I'm concluding my research into the Becker/Baker family and their immigration from New York to Canada, and later from Canada to Cleveland. I have made some amazing discoveries along the way, and feel I have a much better handle on when and why they immigrated from place to place. Here are some highlights and important discoveries I made along the way: I located a fabulous original photo of my great-grandfather Edward in a St. Catharines museum! While creating a timeline, I noticed that Joseph Becker's grandfather Peter Schiltz died in St. Catharines, Ontario, not in Sheldon, Wyoming, New York, where he lived. A Belgian cousin contacted me about our common Schiltz ancestors after reading a blog post. I discovered there were two Joseph Beckers in Sheldon, Wyoming, New York, who each had a son named Joseph. While attempting to separate them in land records, I came across the not-my-ancestor Joseph Becker's will in a Wyoming County deed book. Though my great-great-grandfathe
January 6, 2022: Maternal Grandfather - Thomas Joseph Kozlina (1910-1997)
By Nancy Gilbride Casey
Mom and grandpa Thomas Kozlina, 1938.1
Of all my grandparents, my mother's father Thomas Kozlina holds the most mystery for me. I did not know him well, as my grandparents divorced when I was little, and he moved back to Pennsylvania, while we lived in Ohio. We rarely saw him and given the circumstances, happy family stories were few.
Many of the details of his life I have gleaned from—of all things—newspaper articles. Upon rereading a few news clippings, I made a discovery I had totally overlooked before:
Grandpa served in the Civilian Conservation Corps—the CCC—from fall 1934-spring 1935.
"Pine Grove CCC 'Graduates' Fifty"
The March 1935 newspaper article details how the 329 Company based at the Pine Grove Furnace CCC camp held a banquet to celebrate the discharge of 50 men upon completion of their term. It noted camp honors, including that several men were awarded proficiency certificates for work completed at nearby Shippenberg Night School—among them Thomas J. Kozlina.2
The Civilian Conservation Corps was one of many public works
relief projects initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of
his New Deal. It targeted unemployed, unmarried men ages 18-25, who did unskilled manual labor, primarily focused on
conservation and development on rural local, state and federal lands.3 Men could enlist for 6 months, with an option to reenlist up for a total of 2 years.4
Pine Grove CCC entrance sign.5
Pine Grove Furnace was the first CCC camp in Pennsylvania, opening in May 1933. The camp was designated S-51—the S indicated it was a state forest project site. The group of men were given a company name, in this case Company 329. The camp was located 3 miles NW of South Mountain, near what is now Pine Grove Furnace State Park.6
Site selection for camps usually was based on environmental need. In this case, the forest around Pine Grove Furnace had been devastated by massive timber cutting to supply the charcoal needs of the nearby iron furnaces. Reforestation was one of the main goals for the camp.7
The camp was likely in a fairly rudimentary state when Thomas Kozlina joined the CCC in Fall 1934. The original corps would have begun building the camp from scratch in 1933—constructing the roads, mess hall, barracks and outbuildings, etc. The entire camp was not completed until 1939, well after Grandpa had served his six months ending in March 1935.8
Men at the Pine Grove Furnace CCC camp built Michaux Road, installed
telephone poles and electric lines, planted millions of trees and
improved facilities at the nearby state park. Pine Grove Furnace camp closed in 1941.9 From 1942-1945 the site became a WWII POW camp, and following the war, a church camp, which closed in 1972.
Pine Grove Furnace CCC Camp, now known as Camp Michaux, lies east of Shippensburg, Pa.
Overall in Pennsylvania, nearly 200,000 men like Grandpa Kozlina worked in 114 CCC camps, constructed over 6,000 miles of road, planted 50 million trees, and built 98 dams and 86 fire towers, in addition to recreation features like state parks still used by Pennsylvanians and visitors alike to this day.10
As to the particulars of Grandpa's service, stay tuned: I plan to obtain his CCC record from the National Archives. In the meantime, it's exciting to know that our family history holds a tiny piece of the CCC legacy in Pennsylvania.
BONUS VIDEO:
Be sure to check out this silent film footage from 1935, featuring the Pine Grove Furnace CCC camp. Grandpa Kozlina could be in some of these images....
NOTES
1 Anna Margaret Kozlina and Thomas Kozlina, about 1938, photographer and location unknown. Private collection of N. Casey [address for private use], 2022.
2"Pine Grove CCC 'Graduates" Fifty: Boys Leaving Tomorrow Honored at Farewell Dinner Party," The Sentinel (Carlisle, Pa.), 29 March 1935, p. 1, col. 7; image, Newspapers (file:///C:/Users/ngcin/AppData/Local/Temp/Thomas_J__Kozlina__Pine_Grove_CCC_Camp_329_1935.pdf : accessed 5 January 2022).
3Pennsylvania Conservation Heritage Project (https://paconservationheritage.org/stories/the-civilian-conservation-corps-ccc-1933-1942/ : accessed 5 January 2022), "The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) – 1933 – 1942."
4 David L. Smith. "Civilian Conservation Corps in Cumberland County." The Gardiner Digital Library. 2014-2016 (https://gardnerlibrary.org/encylopedia/civilian-conservation-corps-cumberland-county : accessed 5 January 2022).
5 Pine Grove CCC camp entrance sign, about 1933, photographer unknown; image Camp Michaux (http://www.schaeffersite.com/michaux/#CCC : accessed 6 Jan. 2022). Used with permission.
7 David L. Smith. "Civilian Conservation Corps in Cumberland County." The Gardiner Digital Library. 2014-2016.
8Ibid.
9Ibid.
10ExplorePaHistory.com, "Members of the Foresville CCC Camp, Wyoming State Forest District, Sullivan County, PA, May 16, 1933," (https://explorepahistory.com/displayimage.php?imgId=1-2-118E&storyId=1-9-1B : accessed 5 January 2022).
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