The New Deal and the story of a New Mexican family

New Mexico has more than 300 buildings and other structures built by the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps nearly a century ago. These buildings include courthouses, schools, women’s clubs and some structures and trails on National Parks and Monuments such as those at Bandelier National Monument and Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The […]

The New Deal and the story of a New Mexican family

New Mexico has more than 300 buildings and other structures built by the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps nearly a century ago.

These buildings include courthouses, schools, women’s clubs and some structures and trails on National Parks and Monuments such as those at Bandelier National Monument and Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

The CCC and WPA could not have been successful without the people working for them.

One of these workers was Donald C. Woolsey of Comanche, Texas, father of Joann Tally of Alamogordo.

“Daddy did everything to support America,” Tally said.

Woolsey asked to join the CCC when he was 18 years old in 1933 when it came to Comanche. Unfortunately, at the time, they only needed one person from each county. 

When the person the CCC had hired for the county did not show up, Woolsey took his place and thus began his life of service to his country, including service as a medical officer in WWII and the Korean War.

Tally said after the Korean War ended, her father could have taken two years of school to become a full medical doctor, which he did not want to do, she said.

Woolsey was part of the CCC Company #872 Brownwood, Texas District.

A photo of the Sandia Park Civilian Conservation Corps Camp in the 1930s on display at the Tularosa Basin Museum of History.
A photo of the Sandia Park Civilian Conservation Corps Camp in the 1930s on display at the Tularosa Basin Museum of History.

CCC workers were paid $25-$30 per month with the workers keeping $5 and the rest being sent home to their families.

Twenty-five dollars in 1933 is about $532 in 2022 money and $30 is about $638 in 2022.

In October 1937, Woolsey ended up in Tucumcari where a friend of his, Alvin Clemmer, asked if he’d like to go to a bonfire at the local high school. 

Woolsey went to the bonfire and met his future wife Grace Miller.

Miller’s father ran a construction company and when Woolsey left the CCC, he worked for his father-in-law.

Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 1941, Woolsey packed up the family and moved to San Diego, where he was not allowed into the Navy due to varicose veins from pushing a plow. He eventually found a doctor to strip his veins and he enlisted again, but could not go overseas because he’d had his veins stripped, Tally said.

Woolsey was stationed in Key West, Florida, as a medical officer where he stayed for the duration of WWII.

When WWII ended, Woolsey used the GI Bill to build a house for his family.

When the Korean War broke out and Woolsey was still in the Navy Reserves following WWII and he was sent to Oakland Hospital in Oakland, California, for duty.

When the Korean conflict was over, Woolsey went back to Tucumcari where he resumed work as a carpenter for his father-in-law.

However, jobs were scarce due to the post-war recession brought on by a flood of veterans returning home who needed jobs.

Woolsey then went to Roswell to work with Grace’s brother where he got a back injury on the job in which he had four crushed vertebrae, Tally said.

In 1956, Woolsey brought his family to Alamogordo where he ran the Alamogordo Maytag store which was on the same block as what is now the Otero County Administration Building. The Maytag store was one of several shops that no longer exist in Alamogordo’s New York Avenue historic district.

The land where the Alamogordo Maytag Store, a florist and at least two other businesses is now a Wells Fargo branch. 

Eventually, Woolsey worked for the Tularosa Maytag Store.

Both Maytag stores were owned by Woolsey and his brother-in-law until 1962 when Woolsey went back to carpentry where he worked on several projects including what is now Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center.

Woolsey died June 28, 1996 at the age of 81.

Tally is a docent at the Tularosa Basin Museum of History on the corner of 10th Street and White Sands Boulevard in Alamogordo.

The Great Depression and two presidents’ responses to it

The WPA and CCC were implemented as ways to combat the Great Depression which began with economic problems in September 1929 that led to the Oct. 24, 1929 stock market crash. Known as Black Thursday, the stock market crashed and then crashed again five days later on Oct. 29, 1929, a day known as Black Tuesday.

The Great Depression peaked in 1933 with 24.9 percent global unemployment.

President Herbert Hoover took office in 1929, seven months prior to the stock market crashes that fall.

Photos of Civilian Conservation Corps living quarters and mess hall on display at the Tularosa Basin Museum of History.
Photos of Civilian Conservation Corps living quarters and mess hall on display at the Tularosa Basin Museum of History.

“(Hoover) believed in a limited role for government and worried that excessive federal intervention posed a threat to capitalism and individualism. He felt that assistance should be handled on a local, voluntary basis. Accordingly, Hoover vetoed several bills that would have provided direct relief to struggling Americans,” according to a  History biography of the president.

Hoover was defeated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1932 election. Roosevelt promised programs to help Americans weather the Depression.

Two of these New Deal Programs were the development of the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps.

The Civilian Conservation Corps was in charge of environmentally-based projects and the Works Progress Administration took care of public works programs.

“Based on the assumption that the power of the federal government was needed to get the country out of the depression, the first days of Roosevelt’s administration saw the passage of banking reform laws, emergency relief programs, work relief programs, and agricultural programs,” according to the Library of Congress. “Later, a second New Deal was to evolve; it included union protection programs, the Social Security Act, and programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers.” 

By 1935, one-third of the New Mexican population was on some form of government relief, including 80 percent of Hispanic farmers in the Rio Grande Valley, according to Richard Melzer in his book “Coming of Age in the Great Depression.”

Photos of Civilian Conservation Corps trucks and grease racks on display at the Tularosa Basin Museum of History.
Photos of Civilian Conservation Corps trucks and grease racks on display at the Tularosa Basin Museum of History.

Even so, the point of creating an organization like the CCC was to “conserve the nation’s youth” as much as it was to conserve natural resources, Melzer said in the book.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt feared for the young people of the time.

“I have moments of real terror when I think we might be losing this generation. We have got to bring these young people into the active life of the community and make them feel that they are necessary,” Roosevelt said in 1934.

To find a WPA or CCC structure in your city, visit The Living New Deal website.

We're ad free

That means that we rely on support from readers like you. Help us keep reporting on the most important New Mexico Stories by donating today.

Related

Lujan Grisham pocket vetoes two bills

Lujan Grisham pocket vetoes two bills

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham pocket vetoed two bills the legislature passed this legislative session: one changing the Cybersecurity Act and the other concerning law…
Gov signs bills with some vetoes 

Gov signs bills with some vetoes 

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed 69 bills that the legislature passed during the 2024 legislative session. These included the General Appropriations Act which contains…
Guv signs state budget

Guv signs state budget

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the budget bill for Fiscal Year 2025 and the Capital Outlay spending bill. The FY25 state budget bill passed…
Advocates travel to D.C. to push for additional protections for the Gila River

Advocates travel to D.C. to push for additional protections for the Gila River

New Mexico advocates seeking to have the Gila River designated as a Wild and Scenic River will travel to Washington D.C. this week to…

NM Supreme Court annuls $10,000 penalty in PNM/Avangrid merger case

The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a penalty the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission levied against the state’s largest utility was…
State fines oil company more than $2 million after spill

State fines oil company more than $2 million after spill

The Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department fined an oil and gas company operating in the Permian Basin more than $2 million over produced…
Amid new graduation requirements, what do high schoolers want to learn?

Amid new graduation requirements, what do high schoolers want to learn?

By Margaret O’Hara, The Santa Fe New Mexican The main things that bring Brayan Chavez to school every day: Seeing, talking to and engaging with…
Special ed teachers hope lawmakers OK pay raises, admin changes

Special ed teachers hope lawmakers OK pay raises, admin changes

By Margaret O’Hara, The Santa Fe New Mexican Brittany Behenna Griffith has a laundry list of adjectives to describe the ideal special education teacher:…
Lawmakers must find consensus on competing education spending plans

Lawmakers must find consensus on competing education spending plans

By Margaret O’Hara, The Santa Fe New Mexican A challenging task awaits New Mexico lawmakers in the next 30 days: Reconciling three very different…
Lujan Grisham, Biden admin announce $10 million in federal funds for tribes, pueblos

Lujan Grisham, Biden admin announce $10 million in federal funds for tribes, pueblos

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Friday $10 million in funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act was awarded to six tribal nations and…
Proposal to curb executive powers moves to House Judiciary

Proposal to curb executive powers moves to House Judiciary

The House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee discussed a potential constitutional amendment that seeks to limit the governor’s executive powers. The committee approved…
Supreme Court censures attorney over conduct in anti-COVID policy suits

Supreme Court censures attorney over conduct in anti-COVID policy suits

The New Mexico State Supreme Court censured a New Mexico attorney because of her “misconduct” in two unsuccessful cases pushing back on COVID-19 regulations…
Supreme Court to hear two abortion cases this spring

Supreme Court to hear two abortion cases this spring

Later this month, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the case against the abortion medication mifepristone. It will hear a second…
How Biden, others highlighted reproductive rights at the State of the Union

How Biden, others highlighted reproductive rights at the State of the Union

President Joe Biden highlighted reproductive rights issues as part of his State of the Union speech Thursday. Biden delivered his 2024 State of the…
Stansbury invites OB-GYN doctor as her state of the union guest 

Stansbury invites OB-GYN doctor as her state of the union guest 

U.S. House of Rep. Melanie Stansbury has invited an OB-GYN doctor from Roswell as her guest for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union…
Supreme Court to hear two abortion cases this spring

Supreme Court to hear two abortion cases this spring

Later this month, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the case against the abortion medication mifepristone. It will hear a second…
How Biden, others highlighted reproductive rights at the State of the Union

How Biden, others highlighted reproductive rights at the State of the Union

President Joe Biden highlighted reproductive rights issues as part of his State of the Union speech Thursday. Biden delivered his 2024 State of the…
Stansbury invites OB-GYN doctor as her state of the union guest 

Stansbury invites OB-GYN doctor as her state of the union guest 

U.S. House of Rep. Melanie Stansbury has invited an OB-GYN doctor from Roswell as her guest for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union…
See who’s going to be on your primary ballot in June

See who’s going to be on your primary ballot in June

Tuesday marked the official beginning of the 2024 New Mexico primary season for the legislature, with candidates officially filing for candidacy. This is the…

Bill to require disclosure of use of AI in campaign materials goes to governor

The Senate approved a bill aiming to require the disclosure of the use of artificial intelligence or other changes made by computers to campaign…
House amends, passes bill banning firearms near polling places

House amends, passes bill banning firearms near polling places

The House narrowly approved a bill that would ban firearms near polling places. The House voted 35-34 to pass the bill following an extensive…
Advocates travel to D.C. to push for additional protections for the Gila River

Advocates travel to D.C. to push for additional protections for the Gila River

New Mexico advocates seeking to have the Gila River designated as a Wild and Scenic River will travel to Washington D.C. this week to…
U.S. Supreme Court lets ban on Couy Griffin from holding office stand

U.S. Supreme Court lets ban on Couy Griffin from holding office stand

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a Republican official who was barred from holding office after being convicted for a…
Politics Newsletter: legislative leaders not running for reelection

Politics Newsletter: legislative leaders not running for reelection

Hello fellow political junkies! Candidate filing day has come and gone, and members of House and Senate leadership opted to either not seek reelection…

GET INVOLVED

© 2023 New Mexico Political Report