SPECIAL POST: Kudos to Heifer Project Volunteers

This being Heifer International’s 80th anniversary year* and this week being National Volunteer Week, this post gives recognition to the multitude of volunteers who have been at the core of Heifer’s development. Dan West generally gets the credit for founding Heifer International, but the organization would not have materialized without the support and hard work of innumerable volunteers. Here are but a few:

• Abe Neff, northern Indiana cattleman who convinced the Northern Indiana District Men’s Work Cabinet of the Church of the Brethren to consider West’s idea of sending heifers to World War II survivors.
• Heifer Project’s first committee, appointed April 12, 1942, at the Men’s Work Mass Meeting that approved West’s plan for “Cattle for Europe”: Farmers O. W. Stine and George Craig, and wholesale feed and seed dealer Ivan Syler. These men volunteered countless hours in the coming years at their own expense to move the project forward, using precious gas and tire rations during the war years to travel as far as 50 miles to attend meetings.
• Young Claire Stine, son of O.W. Stine, who raised “Faith”, the first donated heifer, given by Virgil Mock.
• The many farmers across the country who raised heifers to donate, the men and women who offered their farms as collection points for the animals, the men who trucked them, and those who organized the local committees.
• The many women and children who raised funds for the program through the years.
  

  Sunday School children pay farmer Paul Rhodes for their heifer in 1944. Photo courtesy of Kathy Fike Mow.

• Additional members of the Heifer Project Committee from other denominations as the program grew and became ecumenical.
• Young Ohio farmer Wayne Hostetler who accompanied Heifer Project’s first shipment July 14, 1944 — 17 heifers and one bull calf sent to Puerto Rico on the SS William D. Bloxham.
  

  Rufus King and Wayne Hostetler with the heifer Faith and her calf in Puerto Rico, July 1944. Photo courtesy of Karen King Keim.

• Mexican-born Kansas farmer Frank Ramirez and his wife who trucked 1,900 rugged miles from Kansas to Huitzilac, Mexico, to deliver three heifers and a bull in January 1945.
• Pennsylvania Guernsey breeder Benjamin Bushong who volunteered countless hours and miles arranging the first Heifer Project shipment to Europe of six bulls for Greece and a second shipment of heifers for Puerto Rico in May 1945 before being assigned by the Brethren Service Committee the task of overseeing the recruitment of cattle attendants for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) in June 1945. This became the “seagoing cowboy” program. After a half year of volunteering his more-than-fulltime services in this latter capacity and organizing Heifer Project shipments through UNRRA, Bushong was hired as the first full-time executive secretary of the Heifer Project in January 1946. Without his unwavering volunteer commitment to the fledgling organization, it is doubtful in this author’s mind that the project would have succeeded.

This if just a sprinkling of the myriad of selfless men and women who have provided the bones on which Heifer International has been formed. A blessing to the world.

*Heifer International has used the date of their first shipment, July 14, 1944, as their anniversary date from the early years on rather than April 12, 1942, when the Northern Indiana District Men’s Work of the Church of the Brethren approved Dan West’s plan for “Cattle for Europe” and named the first committee.

Convergence: The Heifer Project, the Monuments Men, and the Seagoing Cowboys in Italy

Happy New Year, dear readers! This year will mark the 80th anniversary of the first shipment made by the Heifer Project, today’s Heifer International. The Heifer Project is related to the seagoing cowboy history, and I will be weaving some of its stories into this year’s posts.

When the Heifer Project’s leaders were looking for a way to ship their animals to war-devastated Europe at the end of World War II, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was in formation to provide relief to Europe, as well. The Heifer Project was a program of the Brethren Service Committee (BSC), the outreach arm of the Church of the Brethren at the time. UNRRA made an agreement with BSC that they would ship Heifer Project animals free of charge and under the terms of the Heifer Project (the animals would be gifts to the neediest of farmers); in return, BSC would recruit all the livestock tenders (dubbed “seagoing cowboys”) UNRRA would need to ship their intended 200,000 head of draft and dairy animals to allied countries in need.

As I mulled over topics to start this new year of blog posts, I pulled out a lengthy account by seagoing cowboy Byron Royer about UNRRA’s fifth livestock shipment to leave the shores of the United States the end of June 1945 – just seven weeks after the end of the war in Europe. The shipment carried horses for Yugoslavia and docked in Trieste, a “no man’s land” at the time that had been a part of Italy before the war.

Photo by Elmer Bowers, February 1946.

For some reason, the focus of my reading of late (both historical fiction and nonfiction) has turned to Italy during and immediately after World War II, which has led to a convergence of ideas for this post. This convergence started with viewing George Clooney’s movie The Monuments Men based on the book by Robert M. Edsel. I then checked out Edsel’s book from the library and learned that he was writing another book specifically about the work of the Monuments Men in Italy (Saving Italy, 2013). This brought to mind a little known piece of history related to the Heifer Project – the spark for the Heifer Project Committee’s interest in shipping cattle to Italy came from a Monuments Man serving in Italy – Angelo P. Lucia. I’ve written a bit about that connection in my post of November 8, 2019. I was excited to find Lucia’s name included in the list of “Monuments Men and Women Serving in the Mediterranean Theater” in Edsel’s book.

The Italian city and surrounding area of Trieste was liberated almost simultaneously the beginning of May 1945 by Yugoslavian troops from the east and the New Zealand 2nd Division from the west. This led to tensions between Italy and Yugoslavia for ownership of this territory. And this was the context in which Byron Royer and his fellow seagoing cowboys found themselves when they reached Trieste July 29, 1945. As I read Royer’s account and with Edsel’s book Saving Italy so fresh in my mind, I couldn’t help but think that here these cowboys were, witnessing the fresh aftermath of war in Italy at the same time that the Monuments Men were at work in the country rescuing the massive collection of works of Italian art stolen by the Nazis and transported north throughout their occupation of the country. History had come to life.

Royer gives a detailed account of the eight days the cowboys were free to roam the area of this “hotspot”, as he called it, “between Italy and Jugoslavia [sic]”. The day they arrived, everything in the city was closed up due to a demonstration, staged by Yugoslavia’s Tito and the Partisans they were told. On his way home Royer wrote, “A couple nights before we pulled out of Trieste, there was another big demonstration and parade and it was reported to us that Tito himself was actually there in the public square for the rally. Frankly, I think that most of us were glad to get out of there just at this time. There was something very threatening about this parade. At different points along the line, leaders would yell out long sentences, probably about politics and the crowd would yell back, ‘Vive’ which is Tito’s cry. It was a stirring of mob strength such as we just do not see in the States.”

I’ll share more of Royer’s observations in coming posts.

Relief in an eggshell: Hatching eggs to Poland, Part I

Church of the Brethren poultryman Ray Petersime had observed successful Heifer Project shipments of cattle to Poland, France, Belgium, and Czechoslovakia after World War II. Seeing the need for poultry in these countries, as well, Petersime hatched a plan in early 1946 for sending hatching eggs to Poland through the Heifer Project and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA).

Gospel Messenger, June 8, 1946.

Petersime knew the poultry business inside and out. He headed the family incubator manufacturing business in Gettysburg, Ohio, started by his father Ira — who had invented the first electric incubator. With most farm animals in Poland killed or eaten during the war, Petersime knew there would be plenty of unused incubators available in Europe. And he believed chickens could more easily survive the unfavorable conditions in Poland than other small animals. “A chicken can scratch for the bigger part of its living,” he said, “and at the same time become a source of both meat and eggs.” He just needed to collect the eggs and get them there.

In mid-April 1946, Petersime sent out a call for hatching eggs from certified Rhode Island Reds and White Leghorn flocks to area Churches of the Brethren. The eggs came in from as far as 250 miles away in Ohio and Indiana–twice as many as the airplane to transport them could carry!

Gospel Messenger, June 8, 1946.

After sorting, the extras were sold with the proceeds going to the Brethren Service Committee. The Ladies’ Aid Society of the Oakland Church of the Brethren near Petersime’s Gettysburg poultry business packed the sorted eggs into sturdy wooden cases holding 30 dozen each.

Gospel Messenger, June 8, 1946.

Pastor Moyne Landis consecrated the eggs before they were trucked to a Gettysburg warehouse to be held at a temperature favorable to prolonging their fertility until flight time.

Dayton Herald, May 11, 1946.

The challenge Petersime’s plan faced would be getting the eggs to Poland safely within the proper timeframe for hatching. A previous attempt by UNRRA to send hatching eggs to Czechoslovakia ended in disaster when instructions for quick transport at correct temperatures once in Europe went unheeded by UNRRA’s European regional office. Transport in open trucks and unheated vintage Junker planes with egg cases stowed on end and upside down delivered the eggs frozen and broken. To remedy this, UNRRA secured an insulated and heated C-54 transport aircraft in time for the Brethren shipment.

On May 7, Petersime’s dream came to fruition when a Brethren Service Committee semi transported 155 cases, totaling 55,800 hatching eggs, to the Dayton airport in nearby Vandalia, Ohio, where they were carried onto UNRRA’s C-54.

Gospel Messenger, June 8, 1946.

More than 100 area Brethren gathered around the plane for a dedication service asking God speed for this shipment, one of the largest of its kind to date, and its safe arrival in Warsaw, Poland.

Next post: Petersime goes to Poland.

How UNRRA’s livestock program saved European lives – Part III

This concludes UNRRA’s 1947 report by E. R. Henson that highlights the role played by UNRRA, the Brethren Service Committee, its Heifer Project, and the seagoing cowboys in helping Europe recover from World War II.

The Church of the Brethren [through its Heifer Project] has also given several hundred head of dairy cattle to UNRRA for shipment to Greece, Italy, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and China. Its Service Committee now plans to continue receiving and dispatching donated livestock for at least two years after we have closed down.

A Heifer Project recipient in Ocheron, Greece, hugs her beloved cow, 1946. Photo by Charles Lord.

The Greek War Relief and the Rebuilders of Poland Association have made substantial contributions of livestock for their respective homelands. Other gifts have come to UNRRA through the Falls Cities Milk Producers Association of Louisville, Kentucky, the State of Mississippi, and from several individuals and church groups.

Mississippians gather alongside the SS Hattiesburg Victory in Gulfport for an elaborate celebration for the first of two shipments of cattle donated by the state’s counties for Greece, July 1946. UNRRA photo from United Nations.

The first six bulls given by the Brethren arrived in Piraeus in June 1945. They were joined by six other bulls supplied by UNRRA at the state farm of New Athens where, with the help of Cornell University and the Near East Foundation, a project for artificial insemination was started.

The six purebred bulls donated to Greece by the Heifer Project. Athens, June 1945. UNRRA photo from Heifer International archives.

This was a new idea to Greece There was some question at first as to how the Greek farmers would look upon it. Accordingly, on a sunny summer day, a year ago last August, all the nearby farmers were invited to come to the school so that the project might be explained to them first hand. The bulls, who by this time had learned to answer to new Greek names, were paraded around the courtyard. The purpose of the project was outlined in detail. The pedigrees of the bulls were lauded and their amazing fertility extolled. Following the talks, a demonstration was presented.

Dr. Irvine Elliott examines sperm taken from the first bull, after which farmers crowd around getting their first glimpse of microscopic life. UNRRA photo from United Nations.

Yet distrust was evident on a number of faces. A few gave voice to grave misgivings shared by nearly every farmer present. Into this atmosphere of tension there stepped a tall bearded figure – Bishop Padelmion of the Greek Orthodox Church. He stood facing the bulls, his long robes blown gently by the wind. He raised his hands, and using an age-old ceremony, he asked divine help to further the work of science. When he retired from the circle, all doubts and fears had disappeared and the farmers of Greece last fall began to bring their cows to the project’s regional centers. Last spring the arrival of several thousand fine young calves to the cows that had been “serviced” assured the success of the project.

The ceremony of consecration begins with centuries’ old prayers. UNRRA photo from United Nations.

The first calf to be born was the offspring of Orangeville Bellboy of Pennsylvania, a large-muscled Brown Swiss. The young animal’s owner is a sixty-two-year-old farmer who had lost two of his three cows and a horse during the occupation.

Marie Golemis and her family were the proud owners of the first calf born in Greece’s artificial insemination program. UNRRA photo from United Nations.

The farm stock already sent has meant adding thousands of tons to the food supply, but their young are the real hope. The birth of first calf or colt from “UNRRA parentage” is an event celebrated throughout the whole village. The names given these animals – “Hope”, “UNRRA”, “Recovery” and “World Peace” – are an expression of the devotion and gratitude the people have for this program which is doing much to restore their faith in the future.

So ends E. R. Henson’s report.

 

How UNRRA’s livestock program saved European lives – Part II

This continues UNRRA’s 1947 report by E. R. Henson that highlights the role played by UNRRA, the Brethren Service Committee, its Heifer Project, and the seagoing cowboys in helping Europe recover from World War II.

It is easy to understand the joy, and I might also say the reverence, with which the farm people receive their animals, when you realize how heavy have been the losses. Ten million head of work stock have been killed, carried off, or destroyed during the war, and most of the animals left were in a weakened condition. I would like to point out, too, that this tremendous lack of draft power is an underlying cause of the tragic food shortages that are still recurring in our years of peace.

Bosnian men and boys replace the draft animals killed or carried off by the Germans during the occupation. UNRRA photo, circa 1945 or 1946.

Shortly after the first winter of liberation, nearly all nations dependent on UNRRA aid began raising their sights on the number of draft animals they would require as a start toward agricultural recovery. Fortunately, at the end of the war, [the United States] had a surplus of horses or mules. At first shipping was tight, and it was only last summer and fall that real progress was made.

All of the dairy cattle came from the United States. About 200 of the heifers are purebred Brown Swiss, Holstein or Jerseys. A little over three hundred bulls of the same breeds have also been sent from this country. Horses have been forwarded from Canada, Denmark, the United States, Ireland, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa; ponies from Iceland, and donkeys from Cypress and the Dominican Republic. The United Kingdom has furnished over 1,000 sheep. Southern Rhodesia supplied 372 pigs. A few stallions, mares, goats and cattle, primarily for breeding purposes for Albania and Ethiopia, are still to move forward.

Since UNRRA can replace only a small fraction of the animals lost in the receiving countries, the hope of all these nations lies in the future offspring of both imports and war survivors. In order to speed up the increase and provide for the maximum number of healthy young stock, UNRRA prefers to have all mares, heifers and young cows bred before shipment. Consequently, a number of calves and foals are born en route.

Don Anderson with one of the offspring born on the SS Robert W. Hart, July 1946. Photo courtesy of Anderson.

Last November was the heaviest month of shipments. At that time UNRRA had 72 vessels at her disposal with a carrying capacity of approximately 24,500 head. It took over 2,000 livestock handlers to man these boats, and the story of how these men signed up for a job where duties include watering and feeding animals, cleaning stalls, and assisting in midnight deliveries, is a fascinating one.

While the war was still on, members of the Church of the Brethren were planning a project to raise and send heifers to Europe to help replace the many thousands that were being destroyed. Early in 1945, representatives of their Church Service Committee approached UNRRA with an offer of six pureblooded bulls for Greece. While discussing the whole problem of livestock rehabilitation, the question of securing qualified attendants for the animals in transit came up. Men and boys were needed who were not afraid of hard work or dirt, and who had a conviction about the job they were doing. Attendants who wanted the animals to arrive sound and healthy would be able to keep down losses to a minimum. The Church of the Brethren suggested an answer. Most of their congregations are drawn from rural areas, and many a church member, not able to give a great deal of money, might welcome an opportunity of serving as a livestock attendant. So the offer of the Brethren Service Committee to recruit animal crews for UNRRA was enthusiastically accepted. The Brethren soon went outside their own membership to sign up interested applicants from all faiths.

The first UNRRA seagoing cowboy crew to be recruited gathers at the Baltimore Church of the Brethren for departure on the SS Virginian to Greece, June 1945. Photo from Earl Holderman.

Approximately 1,500 men and boys are serving at the present time. Several hundred have made three or more trips. Nearly every state in the Union has at some time been represented. The majority of the handlers had farm experience; some of them are mature farmers; many are young boys. A significant portion are ministers and rectors representing at least five prominent denominations. Last summer a number of high school and college students helped out, and in recent months a considerable number of returned GI’s have made the trip.

A crew of Mennonite high school and college students set out for their trip of a lifetime to Poland on the SS Stephen R. Mallory, June 1946. Photo courtesy of Robert Ramseyer.

~ to be continued

 

Benjamin Bushong: Chief engineer of the seagoing cowboy program

Benjamin G. Bushong’s deep friendship with Dan West would have unforeseen consequences for this Pennsylvania dairy farmer and Guernsey breeder. When West came home in 1938 from relief work in Spain during the Spanish Civil War with the idea of sending cows to Spain to help provide starving children with the milk they needed, he shared his idea with Bushong around the Bushong’s kitchen table. From that point on, Bushong became a confidante and advisor for West on getting the program adopted and started.

Benjamin G. Bushong. Photo courtesy of Mark Bushong.

The Heifer Project, started in northern Indiana in 1942, came into being as a program of the Brethren Service Committee of the Church of the Brethren in January 1943. That same year, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration [UNRRA] was formed by 44 of the allied nations to be ready to assist devastated countries at war’s end.

Soon after VE-Day in Europe in May 1945, UNRRA made its first test-run in shipping live cargo – six purebred bulls to Greece, supplied by the Heifer Project. Bushong proved his organizational and red-tape cutting abilities engineering this shipment.

Of this experience, Bushong’s granddaughter Rebecca Bushong notes, “The work was tiring and frustrating, but in these early dealings with UNRRA and world governments, Ben Bushong was learning valuable lessons in diplomacy that would serve him and his denomination well in the coming years.”*

With this successful shipment, UNRRA decided to include live animals in their shipments to Europe. But they had a problem: where would they find the handlers for their livestock? Heifer Project also had a problem: where would they find ships for theirs? An agreement was made: UNRRA would ship Heifer Project animals free of charge, and the Brethren Service Committee [BSC] would recruit all the cattle tenders UNRRA needed.

Having proved his value to both organizations with the bull shipment, the Brethren Service Committee drafted Bushong to be their “man on the spot” on the east coast for working with UNRRA. Bushong’s and his family’s life would never be the same. Starting on a volunteer basis from home, he served double duty as recruiting agent for UNRRA’s livestock handlers and coordinator of Heifer Project shipments for BSC – and on top of that, also managing his farm in Pennsylvania. The first shipments of UNRRA cattle and BSC “seagoing cowboys” departed from US shores the end of June 1945.

News clipping from Lancaster, PA, newspaper, 1945.

UNRRA’s program soon mushroomed, with an estimated need of 8,000 cattle tenders to see the program through. The heavy responsibilities pulled Bushong off the farm, which his son Mark ran by then. Headquarters for the seagoing cowboy office were established at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Maryland. By March 1946, BSC put Bushong on salary as the executive director of the Heifer Project and head of the seagoing cowboy program, a position he held until 1951. Throughout UNRRA’s two years of shipping livestock, they employed nearly 7,000 seagoing cowboys.

The busy seagoing cowboy office at the Brethren Service Center, New Windsor, MD, 1946. Photo courtesy of Brethren Historical Library and Archives.

Bushong’s office recruited and handled payroll for them all. It boggles the mind to think of all the juggling acts this one man and his small staff had to perform to see that the right number of cattle tenders, with proper papers in hand, were in place at the right time for the right ship – and in the case of UNRRA shipments which included Heifer Project cattle, the right number of animals with the proper papers. Not to mention Bushong’s numerous committee meetings, negotiations with US and foreign government officials, dealing with longshoremen strikes, and handling problem cases or injuries of seagoing cowboys.

The Heifer Project Committee meeting at Quaker Hill in Richmond, Indiana, July 20, 1949. Benjamin Bushong is seated at the table next to Dan West on the right. Photo credit: Palladium-Item.

Bushong was definitely a man on the go!

* Bushong, Rebecca, “Ben Bushong – Apostle of Mercy,” Brethren Life and Thought, Spring 1979, p. 73

How a novel turned into a blog

This will be a more personal post. At my presentations, I am often asked how I got into this seagoing cowboy history. So today, I’ll share that story with you.

It all started with an envelope of my Grandpa Abe’s photos my father gave me some years after grandpa died.
Turns out, Grandpa Abe had been a seagoing cowboy, accompanying a load of horses to Poland the end of September 1946.

I grew up in the Church of the Brethren, the denomination responsible for recruiting all of the livestock tenders for UNRRA’s shipments of farm animals to Europe after World War II. From my youth magazines, I knew about these “seagoing cowboys.” But I DIDN’T know that my grandpa had been one of them. He never talked about it with us grandkids, and we never knew to ask. I knew there were a couple of Polish dolls in grandpa’s attic where we grandkids often played, but I didn’t make the connection until seeing his photos.

After receiving that envelope of photos, I got curious about what grandpa’s trip may have been like. So in January 2002, I interviewed a man from our church, Al Guyer, who I knew had been a seagoing cowboy to Poland. The end of that year, I signed up for a book writing course through the Institute of Children’s Literature to write a young adult novel. Grandpa’s photos and stories of Al Guyer’s eventful trip kept beckoning to me, and I thought, what a great topic! The trip of a 16-year-old seagoing cowboy to Poland! My instructor agreed. The topic was “something new and different under the sun,” she said. Being historical fiction, it would require a great deal of research, so I sought out more seagoing cowboys to interview.

Interviewing J. O. Yoder about his trip to Poland on the S. S. Clarksville Victory in December 1945.

One cowboy led to another, and another, and another. And their stories were so fascinating and compelling that I was hooked! It didn’t take long to realize that this was a rich history, just hiding away in people’s minds, and drawers, and attics, and my mission changed to that of documenting this little-known, not-to-be-forgotten history of how men of all stripes delivered hope to a war-torn world. I’ve been at it for twenty years now, accumulating a sizable archive of cowboy photos and stories too significant to just sit on my shelves.

In 2007, I created a DVD documentary photostory, A Tribute to the Seagoing Cowboys, which I took on a Tribute Tour around the country meeting more cowboys and gathering their stories.

Meeting and hearing from seagoing cowboys at Brethren Village retirement community in Lititz, PA, April 14, 2009.

I started my seagoing cowboys website in 2008, and what a game changer that was! I began to get requests for information of all types related to this history from as far away as Poland, Germany, Finland, and Japan. Inadvertently, I had become the recognized “expert” on the seagoing cowboys and the related history of the Heifer Project.

My novel did get drafted and revised, and revised, and revised, but never published. Instead, it sort of morphed into my children’s picture book The Seagoing Cowboy. In the summer of 2014, while that book was in the works, I decided the best way to get more of this history out into the world was to start a blog. And I’ve been at it ever since.

 

Special Post: International Day of Peace

On this International Day of Peace, I honor the Seagoing Cowboys
who helped usher in peace after World War II.

A seagoing cowboy reflects on visiting the memorial being built where the first shots of World War II had been fired. Gdansk, Poland, July 1946. Photo by Charles Shenk.

Seagoing cowboy Guy Buch, fluent in German, is being interviewed by German media. Buch was part of a special crew of Church of the Brethren seminary and college students intent on having dialogue with German Christians. Bremen, West Germany, July 1946. Photo courtesy of Guy Buch.

Another special crew tested whether black and white seagoing cowboys could work together on the same ship. The cowboys pray together on their return from Poland to the United States. July 1946. Photo by Ben Kaneda.

On this International Day of Peace,
I also honor the Brethren Service Committee and the Heifer Project
whose mission it was to build peace in a war-torn world.

Seagoing cowboy Martin Strate shakes the hand of a Japanese official after a ceremony to celebrate Heifer Project’s shipment of 25 bulls to Japan, May 1947. Photo by Norman Hostetler.

A “Campaign for Peace Action” brochure of the Church of the Brethren Peace Education Department, circa late 1940s. Courtesy of Heifer International archives.

May peace prevail in these troubled times.

~ Peggy Reiff Miller

 

Oceans of Possibilities: Turning Swords into Plowshares

If you missed my program for the Indian Valley Public Library last week and would like to see it, you can tune in to the 56-minute recording here. I talk about the ways in which the seagoing cowboys and the Heifer Project contributed to building peace after World War II. Enjoy!

~Peggy

The Longest Ride – Part III: Greek Odyssey in Kavalla

The seagoing cowboys on the S. S. Carroll Victory had some tense moments before putting their feet on dry land in Kavalla, Greece, in November 1946. Charlie Lord wrote to his wife, “A sudden squall struck us this morning and blew like fury, with rain. Our ship went off the course and we wandered through mine fields without knowing where the cleared channel was. Then the weather cleared and we came into this beautiful harbor about 8:31 A.M.”

Kavalla, Greece, November 18, 1946. © Charles Lord

“An ancient castle dominates the scene with a Roman viaduct crossing the narrow valley below. The rest of the wide-flung area of mountainside is covered with white and yellow square houses with rose-colored roofs, set one above the other, step like on the mountain side.” Fellow cowboy Maynard Garber noted in his diary, “Kavalla in Paul’s time was known as Neapolis. The castle was probably frequently visited by Paul during some of his missionary journeys.”

The Carroll Victory stayed six days in port at Kavalla, giving the cowboy crew plenty of time to explore the area and absorb its history. On their second day, Lord said, “The British army took the whole cattle crew to Philippi, just over the mountain in a transport truck this afternoon. We had a marvelous time, looking at the ruins of the ancient Roman city.”

Exploring the ruins of Philippi, November 20, 1946. © Charles Lord

Garber noted, “To some of the fellows, the place was just a pile of stones, but to most of us the place had some meaning. It was here that Paul on one of his missionary journeys built a church. As we walked around on the wide stone foundations we knew that it was here that Paul preached. We then had the privilege of seeing the prison where Paul was imprisoned for the night.”

Entrance to the prison where the Apostle Paul was held. © Charles Lord

The Carroll Victory cowboys had the joy of seeing some Heifer Project animals that had previously been distributed in villages around Kavalla. “In one home,” Lord said, “the woman gave up her room to the heifer, and she sleeps with the children.”

This woman slept with her children so her beloved gift from the Heifer Project could have her room. © Charles Lord

Five of the cowboys got a ride with a British army truck over the mountains one day to find a village of thatched huts. “Fog was very thick,” Lord said. “We started walking up a path away from the road. We went about the distance we thought it should be to the village though none of us had been there. Then we stopped debating what to do. The fog lifted and there was the village across a ravine.”

The thatched village near Kavalla, Greece, visited by seagoing cowboys, November 23, 1946. © Charles Lord

“It was like a picture from a storybook,” Lord said. “The people in their black woolen and fur clothing were carding wool, sewing clothing, and putting up the pole framework of another hut. The people were friendly if their dogs were not, and let us take all the pictures we wanted.”

Woman on right spinning wool in her thatched-hut village near Kavalla, Greece, November 23, 1946. © Charles Lord

“We came back over a very high mountain, saw lots of fortifications on the top . . . then ran down the mountain strate [sic] to supper. They threw a birthday party for the Chief Steward tonight. He asked me to take pictures for him. I did, figuring they may fit in my interracial story since captain and chief mate sat next to him at the table.”

Chief Steward of the S. S. Carroll Victory Ivory Dennis with the ship’s captain on the left and chief mate on the right. © Charles Lord

“The steward said it was best birthday party he’d ever had,” Lord told his wife. “Captain said he was glad to see cattlemen there, was sure we’d have a good trip.

“We have had a wonderful six days in Greece. We will probably spend 2 or 3 days in Haifa getting a boiler fixed, then on to Durban, S. Africa.”

~ to be continued

Once again, my thanks to Charles Lord for so graciously sharing his letters and photos with me.