In May 1942, Private Leonard Larkins came up to Carcross with Company A of the the 93rd Engineers. Company A came first and moved out almost immediately. Private Larkins came up and moved out with them. (Read more about Leonard on our research site)
Leonard Larkins grew up on Star Plantation in Southern Louisiana; lived with his extended family in a small cabin on the Plantation.
In the 1930’s Star Plantation drove an incredibly hard bargain with its work force. Southern Louisiana hadn’t really given up slavery, they just replaced it with as virulent a form of Jim Crow as existed anywhere. Field workers worked from sun to sun, supervised by “the man on a white horse” with a rifle. Star Plantation paid in tokens, not the coin of the realm. Workers could only spend the tokens at the Plantation Store.
Leonard attended the plantation school until he turned 10, then the family needed the few extra tokens he could earn in the sugar cane fields. He left school and joined them there. Eighty years later Leonard remembers the cane fields.
In sweltering South Louisiana, the Plantation had, of course, to provide water, but it came in a bucket with a can hung to it, and everybody drank from the can—everybody, that is, except the “man on the white horse”. For permission to urinate, one held up one finger. Two fingers indicated a more serious request.
When the Army came looking for Leonard in 1941, he was happy to change jobs. At $21 a month, the Army paid better.
The Army took him to Camp Livingston and Company A of the 93rd Engineering Regiment. He slept on a wooden cot in “barracks” with wood floors and canvas roofs. They may have been designed for 12 men, but they “held a lot more than that.”
Soldiers on pass from Camp Livingston typically made their way into nearby Alexandria, Louisiana and to the leisure activities available on Lee Street. Black soldiers didn’t thrill the good citizens of Alexandria, but their dollars did—if they kept to Lee Street. Asked about Alexandria, Leonard remembers a hostile place. “One time, state police beat us up—hit us on the head with sticks. Sure did.” The Pittsburgh Courier fills in the gaps in Leonard’s memory. One night in early 1942 when trouble broke out on Lee Street, white MP’s responded, local police and state police joined them… A police riot ensued. (Alexandria, Louisiana in 1941)
“I sure was scared. I didn’t get hit, but guys next to me did.”
Leonard doesn’t remember the train ride across the continent from Louisiana to Prince Rupert, British Columbia—except that it lasted a long time. But he remembers leaving Prince Rupert on the luxury liner USS Princess Louise. The Corps grabbed any shipping it could get to transport men up the Inland Passage. Company A of the 93rd lucked out in the draw. Leonard slept on a soft bunk and ate food served by waiters on tables covered with linen tablecloths.
Leonard remembers cold—and big icicles. “One time, up there, it got 72 degrees below zero!” He remembers the train tracks down the middle of Skagway’s main street. But that’s about it for Skagway. Company A didn’t linger there very long.
He remembers the breathtaking ride on the White Pass and Yukon Railroad from Skagway up to Carcross. When the train stopped, thirsty men weren’t allowed to use cups. They had to drink out of a hose. He remembers Carcross, the beached paddle wheeler Tushi and the ramshackle hotel.
Old photos of men working on the highway inspired this: “Too many men standing around. On the highway you kept moving, you didn’t stand around.” Leonard came to the Highway knowing about work. He shared with his buddies his technique for moving a heavy log—stand it on end, squat, let it lean on a shoulder, then tip its end up off the ground and stand yourself up.
Leonard remembered miserable, unbearable cold. Cigarettes and spoons stuck to lips.
He remembered the Company Commander—Lt. Holtzapple. More important, he remembered First sergeant Sgt. Ashel Honesty. “Not a nice fellow.” Apparently First Sergeants haven’t changed much in seventy-five years.
The Plantation taught Leonard about work. The highway taught him more… On the Highway, Leonard painted the milepost signs. And he organized the tool tent—handing out hand tools to the men. He became the master of hand tools—especially the shovel. He remembers wrapping explosives around the bigger trees—dynamite to blow them down.