CCC provided employment for Williams
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
Paul Williams, who now resides in Peabody, was one of hundreds of thousands of young men who found work during the Great Depression of the 1930s by joining the federal Civilian Conservation Corps, known in short as the CCC.
The CCC was created in response to the deep economic depression following the stock market crash of 1929. The depressed economy left many working-age men and women jobless.
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt became President in 1933, he pushed a number of federal programs through Congress which provided direct cash payments to the states to use in work relief.
The CCC was established March 31, 1933. It was administered through the Army. Its headquarters in Kansas were at Ft. Riley and Ft. Leavenworth. Companies of working men were formed there and sent throughout the state mostly to work on conservation projects.
However, not every Kansan who joined served in Kansas. Some were sent to other states.
That was the case with Williams. He was sent to Minnesota.
Williams spent his first 13 or 14 years on a farm near Marion. In the spring of 1931, he moved to Marion with his parents, Paul and Nettie Williams. His father became a bookkeeper for the state highway department.
Williams graduated from high school in 1935. No jobs were available, so he applied to the government for a CCC assignment.
In July, he received a call to report to Ft. Riley. He and three other Marion boys were transported to the base by car.
After receiving clothing, shots, etc., they were assigned to various companies. Williams was sent to a camp in Minnesota. He traveled by train.
When he arrived in Minnesota, the new camp already had been built. According to his recollection, it had four barracks accommodating 24-25 people, a washroom, laundry, mess hall with kitchen, and headquarters.
Each man had a single bed, and all slept in one room. It was heated with a coal stove. Each was issued a foot locker, a trunk in which to store his belongings.
The camp operated under the Soil Conservation Service. The men built terraces and watershed dams and reconstructed bridges.
Williams spent most of his 18 months in Minnesota in a side camp at New Prague. The men lived in tents.
They worked there almost a year, building a pipeline and draining a swampy area into a lake. The pipe was made of segments of 24-inch diameter concrete.
Williams was the leader of a crew of 20 to 25 men. After the number of men in the camp dwindled, he became an assistant leader.
While in the CCC, Williams earned $30 per month. He was allowed to keep five dollars for himself. The remainder was sent home.
Because his father had a job, Williams' parents were able to save much of the money he sent home. They were thinking of his future.
Williams had been a football player under Coach Dale Miller in high school. He remembers his last game. It was played at Peabody at Thanksgiving time. Marion lost 7-0.
Williams' father was able to obtain a football scholarship for him from Southwestern College at Winfield.
He sent a letter to government officials asking for Williams' discharge. This was permissible if a job awaited. In Williams' case, college awaited.
The scholarship combined with $300 in savings allowed him to attend Southwestern.
"I played football for three years but we never won any games," he recalled.
He ran out of money after 2 1/2 years and came home. According to Williams, it wasn't until 1973, when he became administrator of Cedar Rest Nursing Home in Peabody, that he made use of his 60 hours of college education.
But after leaving college in 1939, Williams went to work in the oil fields as a truck driver hauling heavy equipment.
In 1941, he was drafted into the Army in the first draft of men out of Marion County. He wanted to become a pilot but when he didn't qualify, he was discharged and returned to Marion.
His future wife, Mary Plett, was working at the J.C. Penney store in Marion and was boarding with his parents. They began dating.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in December 1941, Williams decided to join the Navy. The couple were married and, two days later, he left for the service.
After one year in metalworks training in Florida, he was sent to the South Pacific where he worked on land bases and prepared planes for flight.
"There was never anything shot at me, and I never shot anybody," he said.
After discharge, he operated a crane for a construction company for 10 years and then held various other jobs.
His mother was instrumental in obtaining the administrative position for him at Cedar Rest. She was secretary there. He and his wife took over from the Spencer Bevans, who had operated the nursing home for many years.
Williams said he kept things maintained, but Mary did most of the work. The 50-bed facility was leased from the county and employed about 30 people in three shifts and one registered nurse.
Paul and Mary retired in 1981. Mary died six years later. The couple had three children, one daughter and twin sons.
Daughter Ruth lives in Amarillo, Texas. Jim lives in Mobil, Ala., and Fred in Houston, Texas. Williams has six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
He has been remarried for 15 years. His wife, Arlene, is a regular volunteer at a local nursing home.
The 86-year-old man remembers his time in the CCC as good years.
"It was a good experience," he said. "Good meals. Good clothes."
