Greenwood County History-
1930s (Part 7 of 10),
The following history of 1930 is the continuation of the column created by Mike Pitko in a chronological order.
In March 1936, the district head of National Youth Adm. (NYA) was in Eureka to discuss the possibility of obtaining NYA projects for Eureka. The NYA employs boys and girls the ages of 16 to 25 years, whose parents are now on the relief roll. The district head said that it would be possible to allow $3,000 for such projects in Eureka. Eureka city will sponsor the projects.
The district director of WPA was in Eureka talking to workers on the Eureka Lake project and told them all wages had been fixed by officials in Washington and that it was impossible to get any change. Wage rates in Greenwood County are the same as seventy-five other counties in the state. The chief engineer for the project said the project was the outstanding project in the district.
A controversy between members of the board of county commissioners and WPA officials has resulted in the closing of sewing rooms at Madison, Eureka and Severy, thereby throwing between thirty and forty women out of employment.
Some days ago, the WPA closed the sewing room at Madison on grounds that the supervisor of that room is not entitled to relief work and that county commissioner Mead insisted on her retention. The supervisor is the wife of the postmaster at Madison.
The county commissioners at a special meeting closed the other sewing rooms until satisfactory arrangements be made to reopen them. One of the commissioners did not agree with the closing. After two weeks the sewing rooms were reopened, after a supervisor who was eligible for relief was put in place at the Madison sewing room.
In July 1936, there were fifty openings in veterans CCC camps in Kansas. Ex-service men were not required to be on the relief rolls to apply under a new ruling. Application blanks can be obtained from the Greenwood County poor commissioner or post commander of the VFW.
In August 1936, farmers were hauling water for their stock but the city of Eureka need not fear a water shortage, said the city engineer of Eureka. Other places in Greenwood and Elk County territories are needing water badly. Moline is hauling water from Howard and Howard is digging new city wells. The Eureka engineer believes there are many cattle being shipped out of the county due to water and feed shortages. In searching back through Eureka weather records, he said he had not found a year since 1895 when less than 21 inches fell for the year. This year (1936) the city has only had 8.4 inches of rain.
Three new WPA projects were started in the county in September 1936. One was four and one-half miles of township road surfacing, beginning two and one-half miles west of Madison then southwest to the Seeley camp where twenty men received work. A lake for the City of Severy, located three miles east of Severy was stated. This lake will have a surface area of fifteen acres and employ forty men. Another project sponsored by the Fall River Township, two miles west of Climax will construct and surface six miles of Township road and employ twenty-four men.
Projects completed last winter and spring include the surfacing of forty-four blocks of streets in the City of Madison and the surfacing of twenty blocks in the City of Severy.
Due to the drought, embankment work on the Eureka Lake project was forced to shut down for a while or the earth work would have been completed. Most of the roads are now completed, except for surfacing. Dutch ovens and picnic facilities are to be provided soon and the public is invited to make use of them.
When charges were made against Governor Alf Landon for underpaying his employees some of them responded with affidavits defending the Governor. The following are two of those responses: I.R. Herrington has lived the last two years in Hamilton, Kansa and worked for the Governor. He has worked a total of ten years for the Governor. He is a pumper on a lease belonging to the Governor in Greenwood County, and his pay is $110 a month, a free house, lights, free fuel, free telephone and free water and that has been for the last three years. During all the time he has worked for the Governor, he has received as good or better wages than the average pumper in the same vicinity.
M.W. Colvin lives in Greenwood County and has worked for the Governor for about two years. He is employed as a truck driver and is paid $100 a month straight time. The wages are as good or better than the average truck drive in the same area.
John L. Hauserman who lives in Hamilton, has work for the Governor this last two years as a roustabout. He does not work straight time but when he works for the Governor his pay is $4 per day for an eight-hour day and that has been his scale of pay all the time he has worked for the Governor. That pay is as good or a better wage than the average roustabout in the same vicinity.
In October, 1936 the WPA lake project was in full progress. A shelter and tool house had been built. Twenty-four new men had been added to the project, bring the total work force to forty-nine, only six short of the quota. Out of the twenty-four new men, twenty-two were farmers. All of these men are from the southern end of Greenwood County, from Severy, Fall River and Piedmont. The tools and supplies also are being purchased from the local business firms.
Federal aid for farmers of Greenwood County is extended through Resettlement Adm. Grants can only be given under certain condition, the local RA supervisor stated.
The farmer must be in actual need and have exhausted all other credit resources. The farmer must live on a farm or actually have derived the major portion of his income from farming. The lack of funds and unusually heavy number of grant cases caused by the drought make it necessary to limit the grant program to real farmers. Residents of towns and villages and those farming operations that are only casual and secondary are not eligible.
More than 21,800 Kansas farmers are on WPA projects in Kansas as an emergency drought relief measure for the last few months will not be turned off penniless in mid-winter. Every farmer on WPA would be given a month’s check from the RRA without investigation to tide him over the period of transfer from WPA to RRA( Regional Rural Resettlement).
In December 1936, Kansas was third in total benefits payments received under the AAA program. Texas and Iowa got larger amounts. Kansas has received $ 104,451,341. Kansas wheat growers got 77 million dollars, Corn-hog, 26 million dollars, cotton, 9 thousand dollars, tobacco, 19 thousand dollars, and sugar, 271 thousand dollars.
By January 1937, over twenty-five ponds and wells have been completed under the Agricultural Conservation Range program. About $5,000 will be paid to farmers for ponds and wells. Plans for the construction of Eureka Lake have been chosen by the state WPA as the best plans submitted for lake WPA projects in Kansas.
Two schools of thought have divided housewives as to the effectiveness of two methods of ridding basements and closets of crickets, an insect that has been eating holes in dresses and peeling off fuzz from rugs.
One school contends the best method is poison, and large quantities of poisons of various kinds have been purchased locally in the fight against the plague. The other school of thought is sticking to the old-fashioned method of “planting” hedge balls about the house, contending that the juice from the fruit of the Osage orange tree is disagreeable to the crickets. So, if you go into a Eureka residence and find a number of large yellow balls in the corners of the rooms, don’t think the housewife is enjoying a game of croquet.
October 1937, there was anticipated a call for boys to enroll in CCC camp. There had been some changes in the eligibility requirements. Only single men between the ages of 17 and 23 are eligible for selection. An honorably discharged junior is ineligible for reselection for a period of six months following the date of his discharge; of then otherwise qualified he becomes eligible for reselection if his previous service does not exceed eighteen months. Unemployed and in need of employment :For the purpose of CCC selection the phrase unemployed and in need of employment shall be understood to cover unmarried junior applicants; otherwise qualified by age, citizenship, fitness and character; not regularly in attendance at school; not possessing other regular or full-time employment; who need the employment, the job training, the educational and other opportunities offered by the Civilian Conservation Corps; and who themselves or whose families, due to financial limitations, are not in a position to secure comparable experience and training.
“Dependents shall be defined for the purpose of CCC selection as those members of an enrollee’s family, who without the allotment of a portion of his CCC monthly cash allowance would be unable to maintain a normal standard of living.” Dependents may be either of blood or obligation. Applicants without dependents may be selected. Anyone interested in going to CCC camp should contact the welfare office in Eureka.
In November 1937, a count was taken and found 539 persons in Greenwood County unemployed and wanting work at that time. Of that number there were 438 males and 101 females. Working on WPA projects in the county when the count was taken were 233 persons, 186 males and 50 females.
Greenwood County and all of southeastern Kansas is slowly digging out from the heaviest snow that has visited this part of the state in twenty years. The fall at Eureka measured fully twelve inches and drifts on highways and streets reached a depth of four feet.
When the snowstorm struck last Friday, February 18, 1938 the county basketball tournament was in progress at the high school gym. That night a score or more persons from nearby towns who could not drive home remained in the high school building all night. Others went to the local hotels, which were crowded to capacity.
