"30 Years of Commitment Combined with Second Generation Appreciation"
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"30 Years of Commitment Combined with Second Generation Appreciation"
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This area of the website is a new feature. If you have a CCC story and photo that you would like to share, please email ccc@ccclegacy.org Click photos to enlarge NACCCA Chapter #13 Newsletter history stories: Click here Fred B. Helsley - Co. #322 - Virginia - Camp RooseveltNF-1 George Washington National Forest - Camp RooseveltRailroad: Edinburg, VA Post Office: Edinburg, VA
From the April 2005 CCC Legacy Newsletter. Many of us will long remember Fred B. Helsley
of Columbia Furnace, Virginia. Like
Moon Mullins who has gone before him, he was a long time supporter of
the Civilian Conservation Corps and played an important part in
serving as the impetus so the CCC Legacy Foundation could go forward.
Mr. Helsley did help to “pass the legacy to the next
generation.” In 1996, Chanda Helsley Barkdoll wrote a
paper as part of her college studies.
Excepts from this paper will
serve as the memorial tribute to her grandfather, Fred B. Helsley. Excerpt from “Camp Roosevelt” ...In order to better understand the history
of Camp Roosevelt, the focus will be put on the stories of four men.
These men all experienced the same atmosphere but from
different perspectives. They
came from several areas, with numerous varied experiences,
and diverse outlooks. Although
the history is the same, the definition is different.
In 1933, a young man by the name of Fred B.
Helsley went into the town of Woodstock to enlist with the Forestry
Service (CCC). He was
accepted and sent to Fort Humphries for two weeks, then to Skyline
Drive. What he found there
was a camp made of tents, permanent structures were not built.
The conditions were not always suitable.
One morning when he awake he found snow on his pillow.
When it rained, the men would loosen the reigns on the tent in
order to keep the tents from washing away.
If it was windy they would tighten the reigns, so they would
not blow away. The camp
consisted of ten tents and two-hundred men.
They built five barracks, a mess hall, a bath house, and a
recreation room. The day
they moved into the barracks from the tent it was sleeting and
snowing. Duties included sloping and sodding banks,
landscaping, building roads and trails, fighting forest fires, and
cutting wood. Mr. Helsley
was in charge of twenty men. His
title was that of Squad leader, he hadn’t been there very long
before he was given this position.
The men receive $30 a month, $25 of which was
sent home to the family. Those
who had been in for a while received $36 a month and were allowed to
keep $11 for themselves. As
Squad Leader, Mr. Helsley received $45 a month, $30 of which was sent
home. For recreation the men played baseball,
football, or cards, and went into Charlottesville on Saturdays to see
a show. They could only
take two trucks into Charlottesville.
Some men could not go because of punishment.
When it snowed Lt. (Dr.) Murray would tie ropes behind the
trucks and put the men on skis. The first winter at camp was unpleasant.
The February of 1934 they only worked ten days cutting wood.
The men often burned their pants when attempting to get warm.
It was considerably cold, they often found their shoes frozen
to the floor. The second
winter was not as unfavorable because they had received a coal
furnace, although someone had to stay up and watch it through the
night. Lt. (Dr.) Murray referred to Mr. Helsley as
simply Helsley. The doctor
wanted Helsley to catch a rattlesnake for him so he went and caught
two for him and put them in a cage.
He took out the fangs of them both and the two of them treated
the snakes like pets. After
one died they discovered that both had grown new fangs.
In fact Helsley was very good at catching snakes.
He would take a stick and tie a fork on to it with a loop and
slip it over the snakes head and then pick it up.
He caught many copperheads and rattlesnakes, which were then
sent to Baltimore. Although,
he was not quite sure why they wanted live snakes, it appears it was
for the medication to combat snake bites.
The Forest Service would send them to a laboratory.
Helsley was the only one who would trap them.
He never was bitten by a poisonous snake but recalls being
bitten by several black snakes. He
also took the stomachs of hawks, skunks, and turkeys and put them in
formaldehyde and sent them away. Fighting forest fires was one of the most
tiring jobs. In order to
fight the fires, the men would rack out a fire line by removing
debris. They then would
light back fires and patrol it. Thus
stopping the fire from continuing any further.
During his stay in the CCC, Mr. Helsley had
the opportunity to sit on stage with President Roosevelt and hear him
speak. After leaving the
CCC, Mr. Helsley returned home, but not for long.
Mr. Wilkins, head of Camp Roosevelt, asked for him to become a
forest service foreman. Mr.
Helsley taught men how to drive the trucks and do carpentry work. In 1944, like most young men his age, Mr.
Helsley was examined for the Army.
They found a spot on his lungs and he was sent to
Charlottesville for ten months. The
spot was tuberculosis. He had to be sent into a sanatorium for
treatment. When he
returned to Edinburg, he worked as a carpentry foreman with Newman
Building Materials. However,
he continued to be the Fire Warden for the Department of Forestry
Department until the age of 65, at which time he handed the position
over to his youngest son, Randy. |
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