This Month in Rockingham County History: August - Civilian Conservation Camp Victor

(Above: Image of Camp Victor from H. Lee Waters film, Madison, NC and Mayodan, NC, Reel 3, circa 1939-1941)

1935

​In August 1935, a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp was established in Rockingham County. Located about one mile west of Madison, Company 3417 or Camp Victor as it was named, provided employment, educational opportunities, and practical training for young men ages 18 to 28. Named Camp Victor in honor of Victor H. Idol, a local businessman who provided the land, the camp opened on August 13, 1935, in the vicinity of the present-day Idol Park off Highway 311 West in Madison.

​Created as a part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), in FDR’s own words, was intended “to supply employment to young men unable to obtain work and to develop our forests, parks, fields and streams.” 

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(Above: Image of Camp Victor from H. Lee Waters film, Madison, NC and Mayodan, NC, Reel 3, circa 1939-1941)

An estimated five to seven million young men, ages 16 to 25, were unemployed in 1933, when the first CCC camp in the nation was opened in April of that year in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. At the same time, there was much work that needed to be done to restore the nation’s natural resources, many of which had been lost to erosion, soil depletion, and deforestation. Camps labeled “companies” were eventually located in every state. The nation was divided into nine regions, known as “corps,” and within North Carolina there were three districts. Camp Victor was in District A, which stretched from the mountains in Buncombe County to the coast. Camp commanders made bi-monthly trips to Fort Bragg, District A headquarters, to make reports and get supplies.

   To participate in the CCC, recruits had to register and take an entrance exam. Local enrollees typically did so at district offices in Greensboro, but were assigned to camps all over North Carolina and were not necessarily attached to the Madison unit. Staffed mainly by U.S. Army personnel, Camp Victor had a camp educational adviser and its own medical doctor, but at times also contracted with Dr. Paul C. Carter of Madison as its physician. At its highest enrollment, the camp provided employment and boarding to about two hundred young men. 
 
   The local weekly newspaper, The Messenger, regularly covered the work and activities of Camp 3417 and provided a good overview of their accomplishments and interaction with folks in the Madison vicinity. In the newspaper’s pages, area citizens had already had some opportunities to read about the CCC program, even before the Madison unit was established. In 1934, the paper ran a series of articles written by Sherwood Anderson, the well-known novelist and short story writer. Anderson was the father of Mimi Spear, who with her husband Russell came to Madison that year to purchase and edit The Messenger. Anderson wrote of the CCC camps he observed as he traveled through the South as a “tremendous educational experiment,” providing an education in nature, “a kind of man-making process that factory work and clerkships haven’t as yet been able to bring into men’s lives.”

​While the camp operated outside Madison, there was a steady influx of young, mostly single, men into the area. The Army was responsible for their welfare—feeding, clothing, and sheltering them and maintaining their health and safety. 

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(Above: Image of Camp Victor from H. Lee Waters film, Madison, NC and Mayodan, NC, Reel 3, circa 1939-1941)

The daily routine included morning exercise at 6 a.m., “three square meals a day,” and bedtime (with a bed check) at 10:30 p.m. Behavior on and off the camp was monitored, and the Army assured the Madison community that they would tolerate no “intoxication, depredation, rowdyism, or trespassing” by members of the CCC. They did, however, caution local merchants to do business with the young men on a cash basis, as their debts would not be covered by Army funds.
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   At its core, the CCC was a job creation program, providing employment during a time of severe economic crisis, when close to a third of North Carolina’s citizens were on federal relief. A quota system based on the 1930 census was established for the CCC—one enrollee for every 500 persons in a state. In the first month of the program, North Carolina was allotted 7,650 recruits, but local agencies had to work out details as openings in camps became available. Rockingham County’s quota in January1937, for example, was twelve recruits—ten whites and two African Americans. In 1939, recruitment periods sought 24 whites and six blacks from the county in March and nineteen whites and eight blacks in October. The program was overseen locally by the superintendent of public welfare, Mrs. John Lee Wilson. Potential CCC members had to apply through her office and then applicants moved on to examination.
 
   Pay for the young men of the CCC was $30 per month, $25 of which had to be sent home to parents or other dependents. As noted by historian Harley E. Jolley, while the five dollars left to each young man might seem a small amount to today’s consumer, in terms of Depression-era dollars, it gave the CCC youth some “respectable purchasing power.” For instance, those at the Madison camp might have gone into town to shop at McGehee & Co., where they could have bought items for after-work hours or life after the CCC—a dress shirt for 79 cents, a man’s overcoat or suede jacket for $4.48, or a Sunday suit for only $7.95. Should they have desired a meal outside the camp, they could have enjoyed a lunch plate at Grogan’s Restaurant with a meat, four vegetables, drink, and dessert for only 35 cents. And, if their required 10:30 bedtime had not prevented it, men from Camp Victor might have taken in a late night Saturday film at the Patovi Theater for only a dime.
 
   While some of the CCC units in North Carolina were established on military lands or affiliated with the National Forest Service or national parks, Camp Victor was one of about three dozen sites in the state assigned to the Soil Conservation Service (SCS). The young men were tasked with soil and water conservation and erosion control on area farms. Local farmers who agreed to work with the young men of the CCC were called “cooperators.” The work of the Madison CCC camp was extensive throughout the 25-mile radius in which they were assigned to operate. Only two years into their work, Camp Victor enrollees had completed 130 cooperative agreements with farmers in Rockingham, Stokes, and Forsyth counties, contouring furrows, planting trees, and performing other needed tasks that would improve agricultural lands and literally keep the soil from washing away.
 
   By 1937, the Madison CCC workers had constructed 96 miles of a new type of agricultural terrace, introducing a novel farming method to the region. They also made land surveys and soil maps of more than 200 local farms. It was complicated work to determine the slope of the land, the degree of erosion, and to plan the best ways to control the damage, with seventy-five different types of soil identified in Rockingham and Stokes counties. The camp enrollees also had a “demonstration plot” of various grasses alongside the Madison to Greensboro highway, showing how these plants adapted to different soils. In addition, more than fifty talks were presented at Camp Victor to area farmers on soil conservation and nearly 300,000 tree seedlings were planted on “steep and badly eroded areas” that the CCC workers expected would become 45 acres of timber for future generations.  
 
   Over time, the young men of the CCC also created an increasingly comfortable and pleasant camp for themselves. While local laborers and carpenters built the fourteen original camp buildings, including four barracks, camp enrollees did much of the subsequent work at the site. 

They constructed archways at the two entrances to the camp as well as a bell tower. They planted cedar trees and over one thousand other plants, including roses and lilacs, that were donated by a local nursery, enhancing the landscape at Camp Victor.

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(Above: Image of Camp Victor from H. Lee Waters film, Madison, NC and Mayodan, NC, Reel 3, circa 1939-1941)

Facilities were constantly improved. Two years in, new cypress tabletops were added to all the mess hall tables and the company canteen was remodeled. A new laundry facility along with a barber shop was built with funds earned from sales at the Camp Exchange and, in 1937, Camp Victor was said to boast “one of the best company stores in North Carolina.” When it became apparent that the water supply from Madison was “inadequate” to meet the needs of Company 3417, a 190-foot deep well was dug at the camp.
 
   There was a good deal of movement of personnel and enrollees in and out of Camp Victor. The earliest camp members came to Rockingham County from Florida, one hundred from Jacksonville and 75 more from Live Oak. Later, others came to Madison from the Hattiesburg, Mississippi area. Enrollees were sometimes moved from one North Carolina camp to another, such as the 28 who were reassigned to Madison from Winston-Salem in January 1936 or the five who left for a camp in Polkton, NC, in April of that year. Army leadership was reassigned periodically and new recruits came in, often forty at a time, as other young men completed their two-year work limit with the CCC and left the camp.
 
   When these two years were up, some sought work locally, as securing jobs outside of the CCC was the ultimate goal of their training. In September 1937, the local newspaper, the Messenger, advertised that forty CCC men were available to take jobs in the vicinity of the camp, all promoted as “alert, courteous, well-trained, and capable young men” who could perform a variety of jobs—from carpentry and auto mechanics to typing, cooking, painting, and surveying. In two weeks, fifteen found jobs in the Madison area. Another fifty completed their experience at the camp in early 1939 and again sought local employment.
 
   During their after-work hours, the young men of the Madison CCC camp could pursue educational outlets, games, and sports. Foremost in the plans for the program were schooling opportunities, which ranged from basic literacy instruction to detailed studies of trades and vocations. Among CCC enrollees in southern states, six percent were judged unable to read and write. In January 1936, nine of the Madison camp’s enrollees were identified as illiterate, “unable to read a newspaper or write a letter.” These camp members attended classes in spelling, reading, and arithmetic twice a week while employed by the CCC. Many of the young men received vocational certificates as they finished training courses while at the camp. Like many other camps, Company 3417 produced its own monthly newspaper, The Piney Pick Axe, first published in April 1936. The production of such a publication could serve as an educational tool in spelling, writing, typing, and critical thinking. The camp also had a library where camp members could read three daily newspapers or some of the forty-four popular and educational magazines that arrived each month.
 
   In addition to bettering himself academically and vocationally, each young man was “urged to participate in some athletic activity,” and there were many sports and games to choose from. Two camp baseball clubs played in a Winston-Salem league and had games against other CCC teams, such as the one from nearby Danbury. Playing as the Camp Victor Hornets, they hosted many area teams on the camp diamond, including Ayersville to whom they lost 7-5 in April 1937. Camp Victor’s basketball team played games against local school and community teams, as well as other CCC camps in the area, including Burlington and High Point. The facilities boasted two “well kept tennis courts,” a volleyball court, and a pit for high jumping. Some enrollees played billiards nightly on two regulation pool tables in the recreation hall. The young men could also swim and take lifesaving instruction at a Boy Scout lake, or throw horseshoes, which the camp members called “barnyard golf.” Twenty-five of the men played handball regularly and there were even boxing competitions. “Camp Victor offers every opportunity to improve the physical self,” one observer noted. Still more than once, illness swept through the camp, with thirty young men down with various illnesses in February 1936, followed by a “severe Spring epidemic of German Measles” with more than sixty stricken in April.
 
   From the outset, camp leaders sought “pleasant and amiable” relationships with the civilians nearby. Local people were frequently invited to come to the camp, to observe its educational activities, and tour its facilities. One “open house” event at Camp Victor in 1937 drew more than 700 visitors, including several classes from the Madison schools. The mayor of Madison, C. G. Moore, who had previously toured several CCC camps in Florida, came away from his visit to the local camp with the opinion that it was “by far the best equipped, best managed, cleanest, and most attractive” of any he had seen.
 
   Dances to which local residents were invited were held at Camp Victor. The success of  “a very enjoyable dance” in January 1936 with 150 attendees led to others. One such event the following May “for the CCC boys and townspeople” featured the Lucky Strike orchestra, a group of talented black musicians from Reidsville. For the festivities held from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., the Number 4 barracks building was decorated with crepe paper and honeysuckle vines.
 
   The young men also participated in many citizenship and community-building activities while at the camp and were regarded as helpful citizens in several encounters. In January 1937, they raised $35.40 for Red Cross flood relief along the Mississippi. They were able to visit the Guilford Courthouse Battleground one Sunday afternoon and learned about the area’s Revolutionary War history. Five camp members were lauded in the local newspaper for “their thoughtfulness to a motorist in distress” and their quick action in putting out an automobile fire they saw as they traveled to work on Highway 220 outside Madison. Another group of young men from the camp learned that nine of a family of eleven who lived near Madison were stricken in mid-winter with the flu and lacked firewood. The group borrowed a truck from the project superintendent, located and chopped wood, and delivered a truckload to the needy family. In June 1936, fifty CCC enrollees worked quickly to put out a forest fire that started near an old sawmill about six miles from Madison on the Walnut Cove road and were able to contain the damage to two hundred acres. When a heavy snow shut down regular camp activities, two crews from Camp Victor even cleared the main streets of Madison and Mayodan.   

Other nearby CCC camps included those located in Ridgeway across the state line in Virginia, Yanceyville in Caswell County, and at Walnut Cove and Danbury in Stokes County. 

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(Above: Clearing bed for planting, Camp Victor, Company Annual, CCC District A, 1939)

Some, like the Danbury camp, were specifically assigned to develop parks and improve forested areas. Camp Mountain View, as the Danbury unit was named, has been especially noted for its valuable conservation and construction efforts at what became Hanging Rock State Park. CCC enrollees there built a park road, hiking trails, picnic shelters, a swimming area, a stone bathhouse, and even a concrete and earthen dam.
  
   During the nine years of the Civilian Conservation Corps program’s existence, camps experienced change. Some shifted their personnel or tasks to meet the needs at hand. At least sixty-six camps employing approximately 14,000 young men functioned in North Carolina during these years, with several others forming for short or limited assignments. As the work projects near camps were completed, some units were disbanded, and all CCC camps were in the process of closing by 1942. Camp Victor was one of eleven CCC camps in NC marked for closure in budget cuts in March 1940. Despite the fact that local people expressed strong support for maintaining the Madison camp, it was evacuated in September 1940 and most of its men moved to Sanford.
 
   President Roosevelt wrote in praise of the CCC: “You Men of the Civilian Conservation Corps have helped the nation. In return, you have benefitted physically and spiritually.” Russell Spear, the Messenger editor, echoed these sentiments. “In our opinion,” he wrote, “the CCC has done...a fine and desperately necessary work. Saving the land.” Highlighting the challenging task assigned to the CCC in Rockingham County, the journalist argued that they had made remarkable contributions, even though they were working in a location where only about 35 percent of the land was “good for even a paying crop of any kind.” The CCC’s conservation work in the area had done more than any other government initiative to help local people, he contended. Years later, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote that the CCC was, in fact, the New Deal program in which her husband took the most pride, an organization whose purposes were, according to FDR: “Both to save a generation of upright and eager young men and to help save ​and restore our threatened resources.”

(Above: Scenes of Camp Life, Camp Victor, Official Annual, CCC District A, Fourth Corps Area, 1936, 102)

Many thanks for their help with this article: Teresa Frohock, Mary Gomez, and the staff at the James Library, Rockingham Community College Historical Collections; Jean and Jeff Bullins; Jason Anthony, Park Ranger, Hanging Rock State Park.

References
The Messenger (Madison, NC): Sherwood Anderson, “I Want To Work,” June 7, 1934, 5; Sherwood Anderson, “Tough Babes in the Woods,” June 28, 1934, 4; “Interesting Facts about Local C.C.C.,” July 11, 1935, 1; “Soil Erosion To Be Taught in CCC,” July 25, 1935, 2; “Important Notice,” August 8, 1935, 1; “General Policies of CCC Soil Erosion Work,” August 15, 1935, 2; “Madison C.C.C. Camp Near Completion,” August 22, 1935, 1; “C.C.C. Camp Here Named for V. H. Idol,” August 22, 1935, 1; “C.C.C. Superintendent Urges Farmers To Sign Up,” October 24, 1935; “CCC Boys Now Busy in the Field,” October 31, 1935; “Soil Conservation Service Makes Fine Progress in County,” December 12, 1935, 1; “Work Progresses at Camp Victor,” January 16, 1936; “Week’s News from Camp Victor,” January 23, 1936, 1; “CCC Boys Visit Battleground,” January 30, 1936; “Educational Program at Camp Victor Progresses,” March 19, 1936; “12 Rockingham Boys Given Jobs with CCC,” January 7, 1937, 1; “Monday Last Day for CCC Applications,” July 2, 1936; “Must Register by Next Tuesday for CCC Jobs,” September 17, 1936, 1; “CCC To Increase Enrollment,” December 24, 1936; “Mayodan Town Team Wins over Rideway CCC Camp,” February 11, 1937, 6; “Camp Laundry Began Operation Monday of Last Week,” March 18, 1937; “Camp Victor To Celebrate Anniversary Next Tuesday,” April 1, 1937; “Camp Victor,” editorial, April 1, 1937, 4; “Mayor Commends Progressiveness of Camp Victor,” April 8, 1937, 1; “Ayersville Defeats CCC 7 to 5,” April 8, 1937, 1; “Civilian Conservation Corps,” editorial, April 8, 1937, 4; “Important Farm Meeting To Be at Camp Victor,” June 10, 1937, 1; “Sports and Athletics at CCC Camp,” June 10, 1937, 1; “Camp Victor Boys Set Out Thousand Shrubs Here,” June 10, 1937, 2; “CCC Men Available for Positions,” September 16, 1937, 1; Ad, McGehee & Co., November 25, 1937, 3; “CCC Boys Registered for Jobs,” January 26, 1939, 1; “Mr. Lassiter Speaks to C.C.C. Enrollees,” February 9, 1939, 1; “Openings for C.C.C. Enrollees, Local Camps,” March 23, 1939, 1; “Citizens Invited To Visit Camp Victor on April 6,” March 30, 1939, 1; Ad, Patovi Theater, April 13, 1939, 2; Ad, Grogan’s Tourist Court Restaurant, June 22, 1939, 5; “County Is Allotted CCC Enrollment,” September 21, 1939, 1; “CCC Enrollment for County Next Month,” December 21, 1939, 1; “Camp Victor May Be Closed,” March 21, 1940, 1; “CCC Camp To Be Evacuated Early This Week,” September 12, 1940, 1; “Camp Victor News,” October 24, 1935; January 16, 1936; February 13, 1936; March 5, 1936, 1; March 19, 1936; April 2, 1936; April 9, 1936; April 16, 1936; April 23, 1936; April 30, 1936; May 14, 1936; May 21, 1936; May 28, 1936; June 25, 1936; August 13, 1936; August 27, 1936; September 10, 1936; November 12, 1936; November 26, 1936; December 24, 1936; January 14, 1937, 1; February 4, 1937, 4; Other sources: Harley E. Jolley, ‘That Magnificent Army of Youth and Peace’: The Civilian Conservation Corps in North Carolina, 1933-1942 (Raleigh, NC: Office of Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 2007), 1, 2, 6 (Eleanor Roosevelt quoted), 8 (FDR “save a generation” quotation), 11(NC quotas), 13, 35, 49 (“purchasing” quotation), 84, 139-143; Civilian Conservation Corps Legacy, Edinburg, VA, http://ccclegacy.org/CCC_Camp_Lists.html; H. Lee Waters film, Madison, NC and Mayodan, NC, Reel 3, circa 1939-1941; “Civilian Conservation Corps Established,” This Day in North Carolina History, North Carolina  Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, https://www.ncdcr.gov/blog/2013/03/31/civilian-conservation-corps-established#:~:text=In%20North%20Carolina%20the%20CCC,construct%20barracks%20and%20other%20buildings; Official Annual, CCC District A, Fourth Corps Area, 1936, 100-102; Company Annual, CCC District A, 1939; Hanging Rock State Park, History, https://www.ncparks.gov/hanging-rock-state-park/history. Unless otherwise noted, quotations are from The Messenger, Madison, NC.