CAMP UPTON
in
World War I
by local historian
Thomas Bayles
CONSTRUCTION OF CAMP UPTON
IN 1917
This account of the construction of Camp Upton in 1917 is taken from a report by the
construction quartermaster, Major 0. K. Meyers, Jan. 15,
1918. "On June 20, 1917 travel orders and
instructions were received to proceed to Yaphank, N.Y.,
and on the following day, accompanied by Col. Frank H.
Lawton, of the Department of the East, Major M. J.
Whitson, of the Cantonment Division, and the President
and General Manager of the Long Island Railroad, an
inspection of the property as far as the trail extending
through it permitted, was made. The site of the camp was
determined and was located on a U.S. Geological map of
the section. The factors controlling the location of the
camp site were that it should be centrally located on the
property, to provide drill grounds on all sides, and that the
prevailing winds would not pass over the stables before
reaching the barrack buildings. The location being
decided upon, the nucleus of an engineering organization
was gotten together that evening.
A field party began surveys on June 23. The contract for
construction was let to the Thompson Starrett Co. of New
York on June 24 and their representative arrived on June
27.
The property obtained by the
Commander of the East for the cantonment was a tract of
land containing about 10, 000 acres. The property
extended from the South Country road, (Montauk highway)
on the south, to the Middle Country road on the north, a
distance of six and a half miles, and from the Carmans
river on the west to the Peconic river on the east, with
a maximum width of four miles. To provide for rifle
ranges additional land to the north was obtained,
extending to the Port Jefferson branch of the Long Island
Railroad, a distance of three and a half miles. Right to
use the Tangier- Smith property to the south has been
obtained. The total acreage at this time, June 15, 1918
is about 19,990 acres.
The soil is very fine sand, covered with from one to four
feet of sandy loam, and in the lowlands there is an
underlying strata of impervious hardpan, which causes
them to be swampy during the wet season. The land is
rolling, and in general is from 25 to 80 feet above sea
level, a few mounds being as high as 135 feet. The
property was originally covered with a hard wood forest.
The stumps had rotted level with the ground surface, and
numerous shoots from four to ten feet high had grown from
them. These old stumps measured up to six feet in
diameter. In addition there were about 50 pine trees to
the acre, measuring up to 12 inches in diameter. It was
necessary to stump, construct and maintain many miles of
temporary roads as trucking could not be done except
along prepared routes.
As it was necessary to house and feed all employees, the
clearing placed an additional burden on the housing
department. Fourteen hundred acres were cleared, and from
June 25 to the latter part of July, the only work that
could be done was clearing the site for a temporary camp
near the railroad, clearing the site for the permanent
buildings, and ordering materials and equipment. During
this period engineering forces were making surveys of the
area, in order to secure the necessary information to
determine the location of the buildings and pipe lines
before the arrival of material. The surveys developed
that the land at the east end of the camp was too low for
building purposes, and it was necessary to move the site
of the camp 2000 feet to the west.
The month of July was one of
discouragements. No one not a resident on the ground
could appreciate the hardships placed upon the
contractors, or could give them the credit due them for
the manner under which they stood up under them. The
wages paid were those in force in Brooklyn as of June 1,
1917. Unskilled labor was paid 37 1/2 cents an hour.
Carpenters received 62 1/4 cents an hour, double time on
Saturday and Sunday. Brick masons received 75 cents an
hour, and labor foremen $60 a week. Other mechanics
ranged from 62 1/2 cents to 75 cents an hour, and
chauffeurs were paid $4.00 a day. The labor on the whole
was poor and ready to take advantage of every opportunity
to loaf on the work, which was frequently given them, as
the contractors were unable to secure gang foreman in
sufficient number.
When the property was acquired, arrangements were made
with the Long Island Railroad to construct sidings for
handling materials for the construction of the camp. The
construction of the sidings was not begun until after the
contract was let, so it was necessary to unload materials
from the sidings adjoining the main line of the railroad.
It was soon found these were not sufficient, so the
railroad constructed temporary tracks leading into the
camp. Materials were much longer in transit than
anticipated, as the single track railroad and car float
at Long Island City were unable to handle successfully
the increased traffic.
It was necessary to house and feed most of the employees,
and it was expected the lumber for the buildings would
arrive within ten days, but the first shipment did not
arrive until after 30 days in transit, so temporary of
tents were provided.
The mosquitoes from the salt marshes to the south found
cover in the undergrowth, making staying out of doors in
the tents almost unbearable. Almost daily rains caused
the temporary roads to become a series of mud holes.
In general the men who were
superintendents of construction were men belonging to the
contractors regular organization, but it did not have in
a number of cases proper men in the small positions. The
inability of the time -keeping department to properly
handle their duties, gave a number of men the opportunity
to put through false records.
The largest number of men employed on any one day was 15,
000. About 8,070 of the men were fed from company
commissaries, the remainder cooking for themselves, or
were local men who brought their lunches and went home at
night. The prices charged were for meals for unskilled
labor 25 cents, mechanics 35 cents, and office force 40
cents. The quality of the food served was good, and after
the first month sanitary conditions were satisfactory.
The service was that found generally in a construction
camp and was not satisfactory to a large number of the
men.
The heating plant at the base hospital proved to be
inadequate to heat all the buildings at the recent low
temperature of 15 below zero on Jan. 1. All the wards
were heated satisfactorily, but sufficient pressure could
not be obtained to force steam to the buildings at the
end of the mains.
The fire department was in charge of a retired captain of
the New York City Fire Department. Working with him was a
force, which distributed water buckets, extinguishers
etc. and made inspections to see that no unusually
dangerous fire conditions occurred. A light truck
equipped with extinguishers was held in readiness to
answer any fire alarms, but no fires except a few brush
fires occurred.
The division commander assumed command on August 15. The
first troops arrived Sept. 10, with barracks ready for 10,
800. By November 1, barracks completed to house 37,000
men were in readiness.
As it was necessary to house all the construction men
within the camp, and as it was near New York City, it
quickly became infested with a large number of crooks and
men of the underworld. To handle the conditions that
resulted, it was necessary to employ a large number of
detectives and men with police experience. At first the
men arrested were taken before the local authorities, but
this did not prove satisfactory, and a U.S. District
Court was established at the camp. During the first nine
weeks after the court was established, 1021 cases were
tried with fines of $2700 imposed, and jail sentences of
900 days, with 309 men held for the grand jury. In
addition, about 1000 men were escorted from the camp, as
they could not account for their presence there or had
remained after being discharged.
Following is a list of carloads of material used in the
construction of Camp Upton, lumber 2779; cots 80; nails,
23; roofing paper 88; iron pipe 136; cement 91; feed, hay
7, oats 177; wall board 34; misc. 333; gravel 410; brick
62; sewer pipe 212; crushed stone 785; frames, sash 7
doors 100; radiators, stoves etc. 144; wood pipe
52;-Total carloads 5742.
The labor was obtained from
the local villages as much as possible, but as there was
not enough men in the neighborhood, the bulk came from
New York. Great difficulty was experienced in July and
August in the delivery of building materials due to the
lack of graded roads. After Sept. 1, graded dirt roads
were far enough advanced to make sections under
construction easily accessible to teams and trucks. The
permanent railroad sidings to the division warehouses
were available on August 12 for limited use by the
contractor. The time and cost of unloading the cars was
excessive, as the lumber was thrown into a pile alongside
the tracks, and then piled and sorted. Unloading went on
day and night, the men working in shifts to suit the
hours of the railroad switching crews. Great trouble was
experienced in having the proper amount of lumber
delivered to each building site. This was due in part to
the carpenter formen, who would order the lumber unloaded
at the building, they were working on.
All quarters for the men, stables and warehouses
were built upon wooden post foundations, set 30 inches in
the ground. In constructing the two story barracks a gang
of carpenters followed the post gang and placed the first
floor sills and rough flooring. Another gang followed and
framed the sides flat upon the floor, and they were
raised by men lifting the side along the wall plate, and
walking underneath the sides and raising it into
position. Cutting and ripping was done by 25 portable
saws driven by five horse power gasoline engines. Most of
the lumber was a low grade of unseasoned southern pine,
and could not be handled without some loss due to
breakage.
Three classes of roads were built. Class A roads where
travel was heaviest. A base course of No. 3 stones five
inches thick, and rolled, with a second course of the
same size rolled, and covered with Tarvia X, and a final
coat of Tarvia X covered with a layer of gravel and
rolled. Class B roads were built of natural soil for
light travel. The main road to camp from the Montauk
highway was graded to connect with the camp road system,
crossing over the L.I.R.R. tracks on a bridge.
At first garbage was removed by nearby farmers but the
amount soon became so large they could not handle it, and
rock pit incinerators were built and garbage placed in
cans. A detail of men removed the cans to a nearby
incinerator where it was burned."
The foregoing is only a part of Major Meyer's report, and
the complete report is on file in the Middle Island
Public Library.
Camp Upton was located on the site of the Brookhaven
Laboratory, on a tract of about ten thousand acres, east
of the William Floyd highway and extending from the
Middle Country road to the Montauk highway. Later several
thousand acres were purchased north of the Middle Country
road and west of Lake Panamoka for a rifle range.
On June 21, 1917, Col. Frank M. Lawton, of the Department
of the East, and Ralph Peters, president of the Long
Island Rail Road, made an inspection of the property,
which had been determined from a U. S. Geological map of
the area. The location of the camp was approved and the
contract for the construction of the camp was let to
Thompson Starrett Co. on June 24th.
Work during that summer was very difficult, with extreme
heat, rain, and millions of mosquitoes, which made
working conditions almost unbearable. Rates paid for
labor were 37 1/2 cents an hour for laborers and 62 1/2
cents an hour for carpenters. The men were fed in
commissaries operated by the con-tractor, and the prices
charged for meals were 25 cents for laborers, and 35-40
cents for mechanics. The largest number of men employed
on any one day 15, 000. A total number of 5742 carloads
of lumber and other materials were used in the
construction of the camp.
The Long Island Rail Road extended tracks for the two
miles into the camp from the main line, with tracks
running to the passenger station, the freight yards, coal
trestle, and to the ten warehouses where merchandise was
received for the operation of the camp.
The first 2200 drafted men arrived on Sept. 10th and up
to the end of October about 30, 000 men arrived. The camp
was built to accommodate 37,000.
A station called Upton Road was built on the railroad
east of the present William Floyd highway, and a shuttle
train was operated into the camp from the main line that
met the trains, in addition to the trains operating into
the passenger station in the camp. Trains were operated
on Saturday mornings to New York about an hour apart for
the thousands of men on weekend passes, and returned
Sunday night. Also visitors trains from New York came
into the camp on weekends, bringing thousands of the
relatives and friends of the men in the camp. Tickets to
the soldiers were sold at $1.30 for a round trip to New
York. The railroad station was a busy place in those
days.
That first winter of 1917-1918 was a hard one with lots
of snow, ice and muddy roads in the spring, as most of
the roads were not hard surfaced at that time, and the
only hard surfaced road out of the camp was the one to
the Montauk highway, four miles distant. The Barrett
Company had the contract for building the roads in the
camp. The Longwood road and the old "Hay Road, that
came into the camp from the Middle Country road were dirt
roads and became almost impassable that winter. At one
time the mud was so bad that autos and trucks could not
get around and mule teams were used for trucking.
Irving Berlin, the famous song writer, was an early
soldier in Camp Upton, and with all the other men hated
to get up in the morning when the bugle blew, so he wrote
the song, "Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning,
" which became an instant success. He got many
Broadway performers to come out to the camp and entertain
the soldiers in the camp theater, and he directed
a musical comedy called "Yip Yip Yaphank, "
which soon became famous and had a short Broadway run.
Thousands of men were trained at Camp Upton during 1917 and 1918
and went overseas. The men of the 77th Division were trained there and most of them were from the
New York and Long Island area. After the war ended in
November 1918 the camp was made into a debarkation camp,
as the men returned from overseas to be discharged. The
American Railroad Association had an office with 24 hour
telephone switchboard service, and handled all the
railroad operations for the troop movements in and out of
the camp. The railroad tickets clerks worked nights
making up the tickets for the lists of men who were being
sent out the next day to their homes all over the
country.
The army had thousands of
mules that were kept at the old "Remount"
" in the part of the camp near the main line of the
railroad. These were sold at auction and shipped around
the country. We had a train of 50 stock cars with engine
attached backed to the loading platform, and as the mules
were sold they were lassoed and the government brand
burned off, then herded up the loading platform and
loaded 21 mules in a car. As each car was loaded the
train moved ahead to the next car until the train was
loaded. The waybills were given to the train conductor
and the train departed.
The 1660 buildings, utilities and improvements in the
camp were sold at auction on August-21, 1921 by the
auctioneers Smith & Jaffee. Everything was to be
removed within 60 days and the purchasers took down the
buildings and salvaged the lumber in them. Hundreds of
carloads were shipped around the country as far west as
Indianapolis, Ind. Some of the smaller buildings were
moved to various locations on Long Island.
FROM MY BROTHER ALBERT'S DIARY 1919
March 17: Worked at Camp. We were shifted to warehouse
No. 6 for the day. Unloaded 5 carloads blankets (35,000).
March 26: Worked at Camp on truck. 27th Div. from across
came into Camp today, (25,000).
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