Prisoners of War in New Mexico Agriculture
Abstract of Interview
CONSULTANT:
Adair Merrell
TAPE NUMBER: RG2000-106
DATE
OF BIRTH: March 25, 1927
SEX:
Male
DATE(S)
OF INTERVIEW: August 5, 2000
LOCATION
OF INTERVIEW: Merrell residence, Cotton City, New Mexico
INTERVIEWER:
Mollie Pressler
SOURCE
OF INTERVIEW: NMF&RHM_X____OTHER_____
TRANSCRIBED: YES__x_____
NO_______
NUMBER
OF TAPES: One
ABSTRACTOR:
Sylvia Wheeler
DATE
ABSTRACTED: April 27, 2001
QUALITY
OF RECORDING (SPECIFY): Good
SCOPE
AND CONTENT NOTE: Prisoners of war from Camp Lordsburg, and a branch camp in
Duncan, Arizona, were transported by Merrell and his father to area farms and
ranches.
ABSTRACT (IMPORTANT TOPICS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE):
TAPE
ONE:
In
1944, Merrell’s father, Orison, began transporting prisoners of war (POWs)
from Camp Lordsburg to Virden area farms (a distance of thirty-five miles).
In 1945, he started transporting POWs from a POW branch camp at Greenlee
County Fairgrounds in Duncan, Arizona. He would transport thirty to forty
prisoners every morning and be accompanied by guards.
The
war was nearly over, but the POWs were willing to work, to stay busy.
They picked and hoed cotton, potatoes and onions.
They got acquainted with the farmers and their labor was needed. POWs
brought their lunches. They were
German POWs. He says they were not told not to talk to them.
Hauling
was their family’s business; thirty-five miles an hour was top speed, the
roads were narrow. Farmers paid his father and him for transporting the POWs
through the Duncan Valley Potato Growers Association. He also hauled produce.
POW
labor came before the bracero program, though some Mexican American
families in Virden worked side by side with the POWs. Farm boys were let out of
school in the afternoon to pick cotton in 1943, but not with the POWs.
The
camps were well administered. He joined the service in 1945; upon his return,
his father purchased many items from the then demobilized camp.
Later Merrrell bought a building from an Arizona Air Base, moved it to
Duncan, and lived in it. He recalls
no incidents from the POW camp, but feels the POWs were very helpful to
agriculture.
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