The Works Progress Administration - later becoming The Works Projects Administration - both popularly known as the "W.P.A.", were federal programs crucial to the economic relief efforts during the New Deal Years of the 1930s.
Thus, the W.P.A. programs were indelibly etched into American 21st Century history with a purpose to provide employment to those who needed it. If successful, it would meet the goal to reduce the hardships endured by a nation's people desperate to survive the decade long perilous events that would unfold during the Great Depression.
The National Director of the Works Progress Administration was Mr. Harry Hopkins
(Harry Lloyd Hopkins' memorial on Find A Grave).
In Ohio, the statewide W.P.A. director was Dr. Carl Watson.
Initially in 1936, the Buckeye State was divided into 16 Districts of counties set up for the W.P.A. to operate regionally throughout the state. Over time, however, the number was reduced to 12, and finally to 6 districts.
The work continued, though, including the canvassing of county cemeteries by the W.P.A. workers. They drew individual cemetery plat maps of burial plots. A small coffin shaped black symbol was drawn inside the corresponding gravesite location for an American veteran.
Since there is much to learn about "W.P.A.", both at the national level and in Ohio, it is important to research historical newspapers published during the years the program operated.
Written at the time of the events, these news accounts give us a greater grasp of the W.P.A.'s goals that detail how they were met, and the challenges that arose on the way to its eventual ending.
We take a look at only a small sampling of stories and headlines about the W.P.A. that ran in various Ohio newspapers starting in 1936.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Below is a sample Veteran Grave Registration Card. Grave Registration cards such as this one were created for individual veterans buried at Ohio cemeteries.
The registration cards were created during the same time period when the W.P.A. Cemetery plat maps were drawn.
The cards were created when a U.S. government issued headstone was ordered for a veteran to be installed at his gravesite.
More Ohio county Recorder's offices have the veteran graves registrations cards yet today compared to how many still have the W.P.A. Cemetery Plat Maps (which are typically large in size and originally were bound inside hardbound covers).
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Below is a composite of a sample Works Progress Administration Title Page for a county's cemetery plat maps at the top, and below it is the "Legend" list of wars, insurrections, and American Indian uprisings and their number designations up to and including World War I.:
Below is a sample WPA Cemetery Plat Map for an Ohio cemetery.
Some map pages contain map drawings for more than one cemetery whenever the cemeteries are smaller. The cemeteries may, or may not, be located in the same township. For larger cemeteries comprising more than one section, there can be multiple pages - one for each section.:
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
