"I propose to create a Civilian Conservation Corps to be used in simple work… more important, however, than the material gains will be the moral and spiritual value of such work."
Franklin D. Roosevelt
March 9, 1933
Titus County, like the rest of the nation, experienced severe economic hardship during the Great Depression. Jobs were hard to obtain and didn't pay well when you could find one. As a consequence, some people were under-nourished and living conditions were harsh.
As part of his New Deal, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) by executive order as a public works program to provide work for over three million teenagers and young adults during the Great Depression of the 1930's and 1940's. The program allowed the young men to work and earn money to help support their families, gain some level of education, and learn new job skills while accomplishing a variety of worthwhile public works projects in the areas in and around where CCC Camps were located.
The Civilian Conservation Corps program lasted from April 5, 1933 to June 30, 1942 and was administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior, Department of Labor, and War Department. In all, 25 federal agencies participated in the program in some capacity. The young men enrolled lived in CCC camps that were located in every state in the United States plus Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. When the program was originally started, the men lived in "tent cities" of military style tents. Later in the program, more permanent barracks were built to provide better living accommodations.
The Corps was divided into nine areas, with an average of 1,643 camps per year operating in the United States. Mount Pleasant was in the eighth area, which included Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Wyoming (excluding Yellowstone National Park.)
On October 21, 1935, Mount Pleasant was awarded project number SCS-20 and a camp was established approximately one mile Northwest of Mount Pleasant on the Old Paris Road for Company 2886. You must remember that Mt. Pleasant was a much smaller community in 1935. The camp was located on the west side of what is now North Edwards Avenue, across from the the water tower and baseball field. The the standpipe mentioned in news stories about the camp stood immediately north of the water tower behind the TRAX building.
Eligibility requirements to enter the CCC program changed over the life of the program, but generally stated a young man of good character, whose family was on welfare, and who wanted to work but could not find work, could enroll in the CCC at 17 years of age. He must leave the program upon turning 24. Nationally, the average enrollee was 18 - 19 years old, weighed 147 pounds, and was 5'8" tall. During the first three months of enrollment, the young men gained an average of 11.5 pounds due to a regular diet and exercise from doing manual labor. Besides providing a labor pool for public works, the young men received training in driving, work safety, and other basic life skills. Academic courses were also given and forty thousand illiterate enrollees were taught to read. The young men were paid $30.00 per month, $25.00 of which must be sent home to support their families and the remaining $5.00 which they could spend. (Younger visitors may want to know that $30.00 in the 1930's bought more than it does now due to inflation of the currency. A 1930 Model A sold for $895.00. A Ford Crown Victoria lists for about $25,000.00 today.).
The Civilian Conservation Corps was later opened to girls, but there is no mention that girls were part of the local camp.
Nationally the CCC program was responsible for building 125,000 miles of roads, stringing 89,000 miles of telephone lines, building 13,100 miles of foot trails, developing 52,000 acres of public campgrounds and 800 state parks, and restoring 3,980 historic structures. Additionally, the program performed agricultural and soil conservation projects. The CCC re-vegetated 814,000 acres of range land, planted between 2 and 3 billion trees, re-stocked fishing areas, performed erosion control projects that benefited 40 million acres of farmland, installed 154 million square yards of stream and bank protection, and performed mosquito control on 248,000 acres. The men of the CCC also fought fires.
Locally, the CCC built Daingerfield State Park and the lake that it contains, cleaned cemeteries, and initiated soil conservation projects in conjunction with the Soil Conservation Service and other public projects.
The camps were organized somewhere between a Boy Scout camp and an army camp. In its beginning, the camp was overseen by military officers, but CCC camps were not military camps. The camp had its own system of discipline, although the boys enrolled there were good citizens and not trouble-makers. CCC enrollment was voluntary, and good character was one of the eligibility requirements for enrollees. Enrollees worked a normal workday like on any other job, and then were free to stay in camp, go into town for recreation, or to take advantage of higher educational opportunities that the camp provided for them. Educational opportunities were provided both in academic and vocational subjects, and enrollment in education programs was voluntary, except for illiterate enrollees who were required to learn to read. The camp had its own mess (dining) and medical facilities to care for the boys. Enrollees were given free medical and dental care, a balanced diet of good food, clothing, and shelter.
The camps were racially segregated, as was common elsewhere in the South at the time. The Mt. Pleasant camp was originally staffed by white boys, but as the nation began to arm for World War II and jobs became more plentiful, many boys who were in or would have otherwise been eligible to enter the camps joined the military or found better paying work. Newspaper articles published in latter 1941 state that the CCC held a meeting with Mt. Pleasant citizens to be sure that there would not be a problem if the camp was converted to Afro-American enrollees because not enough whites were available to do the work at hand. A resolution was passed giving the town's blessing to the conversion, and the white boys in the camp were given their choice of being honorably discharged from the CCC or moving to another camp. The results were about 50/50.
The local camp was a great asset to the community. The community embraced by the camp, and in turn the camp embraced the community. Various community groups held activities like barbeques, dances, and basketball games to show their appreciation to the boys in the camp who were very much a part of the community. The camp held events for the community like open houses so community members could see how the camp operated, boxing matches for local entertainment, and the camp provided a place for civic organizations and other meetings. The boys gave blood to help members of the community in emergencies. Members of the local camp also interacted with boys in other camps in the area through boxing matches, ball games, and other social activities. There were camps in Daingerfield, Bogata, and Winnsboro that we know of.
As camps were closed across the nation near the end of the program, Mt. Pleasant was one of the last four camps to remain in Texas. Unfortunately, some of the articles show racial prejudice as was common in the south. We realize that by today's standards they are politically incorrect, but for historical accuracy have presented them exactly as they were originally published. You may view the original articles on microfilm at the Mt. Pleasant Public Library.
The Mount Pleasant camp was also used as a "concentrating" camp in that new enrollees and boys from camps from around this area were temporarily sent to the Mt. Pleasant camp as a staging point, then shipped to other camps across the country where their services were needed on a long-term basis. Many were sent to Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona from Mt. Pleasant.
The Mount Pleasant Daily Times, the period's local newspaper, featured regular stories about the local CCC camp and projects. I included a large number of articles published in the period because in addition to the history of the CCC camp, the articles provide a glimpse into local lifestyles of the time.
Unfortunately, the Daily Times of the period did not contain any local photos. Therefore, we have no photos of the Mt. Pleasant camp or its activities. Since we have obtained other photos of the same time period, it is likely that individuals have photos of the local CCC camp or projects in their family scrapbooks. We would appreciate anyone having photos of the CCC Camp or projects in operation contacting us and giving us permission to post them on the website.
We could not display photographic images of the stories as they were originally printed due to the server disk space the graphics would require. We scanned the articles into standard text to provide information about the local camp and a glimpse into the camp life and projects that they were involved in. The stories are listed in chronological order by year.
If you would like more information on this subject, see:
The Mount Pleasant Public Library - Mount Pleasant Daily Times newspapers are available on microfilm.
Search newspapers from 1935-1942 for articles pertaining to the CCC in Titus County.
Click a link below to read all the Mt. Pleasant Daily Times stories regarding the Civilian Conservation Corps in Mt. Pleasant for the year indicated:
