Earl Ellingson

The March 2008 Smithsonian in its "This Month in History" page has for "75 Years Ago:  It's Off to Work We Go:  On March 31, 1933, President Roosevelt signs the Civilian Conservation Corps into being.  The CCC hires some three million unemployed men (ages 17 to 28) over nine years for public works.  They plant 3 billion trees, lay 97,0000 miles of road and drain 84 million acres of farmland before World War II ends the job shortage."  (Page 18)

After a very early photo of Uncle Earl as a little boy, we have several of his CCC pictures.  But, first, the boy, to which my cousins can compare themselves.  Next to it is a photo of Earl with his dad, Ole, next to Ole's house in Center, behind the present-day post office.  Back then the post office site was a large general store, run first by Ole and Loova Ellingson, then by Clyde and Marietta Holmes.

Earl Clarence Ellingson was born 28 November 1916 at Center, his mother Fern Peed Ellingson, Ole's first wife.  He died 28 May 1966 at Gilbert, Iowa.  He married Audria Margurite Koftan, as Mom has Aunt Audree's name on that family page, 21 July 1938.  After he and Audree were divorced, he married Marilyn Mullen Ahman on 28 October 1961.

 

This seems a fairly early picture of Center, the house and shed in the background unfamiliar to me, the schoolhouse clearly visible on its hillside.  At the time this was the road to Bloomfield.  The photo is clearly in front of Ole's house.

 

 

This is the small series of CCC camp photos, some with Grandma Koftan's writing visible, my labels identifying where Earl is.

 

 

 

And I'm presuming this photo of Audree and him was during his CCC days because of the uniform.