Vol. 3. No. 1
February 1, 2013
INDEX Vol. 3. No. 1 January, 2013
Title Author
Editorial Don C. Marler
Bulletin Board
German POW’S In Liberty County Phil Carrico
The Passing Of The Backhouse James Whitcomb Riley
The Founding of Camp Polk Don C. Marler
A Lost School
Hineston Commemorative Coins
Hineston Chronicles
EDITORIAL
Don C. Marler
In the last issue you were introduced to the Family Heritage Association and to the Commander of Ft. Polk, Brig. Gen. Clarence K.K. Chinn. How quickly things change. General Chinn is now on his way to Afghanistan and Brig. Gen. William B. Hickman is the new commander of Ft. Polk.
General Hickman enunciated his continuing support for strengthening the relationship that exists between Ft. Polk and its civilian neighbors and the state of Louisiana.
Your attention is directed to the new work done on the Self/ Cavanaugh Cemetery at Ft. Polk that is included in this issue of the Hineston Chronicles. It is an example of the good work Ft. Polk is doing to preserve the heritage resources on its property.
*See the article by Chuck Cannon, Editor of the Guardian. Google the Ft. Polk Guardian.
2
Self/Cavanaugh Cemetery
BULLETIN BOARD
Velva J. Powell, 88, long time resident of Hineston and wife of Louie C. Powell passed away on 11/26/12. The Powells lived at Hineston until they moved to Alexandria in 1984. Velva worked for the US Postal Service at Long Leaf and she taught school at Oak Hill.
Kenneth E. Robinson, 68, passed away on November 29, 2012. He was a well known resident of the New Hope/Calcasieu community.
James R. Chaffin, 56, of Elmer, La., passed away at Minden, La. on November 26, 2012.
Mandy Golemon, 87 of Hineston, passed away on January 2, 2013.
Lyman Leroy Marler, 72, of Tioga , passed away November 24, 2012.
*****
For information on Ft. Polk, Google — Polkhistory.org
4
“MASTER RACE” HARVESTING RICE….
GERMAN POW’S IN LIBERTY COUNTY
PHIL CARRICO
POWs HARVEST RAYWOOD RICE
ENO LaCOUR, IN LIGHT SUIT, WATCHES AS GERMAN PRISONERS OF WAR HARVEST RICE DURING WORLD WAR 11. THE PICTURE WAS TAKEN BY REV. W.B. OLIVER OF DAISETTA. (PHOTO COURTESY OF D.L. MOSS AND GEORGE STANBURY).
In Liberty County, Tx. in 1943, citizens were feeling the crunch of rationing. “Mairzy Doats” was tops on the record charts, getting tires was impossible and gasoline was money from heaven. As bad as things were, the thing that hurt most was the lack of labor to harvest the crops. Getting German prisoners of war (POW) labor had saved some crops in this part of the state, but getting them to Liberty was the problem. Bureaucratic debate among the various departments, concerning the POWs was so fierce that the issue was held up for months while crops, already overdue for harvest, began to rot in the fields.
5
Finally, in the fall of 1943, the groups hammered out directives that outlined rules for the use of POW labor. The Liberty County farmers led by county agricultural agent, Gordon Hart had been fighting the paper battle with the Beaumont Manpower Board for months trying to get POW labor. The manpower board was under Mr. Ezell, who was gonna go by the book, dot every i and demand every piece of paperwork suggested by the paper-pushers in Washington. About this time, according to agent Hart, a rice farm-labor committee was formed. The committee was composed of J.M. Rich, Jimmy Trousdale, M.E. Peterson, Pat Boyt and J.F. Clark.
Right away, with Hart’s assistance, members of this committee got Mr. Ezell to accompany them to Huntsville. Thousands of POWs were interned there and if the paperwork could be straightened out the POWs could go to the fields immediately.
Hart said that once the U.S. Army colonel in charge of all the prisoners heard that crops were rotting in the fields, he leveled on Mr.Ezell and told him that nobody but a traitor would let American crops rot in the fields over dumb paperwork. The committee left Huntsville with the promise of immediate assistance. Good as their word, the army was at the county agent’s office in Liberty the next day to sign contracts for each farmer who needed labor.
Sometime earlier, the directors of the Trinity Valley Exposition had voted to allow the POW contingent to be housed at the fairgrounds. The grounds were located south of Liberty on the Wallisville road. The initial contingent of POWs would prepare the camp for the larger group that followed. On Monday, October 4, 1943, 140 German POWs arrived in big army trucks in the city of Liberty. These young Germans would add yet another legend to the city sitting on the wild wild Trinity.
With the arrival of the POWs, after an initial burst of curiosity, the citizens settled down to the tasks at hand and accepted the situation. However, in the homes where a golden star was in the window, the pill was a little harder to swallow.
These combat-hardened veterans of Rommel’s elite Afrika Korps were the German legions who had fought across North Africa. Now the great battles were over – Gazala, El Alamein, Tobruk and Kasserine Pass were just dusty
6
memories. The combined power of the U.S. and British forces had finally defeated the “Desert Fox” and his troopers had been forced to surrender by the thousands. These troops, still wearing their desert khaki uniforms, were the first German POWs to arrive in the United States.
Before the war ended, more than 400,000 enemy captives would be scattered in 511 camps about the nation. German troops who were interned in Texas numbered 78,982. They were placed in 120 camps scattered across the state. The nearest base-camp to Liberty was Huntsville.
Italian POWs were also held in Texas; 2,580 were interned at Hereford and smaller groups were scattered near Amarillo, Big Springs, Dalhart, Dumas, and Lubbock. Of the 4,242 Japanese POWs held in the U.S., 560 were in Kennedy, 323 in Hearne and 182 in Huntsville.
It is agreed the U.S. made a massive mistake when interning German POWs into U.S. mainland camps. The fact that “die-hard” Nazis were not separated from anti-Nazis led to beatings and deaths in every camp throughout the system. The German non-commissioned officers, who would actually run most of the camps, were almost all die-hard Nazis.
A special camp for Nazis was finally set up in Alva, Ok. However, a POW must be proven guilty of a political crime before being sent there. The murderers, rapists and other criminal types were sent to the federal prison in Levenworth, Ks.
Local farmers actually contracted for 625 POWs that first season. However, agent Hart suggests that there was as many as 800 POWs in Liberty during the height of the rice harvest of ’43.
U.S. Army guards who accompanied the POWs were normally older men or those unfit for combat for some reason. The number of guards at Liberty never exceeded 125. The camp commander for the first contingent was Capt. J.E. Crawford. However, the camp command changed quite frequently during the three years the camp was open.
The contract-labor system, as it worked for POWs went like this: The farmers would come into the POW camp and sign for the number of laborers needed. On signing the contract, he was agreeing to pay $2.15 per prisoner
7
per day. Of that amount, the prisoner was given 80 cents (in PX coupons) and the remainder went to the federal treasury. The farmer also had the responsibility of transporting the prisoners. It has been said that the rice crops of 1943, which were vital at that time, would have rotted in the fields without the labor of the POWs. Impact made by the POWs nationwide, just in agriculture, was 90, 629,233 man hours of labor between mid ’43 and December, ’45 which further breaks down to $130 million paid into federal coffers from this effort.
In Liberty County, the men in Hitler’s master race seemed just like any other young man harvesting rice. The locals watched, with interest, the games the Germans played during idle time. Soccer was played with great enthusiasm. However, the game was looked upon as foreign by most Liberty countians.
I have spoken to several old-timers who say that those POWs set the best table on either side of the Trinity. People would go to great lengths to get an invite to eat at the camp. The prisoners entertained themselves by singing and playing games. In the larger camps, they had libraries and even college courses.
In Liberty, every weekend was show time. Most weekends, a troop of German thespians would come down from the big camp in Huntsville. They would put on skits, play music from a variety of instruments and sing. The farmers who contracted the labor, along with their families, were always invited to these shindigs.
Many people from the city of Liberty went to see the Christmas show put on in the camp’s big hall in December of ’43. Jake Smyth, who published the Vindicator at that time, attended this event, and told me it was an outstanding show.
On finishing the rice harvest of ’43 the Germans were gradually being sent back to Huntsville when a delegation from the lumber industry put forth a request for labor. During the early spring and summer of 1944, the POWs did a variety of jobs in and around Liberty County. I’m told that POWs cleared the land for Fairlawn Memorial Cemetery on the Wallisville road. I’m also told that a building contractor from Baytown hired a number of prisoners to build houses during the summer.
8
I was 14 years old in the summer of ’44 and I remember German prisoners coming close to my house in Hull to build a sawmill. The thing that bugged me about the whole thing was all the young girls of the town, sitting around watching those prisoners and giggling.
POWs harvested rice again during the fall of ’44. However, by this time a few combines were making their appearance in Liberty County and not as many prisoners were needed. A few prisoners stayed on after the harvest and worked at other jobs into 1945. One source indicated that 65 POWs were brought out from camp Polk, La. rather than from Huntsville. (Agent Hart denies this; said all POWs who were in Liberty came out of Huntsville).
In the entire state of Texas, where almost 100,000 German prisoners were interned, there were less than two dozen escape attempts – none successful. There was one sad incident with the Liberty contingent during the summer of ’44. A POW gang was clearing some timber in the area north of Dayton. A young German just laid down his axe and began walking up the road. The guard, after yelling halt three times, shot the prisoner.
In my search to find Liberty countians who knew something about this period, I found that most everybody during that time was either in the South Pacific or Europe. I’m quite sure these POWs were thankful for slapping mosquitoes on the Trinity rather than dodging Yankee lead on the Rhine. I found one fellow in Liberty, Norman Oglesby, who had been a train guard transporting the prisoners from east coast ports to various camps in Texas. Norman related several funny stories about his experiences.
Most Liberty countians will remember old Dr. Delaney. Doc was the official medical officer for the Liberty POWs. He got closer to the prisoners on a one-on-one basis than anyone else. After repatriation, Doc still corresponded with and received correspondence from prisoners who had stayed at Liberty during the war. (One such letter is on file at the Sam Houston Research Center).
I had all but given up finding any photos of the German POWs in Liberty County, when the East Liberty County Historical Society alerted me to the Raywood rice farmers. I talked at length with D.L Moss and George Stansbury and their wives. Both families were Raywood rice farmers during the ’40s and both contracted POW labor.
9
One of the more interesting stories told by these two was about the fascination the Germans had with water moccasin snakes that were in all the rice fields. It was not unusual, they said, to look up and see a POW walk by with a dead snake around his neck and four more dangling from his belt. I had heard of the fascination over snakes from several other sources. However, these Raywood rice farmers had pictures to prove it.
Repatriation started in November of 1945. The prisoners, having been drawn in from the satellite camps, were placed in large base-camps, and then aboard trains for the East Coast. Prisoners were being shipped home at the rate of 50,000 per month. There is some reason to believe that some of these prisoners were retained in Britain and France to help rebuild. The final boatload of 1,386 German POWs left New York Harbor July 22, 1946.
Although the echo of their passing grows more faint with every passing year, the city on the Trinity will not forget….
THE PASSING OF THE BACKHOUSE
James Whitcomb Riley
When memory keeps me company and moves to smiles or tears,
A weather-beaten object looms through the mist of years.
Behind the house and barn it stood, a half a mile or more,
And hurrying feet a path had made up to its swinging door.
Its architecture was a type of simple classic art,
But in the tragedy of life it played a leading part.
And oft the passing traveler drove slow and heaved a sigh,
To see the modest hired girl slip out with glances shy.
We had our posey garden that the women loved so well,
I loved it too, but better still I loved the stronger smell.
That filled the evening breeze so full of homely cheer,
And told the night o’ertaken tramp that human life was near.
On august afternoons, it made a little bower
Delightful, where my grandsire sat and whiled away an hour.
10
For here the Summer morning its very cares entwined,
And berry bushes reddened in the steaming soil behind.
All day fat spiders spun their webs to catch the buzzing flies
That flitted to and from the house, where ma was baking pies.
And once a swarm of hornets bold had built a palace there,
And stung my unsuspecting aunt—I must not tell you where.
Then father took a flaming pole—that was a happy day—
He nearly burned the building up—the hornets left to stay.
When Summer’s bloom began to fade and Winter to carouse,
W banked the little building with a heap of hemlock boughs.
But when the crust was on the snow and sullen skies were gray
In sooth the building was no place where one could wish to stay,
We did our duties promptly, there one purpose swayed the mind;
We tarried not, nor lingered long on what we left behind.
The torture of that icy seat would make a Spartan sob,
For needs must scrape the gooseflesh with a lacerating cob.
That from a frost-encrusted nail did dangle by a string—
My father was a frugal man and wanted not a thing.
When grandpa had “to go out back” and make his morning call,
We’d bundle up the dear old man with a muffle and a shawl.
I knew the hole on which he sat—t’was padded all around,
And once I dared to sit there—t’was all too wide I found.
My loins were all too little, and I jack-knifed there to stay.
They had to come and get me out, or I’d have passed away.
Then father said ambition was a thing that boys should shun,
And I just used the children’s hole ’till childhood days were done.
And still I marvel at the craft that cut those holes so true,
The baby hole, and the slender hole that fitted sister Sue.
That dear old country landmark; — I’ve tramped around a bit,
And in the lap of luxury my lot has been to sit,
But ere I die I’ll eat of the fruit of trees I robbed of your,
Then seek the shanty where my name is carved upon the door.
I ween the old familiar smell will soothe my jaded soul,
I’m now a man, but, none the less, I’ll try the children’s hole.
11
The Founding of Camp Polk *
June, 1996
Don C. Marler
From the 1890’s to the early 1900’s more than a score of large companies purchased huge tracts of timberland in the Neutral Zone of western Louisiana. They began cutting the timber in the 1890’s and were “cutout” by the 1930’s. Replanting the cut over land was not a common practice until near the end of the lumbering activities. When the cutting was done the companies had little interest in the land and paying taxes on it was a burden that they wished to avoid. Therefore, they sold large tracts of this land to the US Forest Service.1Since most of the land was owned by these large companies and the U.S. Forest Service, civilian inhabitants were sparse when the need for land for military training was at hand in 1939-40.
The area of central and west Louisiana in 1939 was an “open range” which meant that livestock ran free. There were few fences and those which did exist enclosed small farms keeping animals out rather than in. Even the highways were unfenced allowing farm animals access to them. Farmers believed that burning the range was beneficial to the livestock so each year, during the winter, a portion of the range was burned. The effect of this practice was to keep down growth of underbrush and to keep beneficial timber from regenerating. Consequently the land was barren except for isolated timber areas, strips of timber along creeks, green grass and the black stumps of the mighty trees that had been clear cut. In 1939 one could see little but black stumps for miles. The view was not unlike that of a battlefield.
From 1806 to 1821, during which time the area was declared a Neutral Zone by Spain and the United States, it was viewed by the government as a wild untamed area. In the early years outlaws living or operating in the area out-numbered the law abiding citizens. John Quincy Adams called it the backdoor to the United States because it was the entry point for contraband
12
goods and slaves into the country. The area was alternately tolerated and exploited as a staging area for filibusters into Spanish owned Texas. Indeed the Headquarters of the U.S. Army was located at Natchitoches. Thus, the precedent for using the area as a training and staging area for war was set long before the world events of 1940.
In 1935 the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which was administered by the U.S. Army and other branches of government, established Camp 5405 (Camp Vernon) on US Forest Service land at the site of what is now Fort Polk. The unit, made up largely of young men from Georgia, began immediately clearing the stumps from the site and erecting buildings for the CCC Camp. The objective of the Camp was to reforest the 110,000 acres of land owned by the US Forest Service.2Camp Polk was established at this CCC site and one of the original CCC buildings (used during WWII as Headquarters #2 and known today as the log cabin) is still in use at Fort Polk. 3
In 1939, with the successes of Hitler’s army, it became clear to the national leaders that the United States would eventually be pulled into the war. Hitler’s army was fighting a different styled war. His tactics involved fast moving mechanized units that covered large areas. The United States Army was not prepared for such warfare and the need for large scale training maneuvers to prepare for it was pressing. The western portion of Louisiana and part of east Texas was chosen in 1939 for the largest maneuvers ever held in the United States. Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower scouted the Sabine area in search of a training site. The Sabine area was chosen because the population was sparse, the lumber companies had already disturbed the land, and the land was relatively unproductive. The Army needed an area where damage claims could be kept to a minimum. The maneuvers began in May 1940.4
The Sabine area provided the Army ample opportunity to test its equipment and manpower. A variety of terrain and weather conditions confronted the troops during the maneuvers. They encountered rivers, bogs, hills, sand, clay, heavy river bottom (gumbo) mud, timbered land and open land. They experienced heavy rainfall and hot weather. The participants in the maneuvers recognized that the area was a good training ground. At the end of the 1940 maneuvers officers in charge were favorably impressed. For
13
examples, Lt. General Stanley Embrick thanked the populace for their “unfailing courtesy” toward the Army during the maneuvers and declared the training area “ideal”. General George Marshall declared the training area “the finest he had ever seen.”5 Thus, the maneuvers no doubt had a positive influence on future decisions regarding location of a permanent camp.At the state and local level many people were instrumental in bringing Camp Polk to the area. Among those officials who were instrumental were the following: the Governor of Louisiana in 1939-40 was Sam Jones, the U.S. Senators were John Overton and Allen Ellender, A. Leonard Allen was the U.S. Congressman from the Eighth Congressional District, where most of the maneuvers were held, and Jean M. King was Mayor of Leesville.
Senator Ellender was a supporter of President Roosevelt. Nevertheless, he did not favor America entering the war. He was, therefore, not active in bringing Camp Polk into existence. Once the war started, however, he gave his support to the war effort.6 Senator Overton wanted the facility to be established near Alexandria where he resided. Governor Jones wanted the training camp as near as possible to his home area (Merryville/DeRidder) and worked tirelessly to get it established there. He made numerous trips to Washington in the summer of 1940 and met with President Roosevelt and other officials. Rep. Allen extolled the virtues of the Sabine area and promised that more troops would come to the area for training.7
Jean King appointed committees to work with the military officials in preparing the way for the Camp. The Leesville Leader reported on October 3, 1940 that:
“… Saturday, the labors of the Vernon Parish Committee for Cooperation with Defense and Military Training seemed to show results. At 4:30 p.m. that afternoon a meeting of the committee was called and meeting with them were Major C. E. Morrison and Lieut. A.G. Sage, representing the army. Major Morrison, with detailed maps of the area needed, explained what was expected of the local body in order that the camp might be located in this parish, that is, leases on certain lands. He gave to the committee the names of the land owners, land description and acreage of each tract desired, He, (sic) also explained, that the army would like to have these leases handed in by the end of this week. After the meeting the committee
14
began at once securing options on the desired lands. All day Sunday the committee worked, and with the cooperation of clerk of court, Jack Hadnot and his force, they were able to turn over to the army Monday afternoon, title to the lands needed for a camp sight, (sic) bringing Vernon parish the first army camp in its history.8
No doubt the committee was encouraged by the fact that construction of Camp Claiborne, in Rapides Parish, had already begun on September 3, 1940. Troops began arriving at Claiborne in December 1940.9 Earlier in the year Governor Jones had named a State Defense Council to work with the National Defense Council on the nations defense problems.10
On the last day of the maneuvers a top level meeting was held to which Major General Lynch, Chief of the Infantry and Major General John Herr, Chief of the Cavalry, were not invited. They were not invited because the group intended to recommend that both branches were to be excluded from any role in developing the future of mechanized warfare. That responsibility was to go to a new organization — The Armored Force.11 Brigadier General Adna Chaffee was appointed as the Chief of the new Armored Force.12
The announcement that the new Camp Polk was to be located six miles south of Leesville was made on September 28,1940.13
Brigadier General Chaffee selected the general site for the new camp. Chaffee recommended that the camp should be located in the “Beauregard Area”.14
It is difficult to establish who decided that the CCC Camp (Camp Vernon-5405) would be the specific location of the new military camp. One flamboyant story concerns a local railroad man arranging for Col. Eisenhower to visit and reconnoiter the area. Mr. Gary Moore, Sr. wrote that in 1940 his grandfather Marvin Arthur Beaver, contacted Eisenhower in Washington, D.C. about reconnoitering the Vernon/Beauregard area. Mr. Beaver worked for Kansas City Southern Railroad and contacted the company Headquarters to request the use of its special “Presidential Car” to bring Col. Eisenhower to Louisiana for a tour of the area. The “KaySee” car, the epitome of luxury on the rails, was available and “Ike” was brought to the area. According to the published story, J.A. Porter loaned two horses and
15
Mr. Beaver and Eisenhower rode over the area where Ft. Polk is now located.15 There were, however, at least seven persons in the riding party including: M.A. Beaver, J. A. Porter, Mayor Jean M. King, Col. Eisenhower and other military officers.16 Certainly Col. Eisenhower had been involved in locating the site for the 1940 maneuvers, and it was logical for him to select the specific location for the camp in the “Beauregard Area” as General Chaffee had recommended. The general orders for creation of Camp Polk were issued on January 10, 1941.
Endnotes
1 W.T. Block, Early Sawmill Towns of the Louisiana-Texas Borderlands (Woodville: Dogwood Press, 1996), p. 169.
2 Official Annual of District “E”: Fourth Corps Area, CCC, 1935, pp. 62-63.
3 Interview with Vernon parish historian, Martha Palmer, March 1996. Ms. Palmer provided many of the documents related to the development of Camp Polk cited here.
4 C.E. Cantley and J.R. Kern, Cultural Resources Evaluations Fort Polk, Louisiana (Jackson, Michigan Gilbert/ Commonwealth, 1984), p. 270.
Nick Pollacia, Jr., “The Third Army Maneuvers, May, 1940: The First Of The Great Louisiana Maneuvers,” Thesis Northwestern State University, 1994.
Beauregard Daily News and Leesville Leader “50 Years: The Army and Louisiana,” 8 December,1989.
5. “Marshall Says U.S. Better Prepared Than Ever Before”. Alexandria Daily Town Talk, 14 Aug. 1940; Lieut. Gen. Embrick Thanks Lampkin for City’s Cooperation”,Alexandria Daily Town Talk, 29 May 1940 (Lamkin was the Mayor of Alexandria); “Maneuver Area ‘Ideal’, Asserts General Stanley”, Times Picayune, 13 May 1940.
16
6 Thomas A. Becnel, Senator Allen Ellender of Louisiana: A Biography (Baton Rouge, LSU Press,1995).
7. “Allen Talks on Maneuvers”, Alexandria Daily Town Talk, 13 June 1940.
States Times, “Jones Will Fly To Washington To Confer with Roosevelt and Other Officials On Many Matters,” 1 June, 1940.
States Times , “Jones Expects State to Share In Defense Plans: Governor Back from Washington Tells of Conferences,” 6 June 1940.
The Shreveport Times , February, 2 1942, reported that Gov. Sam Jones began in WWI as an enlisted man and was promoted to 2nd Lt. By the time of this report he was a Major in the Infantry Reserve. He was also an active member of the American Legion.
8. Leesville Leader, 3 October, 1940.
9. Concerning Claiborne, nd compiled by the Public Relations Office.
10. States Times, 16 June, 1940.
11. Mildred Hanson Gillie, Forging the Thunderbolt (Harrisburg, Pa.: The Military Service Publishing Company, 1947), pp. 163-4 as cited by Nick Pollacia, Jr., “The Third Army Maneuvers, May, 1940: The First Of The Great Louisiana Maneuvers,” Thesis Northwestern State University, 1994., p. 136.
12. Op. cit. Pollacia, p. 137.
13. Alexandria Daily Town Talk, “Site For Armored Division Sought”, 28 September, 1940.
14. Gillie, Forging The Thunderbolt, p. 189 as cited by Pollacia p. 148.
15. Leesville Leader, “Fancy Rail Car for Ike Helped get Fort Polk”, 31 May, 1990.
17
16. Telephone interview with Martha Palmer 4/96.
- Presented at the History of Fort Polk Seminar June 7, 2000 at Fort Polk.
A Lost School
Ms. Bessie Monk once told the editor’s mother, Bertha Dyess Marler, that there was for a short time a school north/north west of the current Oak Hill High School. It was less than a mile away and she did not remember its name. She said that William Powell and Waver Perry were two students there. My mother did not recall if Bessie was also a student there but thought she was. Anyone with information about this lost school please contact us.
COMMEMORATIVE COINS
In honor of the 200th birthday of Hineston this commemorative coin is made available. It should be an historic piece that reflects our memory of the place and most of all, its people —our forbearers.
When these are gone there will likely be no more. The cost including S & H is $12.50. Send to: Don C. Marler, 4209 Aspen Ct., Pineville, La. 71360
18
HINESTON CHRONICLES ARE FREE
The Chronicles are available free, but they are ONLINE only.
To get a notice of each publication please send your email address to the editor at:doncmarler@gmail.com
Comments
Post a Comment