Hill letter from Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Camp F-22 A Los Burros, AZ, 1933
The following letter was written by Jack Hill to his mother Bertha “Bert” Hill (my great grandmother) during his tour with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Thanks to the letter and firsthand accounts by others, we really get a sense of the hardships of the Great Depression and life at the work camps.
What follows is a transcript and scanned images of the letter along with information I was able to piece together. I was fortunate that Jack’s time with the CCC coincided with a Marshall Wood who took the time to write about his time there.
Letter:
Page 1:
Camp F22 A Los Burros
McNary Arz (Arizona)
9/19/1933
Dear Mother:
I received your letter yesterday and was sure glad to hear from you. Well I got over my blues and signed up for another 6 months. We was aiming to move to winter quarters and they told us we could either go home or stay six months more. We are going to start on six months the first. That will throw us to get out next April the first. We get an 18 day furlough plus the traveling time.
Page 2 (Back):
If you all rent a big place and need any help you can write the captain that I am needed at home and to discharge me and I would be at home in side of 10 days. It isn’t so bad as a fellow. I was aiming to come home the first but I got to thinking about how times was there so I just signed up again. I want you to save as much as possible so I can buy me a few clothes when I get back. I want me a saddle to if you save me enough. That’s the reason I’m staying just because I can get me some things that I have always wanted. I don’t care about
Page 3:
the money that I’ve already made but I do want some of the checks for the next six months. What you don’t need put it in the bank for me.
I reckon Ruth is getting to be a great big girl now isn’t she. I sure would love to see her. I don’t guess she would know me now. I know she wont know me when I get back.
Well I guess you all have about all the corn pulled now mustn’t you. I hope you don’t loose any of it. What did you do with the (dorso?)? I guess it made a pretty good pile of it didn’t you?
Page 4 (Back):
I sure hope you get a good place some where.
Well I’m sorry you have been sick. I haven’t been what you call sick a day since I’ve been here. That’s one thing about out here it sure is a healthy climate. You sure feel good when you wake up in the mornings. Say ma if you want you a sheep buy one some where. I’m still making a dollar per and my beans.
So Reba and her old man still peddling apples. They must do pretty good at it or they wouldn’t keep it up.
Page 5:
God damn how many kids is Sam Roe going to have? That makes about 14 don’t it?
Well I guess I wont be there for the guinea chase this year. I will still be in the CCC’s at that time.
Well I will close for this time (so ams) soon in a long letter.
As ever
Jack
Page 6 (back):
I am sending you some pictures of the Petrified Forest. I have sold the most of them. I’ll have to wait until payday to have some more made.
Jack
Background:
Bertha Hill (Jack’s mother) was bedridden for three years after having a miscarriage with twins. My mother, Sylvia Jean Abbott Kuykendall (Bertha’s granddaughter), remembers hearing of how these times were especially tough. Reading between the lines, I can see how hard it would be for a young man to leave his home and you can hear the home sickness in his letter. After three years of being bed ridden, Bertha Hill did recover.
One of the fellow workers, Marshall Wood, did a thorough documentation of his time in the book, The Civilian Conservation Corps in Arizona’s Rim Country Working in the Woods by Robert J. Moore, that coincides with the date of this letter.
Interesting facts in Marshall Wood’s account:
- The camp was established June 3rd 1933. Jack’s letter was dated September 19th 1933. Camp Officials:
- Captain E. C. Runge, commanding officer
- Captain D. M. Walker
- Wood’s account talks about leaving El Paso for the camp. They were given burlap bags full of bread to sustain them until the supplies could catch up. The bread got old and they resorted to boiling beef bones to make a type of beef gravy broth (Page 67).The supply train did not arrive until their third week of occupation. By this time there were 260 men in camp and a considerable portion had diarrhea. The letter by Wood tells of a story whereby the commanding officer Captain Runge and Captain Walker used their personal funds to secure canned goods, eggs, potatoes and other “foodstuffs” to tide them over.Jack speaks of getting over the blues. If the camp was established in June, then three weeks would have been about August. The letter is dated September 19th. By then they would have been fed and the camp supplied.
- I find Jack’s after thought note on the back of the last page particularly interesting. Apparently they had access to a camera. Jack’s note about having more pictures made seems to tie in with the personal pictures Wood’s had made.
- Like Marshall Wood, Jack Hill may also have spent his days reducing the prairie dog population and fencing the public campgrounds at Lakeside.
- Jack was allowed to keep 5 dollars of his paycheck and had to send the rest home.
- Jack’s family was from El Campo, Texas. I find the envelope particularly fascinating. Imagine you could just put a person’s name, city and state and it would actually get there.