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it9Sta^urell IDathj 1Recor6«lt;vistasBirdie Eccles recalls WW II prisoners-ot-warBy ERNESTINE CHESSER WILLIAMSRecord Guest WriterThe Pecos Valley Collection, the Chaves County Historical Museum archives, holds a wealth of information concerning interesting people, places, and events of this area. One such person is Birdie Dee Eccles, who gave service to her country during World War II that is not recorded in the pages of history but in the hearts of men.During World War II Mrs. Eccles managed the famil farm at East Grand Plains while her husband worked as State Highway engineer. Local farmers needed field hands but few wereavailable.In 1942 a prisoner-of-war camp, under the supervision of Provost Sergeant Arthur M. Brosius, was constructed at Orchard Park for the internment of enemy aliens. On Jan. 1, 1943, prisoners from General Rom-mel’s Afrikakorps, a part of the elite German Eighth Army, were transported to the area in iron cars on the Santa Fe Railroad. According to Brosius, “They were good soldiers. All throughout their, imprisonment the Afrikakorps maintained their pride, their military disicipline, and bearing.”These prisoners were made available as field hands. Fred Nelson, East Grand PlainsBirdie Dee Eccles Managed family farmfarmer, made arrangements to obtain 25 prisoner-workers for his area, five of which were used by the Eccles farm. They were picked up at the camp in a truck with high sideboards and brought to the farms in time to go to work at 8 a.m. The prisoners received 15 cents and hour and later 25 cents. They were entitled to take 10 minutes out of every hour for rest time or what they called “pausa.”Mrs. Eccles’ tenant, Floyd Wagner, used the men to do allsorts of farm work; but when they worked for Mrs. Eccles, itwas to do repairs of buildings and fences and later one was used for house help.Mrs. Eccles soon learned that the prisoner’s lunch consisted of raw ham and a chunk of bread. This distressed her.Over 40 years later, when Mrs. Eccles was approaching 90, she commented on the war years and her memories concerning the prisoners.She said, “I put the ham in apressure cooker and cooked it, removed the ham, added quantities of cabbage, carrots, and onions. At noon one man was permitted to go the garden and bring in cucmbers and tomatoes. I poured to food into a big yellow bowl and gave them each a tincan and a tin spoon. However, mostly they preferred eating with their fingers. They picked out the carrots and cabbage and dipped their bread into the broth.“Sometimes Mr. Wagne-r would bring in a huge watermelon when they were in season and cut it for the prisoners. Sgt. Brosius, who was the guard, frequently sat down and ate with them.“They spent an hour at noon then went to work. They worked very hard. They never used their ‘pausa’ time because I had done the cooking for them.”In her daily association with the prisoners. Mrs. Eccles learned to know them quite well.In thinking back, she remembered, “One was Karl Drescher from Czechoslovakia who was the sergeant in charge, and another was Herbert Kohler from Leipsig, Germany. After I got to know them and they trusted me, they asked many questions about the United States. They had heard of the constitution and they wondered what it was.“I went to Kress’s in town where I bought for 10 cents hard back books which contained the constitution and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and gave them each a copy. They were mostly educated men and could read it easily. They asked questions about the constitution. ‘Do you mean that you people can carry arms with a war going on? ’ they asked. ‘Yes,’ I said, we all have arms.’iiThey wanted to know what ‘separation of church and state’ meant. By the time I had answered their questions, I understood the constitution better than I had ever understood it myself.”After reading their books, they wanted to know who this man Lincoln was, and Mrs. EcclesMen put together quilt topsPUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) — Strong, gnarled hands work the outlines of flowers onto a brightly colored quilt top, and gently coax needles through the fabric.The hands are those of retired railroaders, construction workers, insurance salesmen, grocery store and postal employees who gather at the Punxsutawney Older AmericanCenter for a few hours a week.The men take up tools of a different sort — needles and thread, patterns, scissors, irons and sew-mg machines. With the assistance of a few women, theyare close to completing a full-size, pieced quilt in the Shoo Fly pattern, affectionately dubbed a “Male Masterpiece.”The quilt project was the brainchild of Helen Linhart, chairman of advocacy and public information for the Jefferson County Area Agency on Aging.Hoping to attract more men to the Punxsutawney center and to get them, involved in something they hadn’t done before, Linhart came up with the idea of a male-made quilt after the women had completed two quilts in the year since the center opened.Linhart and her husband, Art, are very active in senior citizen organizations, having joined the local center at the urging of friends after Art retired 10 years ago.Art Linhart now serves as president of a handful of such groups, including the Jefferson County Area Agency on Aging’s Advisory Council and as vice president of the Northwest Regional Council of the Pennsylvania Council on Aging.During a recent visit to the center, the Linharts stitched alongside the other quilters while a grandson, visiting from Arizona, joined in a game of pool in the center’s recreation room.Center director Garry Hallman also has gotten into the spirit of the project. He selected the pattern for the quilt, choosing one that would be relatively easy to make. He pitches in whenever needed, making templates, assembling the parts of the quilt and getting it into the quilting frame.He’d never quilted before either, so he seeks advice from his mother who* conveniently, just happens to be a volunteer at the center.“We didn’t have to rip too many (pieces) out,” Hallman ,says with a laugh of the men’s effort. “One corner is a little different (it was mistakenly sewn in backward), but we worked it out as we went along.”Retired railroader George Ter-sine refuses to discuss his age — “49 and holding,” is all he’ll say on the subject — but he modestlyadmits to doing most of the sewing for the quilt.“I did all the patches and sewed the pieces together,” he says matter-of-factly, as though sewing were something he’d been doing all his life.But, in fact, Tersine says, he’d never picked up needle and thread at all before he started coming to the center. A few of the women showed him how to operate the sewiftg machine, and he quickly took over the sewing for the men’s quilt project.“I went from a steam engine to a diesel to a sewing machine,” he says, adding that the quilt project has “turned out to be good. Everybody helping like that makes it good. Working together makes it beautiful. Everybody had to help to make it a success. ’ ’Helen Meckley, 74, has made many quilts. Meckley makes light of her. assistance on the male quilting project. But her experience is evident at the quilting table.Meckley says quilting is a demanding craft because each piece has to be “cut true,” and all seams have to meet. When the quilt is finished, it should be perfectly square, she says.John Kostic, 67, did a lot of the pressing — each piece and seam has to be pressed — and some ofthe sewing on the quilt.1lt;“I wanted to learn (how to quilt),” he says. “I like it a lot. Ithink it’s a good project and a good hobby for men.”Frank Fear, 93, who spends part of every day at the Punxsutawney center, thinks the quilt project is a “very good idea. It makes friendship and sociability.”John Vadasy, 72, cut out many of the individual pieces for the quilt and took the center’s scissors home to grind because they were too dull. Because his wife was an invalid before her death, Vadasy says he is accustomed to handling household chores, including sewing on buttons and mending clothes.Caroline Lukehart, 64, selected most of the material for the quilt. Although she was an experienced seamstress, Lukehart says she had never touched a quilt before she and her husband, Jack, began coming to the center. With two quilts under her needle now, she is helping the men work on theirs.Jack Lukehart, 66, did a lot of the ironing, as well as some of the marking and cutting. Lukehart says he had a few reservations about working on the quilt — but only because he is left-handed and thought he might have trouble with scissors.He’s glad now he decided to take part.“This proves a fella can do anything he sets his mind to, really.”told them about the Civil War, the war-between-the-states, because of slavery.Because Mrs. Eccles spent so much time outside, she used Herbert Kohler as house help.“Sgt. Brosius said it was all right as long as I didn’t get caught,” she said. “Sgt. Brosius would watch and would come quickly and say ‘Inspectors are coming!’ Herbert would run out, grab a hoe, and begin cutting weeds in the garden.”Mrs. Eces found one laborer to be quite amusing. She said, “He looked at the corn growing in the garden ‘It’s Post Toasties,’ he saidck, which he repeated several times.”Mrs. Eccles picked an ear of corn, cooked and buttered it, and gave it to him.“Oh!” he said, “It’s good —it’s good — it’s Post Toasties!” The others laughed at him, but everyday he pointed to the garden with a hungry look, and said, “It’sPost Toasties!” and Mrs. Eccles picked an ear and cooked it for him.A neighboring farm woman reported Mrs. Eccles to the FBI for being “too thivk” with the German prisoners. Officers from the FBI called on Mrs. Eccles and made a detailed investigation into her family background. When questioning her about her past employment, she told them about working in Washington, D.C. during World War I in the office of the Chief of Satff, General Peyton C. March where she frequently typed letters for President Wilson to sign. Top secrets and sensitive investigations were discussed in that office.“What do you do for the prisoners that other farmers don’t do?” one officer asked.“I don’t know,” she replied, “unless it is that they come with raw ham and I cook it for them and add vegetables from the garden to the broth.”“Oh, you know though, you shouldn’t do that,” one officercommented. “You shouldn’t cookfor them.”“I know. . . she replied.The investigators were satisfied. “We think you do a great service for the United States by informing these prisoners, they said.After they left, nothing was ever said about it, so Mrs. Eccles continued cooking for the prisoners the same as before.The FBI officers gave the neighbor woman an official form and told her to get three of Mrs. Eccles’ neighbors to sign her complaint about Mrs. Eccles’ association with the German prisoners, and then report to them when the paper was ready.After more than 40 years, Mrs. Eccles’ eyes sparkled as she related with emphasis, “So what did the woman do but go to my tenant — the first person — he was absolutely bowled over and came to me, his eyes as big as saucers. He didn’t know the FBI had been here.”She added with a smile, “Inever heard any more about being ‘too thick’ with the German prisoners.”The German prisoners stayed on through the summer and fall working in the fields of cotton, alfalfa, and corn in addition to a truck garden where vegetables were grown to supply Roswell Army Air Field, later Walker Air Force Base.At hunting season, the farmers, driving covered campers, came in from the surrounding area to go deer hunting. They all had one or two guns and took turns examining and trying out each others’ rifles. Theprisoners were frightened.“They all have guns!” one exclaimed.“You read the constitution that is the right of people to bear arms,” said Mrs. Eccles. “You can’t take their guns away from them.”Following a very successful deer hunt in the mountains, the farmers brought in plenty of venison and Fred Nelson brought in a bear. At Thanksgiving he cooked it over an open-pit fire.“It was really greasy,” Mrs. Eccles commented, “but Oh! how those fellows liked it. They wanted to know why we celebrate Thanksgiving.”When the crops were all harvested and cold weather came, none of the prisoners came back.Italians replaced the Germans in the Prisoner-of-War camp but they didn’t work out well as farmers.“They didn’t seem to know what to do about anything, and we had to give them up,” explained Mrs. Eccles.As the German prisoners worked on the East Grand Plains farms, they learned more and more about how they had been deceived about the Americans.Karl Drescher wanted to come back to Roswell to live and wrote many letter to Mrs. Eccles and the Nelsons. Fred Nelson arranged for Karl Drescher to come to Roswell after the war, but he was never able to leave his aged parents.In the meantime, Mrs. Eccles sent boxes of clothing, sewing supplies, and foods, including sealed cans of grease to the Drescher family to help alleviate their suffering in war-torn Europe.In 1964, when Mrs. Eccles was in Europe, she visited with Karl Drescher and his family. They exchanged long letters over a period of many years.In her kitchen, Mrs. Eccles has a twelve inch wooden plate was hand-carved on the end of an orange crate. It is decorated with beautiful designs, painted and varnished, and dated 1943. It was a gift to Mrs. Eccles from three prisoners-of-war whose names are carved on the back.Birdie Dee Eccles, now in her 90s, lives at 1400 W. Fourth St. Roswell. She served her country by teaching prisoners-of-war the true meaning of living in the land of the free.
Newspaper Details
Roswell Daily Record
Roswell, New Mexico, US
Mon, Mar 09, 1987
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Dale E.
USA 14 Mar 2019
Other Publications Near Roswell, New Mexico
Roswell Daily Record
