By Jeanne Goodman
Eleanor Roosevelt (Library of Congress)
One legacy of the New Deal programs was the creation of homestead communities. About a hundred communities were formed to provide a new start and better living conditions for those displaced by the Great Depression. Arthurdale was the first of these communities, established in Preston County in 1933.
Children in new home on the Arthurdale project (Library of Congress)
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was deeply involved in all aspects of Arthurdale since she had visited the Scotts Run coal camps and seen the desperate living conditions of the families. She watched over the process as the federal government began turning the Arthurdale farm into a community for the long-term unemployed. Although the chosen homestead fathers started working in the community earlier, the first families could not move in until July 1934, when the early houses were completed.
Mrs. Roosevelt had many concerns; chief among them was that the children would get a good education. In the first years, she paid the salaries of head teacher Elsie Ripley Clapp and several of her teachers who had moved there to set up the schools. The teachers were expected to be part of the new community.
Mrs. Roosevelt visited Arthurdale in December of 1934 and announced the plans for the homesteaders' first Christmas to the newspapers. After describing the plans, she shared a homestead mother's story:
One of the mothers told Mrs. Roosevelt that last Christmas she had raw carrots for Christmas dinner, and didn’t dare tell her children it was Christmas. One of her children said to her in bewilderment, “Mummy, it must be some kind of day, because some people seem to be getting presents.”
This Christmas they will all get presents, Mrs. Roosevelt said.
Charleston (WV) Daily Mail December 18, 1934
Center Hall in 1934 (Library of Congress)
Their first Christmas allowed the homesteaders to work together for a joyous occasion. Weeks earlier, Miss Clapp asked homesteaders to join any committee they were interested in. One group popped their corn and made garlands to decorate the tree and Center Hall. They also made popcorn balls and boxes of popcorn that Santa would give out. Others went to the woods to find a suitable tree and greenery to make wreaths to decorate the hall.
A large number became a choir and practiced singing traditional Christmas carols in an order that told the story of the Nativity. Miss Clapp had the schoolchildren practice acting out the Nativity story while the choir sang. High school and night school students built scenery for the play, decorated the costumes, and learned how to run the lights, which were lent by a Morgantown movie theatre.
Other parents made toys for the nursery school children. Mrs. Roosevelt sent boxes of toys, which several groups went through to choose the right gift for the right child. Those gifts were then wrapped and tied together for each family to be given out at the party. Excess toys were sent to Scotts Run children.
On their own initiative, homesteaders made up Christmas boxes for people who lived nearby and were in need. Besides clothes and toys, a committee asked homesteaders for gifts of food, which they then delivered to those families.
When December 24th arrived, over 450 people gathered in Center Hall at seven-thirty. While the choir sang, the children acted out the Nativity story - and suddenly, the lights went out. When they came back on, Santa had arrived, and the great hemlock tree was lit with electric lights.
Center Hall in 2015 (Library of Congress)
One wife told Miss Clapp, “I ain’t never had so much fun for five years. Ain’t it wonderful – I ain’t never seen a tree like that – it’s like one I dreamed. And the Bible story, real as if I’d been there myself.”
Appropriately, a baby named Elsie Eleanor, a daughter of Mack Roy and Flora Belle Sisler was born on Christmas day.
Elsie Ripley Clapp wrote a letter describing the evening to Eleanor Roosevelt on the 27th. “Such joy. I wish you could have seen it. The toys you gave reached every boy & girl & child & baby. Thank you and the President for your Christmas message. It means everything to these people, for they love you.”
Learn more about Eleanor Roosevelt and the Arthurdale by visiting Arthurdale Heritage
Arthurdale Heritage center hall and museum
