After world war, new roles for Hudson Valley military base

It was the Hudson Valley equivalent of turning swords into plowshares.
“Camp Whitman, in the town of Beekman, Dutchess County, is no longer a military establishment,” The Post-Star of Glens Falls reported on May 7, 1920. “It is being transformed into a vegetable farm, its use being given to the Hudson River State Hospital Commission,” which operated a psychiatric hospital in Poughkeepsie noted for its holistic treatment methods.
An earlier version of the legislation making the change had called for the military camp to be turned into a dairy farm.

Camp Whitman had opened in 1916 at Green Haven, in the town of Beekman, as a base for National Guard mobilization during the Mexican border conflict and during World War I.
Camp Whitman was named for New York Gov. Charles Whitman, who oversaw the appropriation of $500,000 in state funding – the equivalent of about $11.8 million in today’s dollars – to develop the 825-acre camp.

Whitman, a Republican from New York City, was governor from 1915-18.
It was Gov. Al Smith, after narrowly defeating Whitman in 1918, who signed the legislation that decommissioned Camp Whitman.

During mobilization for the Mexican border conflict in 1916, the camp would house 20,000 troops, “a little army by itself,” The Pokeepsie Evening Enterprise reported on June 16, 1916. Whitman had activated New York’s National Guard at the request of President Woodrow Wilson.
Wilson had guardsmen patrol the southern border after Mexican revolutionary Francisco “Pancho” Villa led a band of guerillas on a raid into the United States.

The camp had already taken on somewhat of a farm atmosphere in 1916 when Company K of Glens Falls showed up with Prince, the company’s dog mascot, and started a trend.
“Other companies have followed the lead of the K boys and have sent for mascots,” The Post-Star reported on July 3, 1916. “The camp is now filled with dogs, pigs and ducks and there is one tame wood chuck.”

It is doubtful that many of those mascots continued on to the southern border when Company K and other units left on July 8.

“Our dog mascot fares the worst. He is acting strangely and some believe he is lonesome,” the company’s “special correspondent” wrote to The Post-Star on July 3. “Dewey Miller, who is the dog’s keeper, has about made up his mind to send the animal back home.”
Miller, the dog keeper, was one of the company’s buglers.

“Musicians Dewey Miller and George Fish of K Company – the sound of their bugles disturbs the sleep of 132 members of their company at 5:25 o’clock each morning,” the correspondent wrote on July 5. “The sound of bugles in recall after hard drill is the sweetest music the men have ever heard.”

On some days manual labor replaced the hard drill. Infrastructure at Camp Whitman had not yet been completed when troops began mobilizing there.

Ten thousand visitors traveling in some 1,500 automobiles and trucks on July 2 clogged the only road leading into the camp, kicking up dust in the intense heat.

“The crush of humanity of all ages, sizes and conditions which filled the streets of the encampment rivaled a noon-day crowd in the metropolis, but the soldier traffic officers handled it well,” The Poughkeepsie Eagle reported on July 4, 1916.

A National Guard engineering unit was assigned to design and spearhead construction of a water and sewer system in 44 days, with labor from other soldiers, according to a report in the Sept. 14, 1916, issue of Engineering News.

“Here to for the men have been hauling their water by hand for the distance of one-and-a-half miles – no easy task when it is remembered that there is cooking, washing and drinking water needed,” the Evening Enterprise reported on July 6, 1916.

“Water was turned on in pipes for the first time at 3 p.m. It means no more carrying pails,” the Company K correspondent wrote from the camp to The Post-Star on June 30, 1916.

Men from Company K of Glens Falls worked on the project along with troops from Gloversville.
“The work was done seven hours after the Second Regiment began it, although another regiment had been working nearly a week without success,” The Post-Star reported on July 4, 1916.
Private Billy Meehan of Company K particularly distinguished himself.

“Meehan will probably come in for much detail work, as he has knowledge of plumbing, electrical work and engineering, having passed two or more years as an apprentice at each trade.”
Meehan wasn’t the only skilled laborer found among the soldiers.

“Among the men were discovered two highway inspectors, and these were placed in charge of sections,” Engineering News reported.

In the 1940s, the state built Green Haven Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison, at the site of the former military camp and vegetable farm.

 

Maury Thompson was a reporter for The Post-Star of Glens Falls for 21 years before retiring in 2017. He now is a freelance writer focusing on the history of politics, labor and media in the region.