| Ray McGath Collection |
| 1937 – 2008 [1980’s] |
| Extent: 0.5 Linear Feet |
| Accession Number: 2009.007 |
| Abstract: Contains a wide variety of materials relating to CCC work and men that worked for the CCC. Includes materials on CCC reunions from 1973-2008, photographs, artifacts, and other records. |
| Processed by: Anthony Machiran, June, 2009 |
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Repository: Special Collections and Archives, Southeast Missouri State University Phone: (573) 651-2245; Fax: (573) 651-2666; Email: semoarchives@semo.edu |
| Provenance: Donated by Ray McGath |
| Citation: Ray McGath Collection, Special Collections and Archives, Southeast Missouri State University |
| Restrictions: None |
| Biographical Note |
| Raymond McGath (1919- ) was born in Portageville, the son of a Southeast Missouri sharecropper. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1939 as a way to help support his family. He served first at Babler State Park, in Wildwood, Missouri, and then transferred closer to his home to New Madrid (Company # 3729). He left the CCC in 1941 in order to join the Navy, where he fought throughout World War II. He served in the Navy until 1946[?] as a signalman. After he left the Navy, McGath worked for several years at a gas company in Grand Junction, Colorado, but then returned to Southeast Missouri. McGath worked for over thirty years with the Missouri Natural Gas Company, Poplar Bluff, Missouri. McGath was married close to sixty years to wife, Wilma Lucille Million McGath. The couple had three sons. McGath currently resides in Poplar Bluff. |
| Scope and Content Note |
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Includes journals, photographs, and a memory book from McGath’s time at New Madrid Camp #3729, materials on CCC reunions from 1973-2008, artifacts, and other records. Of special note are the journals, as they contain a lot of information about what the men would expect when joining the camps, and also what the men were doing once they were working in the camps.
Also includes financial information on what the CCC spent money on for meals and reunions. The correspondence is mostly relates to mailing out invitations to members of the CCC for reunions. In addition to archival records, the collection includes an oral history with McGath. Click here for a transcript of this interview. |
| Archivists Note: Ray McGath also included materials given to him by Edward and Margie Fae Virgin, William B. Pinnell, and Cecil A. Westmoreland. |
| Rules or Conventions: Finding Aid prepared using DACS |
| Box 3198 | ||
| Folder 1 | Financial | 1979 – 1993 |
| Folder 2 | Journals | 1940 – 1991 |
| Folder 3 | Memory/ Information Book | 1937 - 1940 |
| Folder 4 | Correspondence | 1979 – 1996 |
| Folder 5 | Reunion Information | 1979 – 2008 |
| Folder 6 | Newspaper/Magazine Clippings | 1982, 1991 |
| Folder 7 | Photographs | 1939 – 1940 |
| Folder 8 | Artifacts | 1983, 2003 |
| Folder 9 | CCC Calendars | 1988, 1990, 1991, 1993 |