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How Civilian Conservation Corps pumped much needed cash into Sussex
“In practically every case, Delaware boys are enjoying the camp life and have so expressed themselves to their commanding officers,” the Milford Chronicle reported on Sept. 15, 1933.
At the time, 453 Delaware men, with 65 from Sussex County, were working in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and the overwhelming majority of the enlistees were sending money home to help diminish the hardships of the Great Depression. The CCC had been launched with incredible speed, which would put today’s Congress to shame.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn in as president of the United States on March 4, 1933, and he immediately proposed the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps as a means of providing jobs for unemployed young men who would be put to work on soil erosion, flood control and other conservation projects.
Acting with unprecedented speed, the enabling legislation flew through Congress; and 37 days after Roosevelt took the oath of office, the first enlistee was enrolled in the CCC.
In November, the Delaware Coast News reported, “The Lewes camp has most buildings framed, 50 per cent having side walls already erected, part of them with roofs and the remaining 50 per cent skeleton framework in place.” When the first contingent of 25 enrollees arrived at Lewes, the buildings were unfinished, and the men were temporarily housed in tents.
Most members of the CCC were young men, but there were also some older recruits. According to the Milford Chronicle, “Any veteran of the World War, Spanish-American War, Philippine Insurrection and Boxer Rebellion, who is physically able to do ordinary manual labor in a work camp, is eligible for enrollment” for the Veterans’ Contingent of the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Eventually, 2,650 CCC camps that employed nearly 600,000 enlistees were established nationwide. The camps were staffed by army officers who used their military experience to organize and control the thousands of young men who joined the CCC.
When the enlistees reported for duty, they were divided into companies of 50 men. After the men were given a physical, they were served an Army mess kit meal of beans, pickles, bread, coffee and butter.
In addition to a camp at Lewes, the CCC established two camps near Georgetown and at other locations in Delaware. In addition to providing work, educational programs established by the CCC taught 40,000 enlistees how to read and write.
Working in the Civilian Conservation Corps provided desperately needed income for the enlistees, and they were required to send a portion of their pay to their families. At a time when money was so scarce in southern Delaware that many residents were reduced to bartering for goods and services, the Corps pumped an estimated $5,000 a month into the economy of Sussex County.
Many of the men were sent to the marshes to dig drainage ditches as a way of combating the Delaware coast’s incessant mosquito problem. Although these ditches may have had unforeseen ecological consequences, they are credited with a significant reduction of southern Delaware’s mosquito population.
The improving economy and the beginning of World War II ended the need to find employment for young men. The Civilian Conservation Corps was phased out of existence almost as quickly as it was created.
Principal sources
Milford Chronicle, Sept. 15, 1933.
Delaware Cost News, Nov. 11, 1933; June 6, 1934.
The New Deal Comes to Delaware, Delaware Public Archives, https://archivesfiles.delaware.gov/lesson-plans/12-the-new-deal-comes-to-delaware/12-01-the-new-deal-comes-to-delaware.pdf.
CCC Brief History, https://ccclegacy.org/CCC_Brief_History.html
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