Georgia Warms Springs Foundation could battle a decades old scourge, polio.

In the White House that evening President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), who was in the first year of his administration as the 32nd US President, was surrounded by an intimate group of friends and family. Together they celebrated his fifty-second birthday, but this birthday and how it would be honored in the years to come, would be different.

In 1934, the mineral-charged waters of Warm Springs, Georgia worked a magic spell over those who suffered from the disease. The hope then was buoyed by the idea that celebrating the presidents birthday, in a fund raising way, might create a permanent legacy to treat as many patients as the natural thermal springs could accommodate and hopefully find a cure.

What began as parties to benefit the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation would, decades later, result in the creation of an effective inoculation, one that could eliminate the disease of poliomyelitis, thereby benefiting millions all over the world.

Radio Introduction Interrupted

Having fundraising “birthday balls” came at the suggestion of Col. Henry L. Doherty, business magnate and political ally of FDR’s. Doherty made a $25,000 donation to launch the National Committee for Birthday Balls and became its first chairman. Doherty would also recommend that the president make a live radio address with a personal message of thanks; a broadcast that would be heard in the auditoriums, ballrooms, halls and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps hosting the celebrations. As the national committee chairman, Doherty, would have the distinct honor of introducing the president over the airwaves. This radio announcement would not be without some pre-broadcast drama.

Shortly before stepping up to the microphone Doherty was unexpectedly interrupted, a “process server” strode forward and served him with legal papers, a summons regarding a lawsuit filed the previous July. This intrusion appears to have had no adverse effect on the mission to introduce the president, and Doherty, who was no stranger to lawsuits, would continue as the National Committee for Birthday Balls chairmen.

Radio Brought the President to the Party

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Frances Perkins – Architect of the Civilian Conservation Corps

Long before Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the 32nd US president on March 4, 1933, the administrative and ideological attitudes of FDR and Frances Perkins had intersected, melded and seemingly became one.

Architect of the Civilian Conservation Corps Frances Perkins

Frances Perkins, (April 10, 1880 – May 14, 1965) Courtesy of the Frances Perkins Center

The professional partnership of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) and Frances Perkins was strengthened during Roosevelt’s 1929 – 1932 term as governor of New York. Recognizing Perkins understanding and grasp of complex government policies he appointed her Commissioner of New York State Industrial Commission. In this position Perkins supervised the health and safety of state workers; an appointment she managed with little difficulty. As a seasoned social worker, activist for public works, child labor, unemployment insurance, and workers’ rights advocate Perkins was able to tutor the then governor on the concept of “social insurance”.

First Woman Secretary of Labor

When FDR became President he selected “Miss Perkins” to be Secretary of Labor; the first woman ever appointed to a US cabinet position. Her tenure, as one of his closest and trusted advisers, would span FDR’s entire four term administration. A unique position which allowed her to observe, assist and analyze “the most complicated human being I ever knew.”

Theirs was a remarkable collaboration; one which empowered Perkins to frame and develop several of FDR’s New Deal programs and policies, among them the first and most successful, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).
History now recognizes the monumental contributions made by Secretary Perkins who, for too long, has gone unrecognized.

2024 Frances Perkins Homestead becomes a National Monument

On December 16, 2024, President Joe Biden designated the Frances Perkins Homestead in Newcastle, Maine as America’s 433rd national park site. This historic designation honors Frances Perkins, who served as the first woman Cabinet Secretary and the longest-serving Secretary of Labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt l. to r. are: Giovanna Gray Lockhart (Frances Perkins Center CEO); Tomlin Coggeshall, grandson of Frances Perkins; Cynthia Phinney, Maine AFL-CIO; Liz Schuler, President, AFL-CIO; Deb Haaland, US Sec. of Interior; Senator Angus King; Rep. Chellie Pingree. Courtesy Frances Perkins Center

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Sears Roebuck Catalog and the CCC

Knowing a CCC enrollee had $5-8 spending cash each month Sears Roebuck wanted them to have easy access to a Sears catalog.

It didn’t take long for Sears Roebuck and Co. to recognize the business potential of a young CCC enrollee who possessed, possibly for the first time, $5 – $8 in cash each month. Money they were free to spend whenever and however they chose, especially if they had access to a Sears catalog.

Used wisely during those Great Depression years, these hard earned dollars had exciting purchasing powers. Thousands of would-be customers were isolated deep within the nations parks and forests, a group Sears recognized as:

“the finest thing in America . . . as fine American manhood as the world has ever seen is being made, right now, in the Civilian Conservation Corps.”

The September 3, 1938 edition *Happy Days*,the national newspaper of the CCC featured a full page advertisement. The Sears Roebuck and Co. ad promised that a “spic and span” brand new catalog would be sent to every CCC camp in the United States.

Revolutionary Idea – Same Day Processing

Capitalizing on their ability to move products quickly a special offer was made for those in the CCC . . . “we mean to fill such orders the same day they are received”! This was a revolutionary concept prior to the days of Amazon Prime, same day, and overnight shipments or the seemingly impossible reality of immediate delivery by an unmanned aerial vehicle, a Drone .

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