The Friendly B.E.F. String Band
In the spring of 1932 the Depression was prevalent over the country and people were suffering from lack of work, money, food etc. Some of the worst hit families were those of the World War I Veterans. The Government had promised them a bonus but it was not due until the year 1945. A group of Veterans, led by Walter W. Waters, started a campaign in Oregon to ask the Congress to give them their bonus then when it was needed most.
My father in law was one of the Captains of the group as they left Oregon under the leadership of Walter W. Waters. Steve wrote in his diary about the events that they encountered on their long journey across the United States, ending up in Washington, DC. It was there that he met my mother’s adopted brother and eventually met my parents and persuaded them to join him in Washington to entertain the troops that were camped out in Anacostia. The following story is taken from my writings of my parent’s family history. My mother, Lillie Linebarrier Blair, is the only living member of this group still living. Her and my mother in law lives with my wife and I here in Asheboro. In the group photo my mother is holding her Gibson Tenor Banjo, which my father bought for her in 1931 when she was pregnant with me. She still has the banjo, which is still in very good condition.
Information for the events that took place was from what I remember my parents relating to me and Steve’s diary; Specific details were taken from the following books, B.E.F. The Whole Story of the Bonus Army, by Walter W. Waters; The Battle of Washington, by George H. Kleinholz; Veterans on the March, by Jack Douglas; The Bonus March and The New Deal, by John Henry Bartlett.
The “BONUS ARMY”, estimated at 17,000 WW I veterans, had moved in the DC and Anacostia area about May 1932. L.A. Sweat, Lillie Linebarrier’s adopted brother, met one of the members of the group, named Steve Mesker, from Wisconsin. Steve had come with the original group that got its start in Oregon and was led by the originator Walter W. Waters. Steve was what you would call a jack-of-all-trades. At that time he was working as a sign painter for the Volunteer’s of America for $3.00 a week. Sweat had just bought an old Chevrolet coach for $10.00 but needed some work done to it. He talked Steve into doing the necessary work and gave him $1.00 for his labor.
It was sometime around Thursday July 14, during one of their conversations, that Sweat asks Steve if he would like to take a trip to North Carolina with him. He was going to visit his kinfolk in Danville, VA and then on to Kannapolis, NC to see his adopted sister and her family. Steve said he was not about to go barging in on people he didn’t know but Sweat soon convinced him that he would be more than welcome.
On Monday July 18, they left Washington, DC and headed south on Highway #1 towards Richmond but only got as far as Fredericksburg where they were forced to stop and put in a new radiator. After traveling about 15 miles farther they decided to camp for the night with only their blankets and the ground to sleep on. The next morning they got up at 5:00am and drove on to Danville without any more problems. They spent Tuesday night there with Sweat’s kinfolk and left the next morning at 8:00am for Kannapolis. They got there around 6:30 that evening after having to fix two flat tires on the way.
They went straight to Lillie and Wade’s house, on Juniper Street, where they ate supper. Wade and his brother Rob and their wives had a little family string band and that night was a regular practice time for them at Rob and Mary’s. Sweat and Steve decided to go along to pass the time away and listen to the music. After a few minutes Steve knew he liked the kind of music they played. During the session he got a bright idea and approached them with the idea of going to Washington and entertaining the Bonus Army with their music.
After talking it over among themselves they all agreed that it was a great opportunity but were hesitant to venture that far from home. They had only been out of North Carolina once and that was when they went to Bennettsville, SC to get married. With no money to speak of to finance the trip this seemed a little far out but Steve had an idea in his head and convinced them it would all work out.
The next two days were spent preparing for their trip. Getting off work was not a problem. Due to the depression, work was slack anyway, Cannon Mills, at that time, was only working two days a week. They first had to find some one to keep the children. Lillie’s parents, George and Dessie Furr from Concord, agreed to come and keep her two children, Audrey and Bill, while Mary’s sister took care of her daughter Edith. Mary was 4 months pregnant at the time with her second child. After all the necessary work was taken care of the thought came to one of them, they didn’t have a name for the band. Surely they couldn’t go to Washington, DC, the nations capitol, perform before thousands of people, and not have a name. After a lot of discussion of ideas they came up with The Friendly B.E.F. String Band. This was because the Bonus Army, that was made up of WW1 veterans, which Steve was a member of, started a march beginning in Oregon and ending in Washington, DC. They were called the Bonus Expeditionary Forces, B.E.F. for short. Their purpose was to get the congress to give them the bonus it had promised, but was not due until the year 1945. They decided to have a photo made of the band so Steve, using his artistic skills, painted them a sign. They met the next day at Wade and Rob’s mother’s house for the picture before leaving for DC.
Around noon Friday, July 22, the group loaded their instruments along with extra clothes, quilts, pillows, an old cast iron wash pot and other necessities in two cars and headed north on highway 29. Their first stop was in Greensboro to eat and gas up. While doing this Steve decided it was time to use his idea of how to finance the trip. He asks Wade if the band would mind unpacking the instruments and set up on the street and play a little music. They agreed and when a crowd had gathered around to listen, Steve took his overseas cap; he was wearing his WW I uniform, and went about taking up a collection. He got $2.64, enough to pay for the gas they needed that day. They packed up and headed for Durham, found a suitable place along side of the road, and camped out for the night. They awoke at 6:30 the next morning, ate breakfast, and drove to Petersburg, VA. They did another concert on the street but only got 64 cents so they loaded up and moved on to Richmond. They arrived late Saturday evening and set up to play along side of a movie theater just as the crowd was leaving. The same procedure was followed as before. Steve was passing his hat while the band played; he had 53 cents in only one minute, when a policeman walked up. He talked to Steve a few minutes and inquired as to what they were doing. He told Steve he was sympathetic to their plight but if they didn’t have a permit, to play on the street, then he would have to ask them to leave. They repacked their gear and drove out of town a ways and found a good place to camp for the night. They arose the next morning at 7:00am, had breakfast, loaded all their gear again and headed north on Hwy. 1. They arrived in Washington, DC at 5:00pm Sunday July 24, 1932. Their long journey was finally over. Steve first went to the 6th Division H.Q. to check for any messages while he had been gone. There was none so they set about looking for a place to stay.
There were thousand’s of the Bonus Army holed up in old buildings on Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenue. They all surveyed the situation and after a while Lillie spoke up. She said she was not going to stay in such a mess that they were looking at. Steve said that maybe the best place to go was across the Anacostia River to the flats where most of the soldiers were that had their wives and family. They ate supper first and then Wade and Steve went to scout out a location for the group to set up a campsite. They found a nice quite location on a hillside overlooking the city. This was away from the other tents and cardboard shacks and near a residential area. They had not thought to bring anything, such as a tent, for shelter so the men set out to cut small trees and limbs to make a brush arbor. This turned out to be large enough for everyone to live in. They sat up the old cast-iron wash pot and used it for cooking their meals and then later to do their washing. The women did the cooking and washing while the men all worked on the shelter and driveway. Their first day there Lillie and Mary met a black lady living in one of the houses near by. While talking with her she invited them over to her house to do their ironing.
Steve made daily trips over to Washington to check in at Head Quarters and while he was there pick up food for the group. The local people were very sympathetic of the troops so anyone wearing a uniform was given food and supplies. Sausage, bacon, ham, eggs and grits were some of the items given to them. Due to the depression, Lillie said they ate better at the camp than back home.
The major campground area was named Camp Marks. There was a stage erected for the leaders and politicians to give their speeches and for the entertainers to perform for the troops and their families. One night as the B.E.F. Band was finishing their musical session; the Governor of Maryland was on stage with them and was to be the next speaker. Before they could get off stage he requested they play “My Maryland”, the official state song. They had to decline. First because they didn’t know it and second because none of them had ever heard it before.
Camping out was an exciting time for all. They had never experienced such a situation before in their life. One night, while they all lay sleeping, Lillie awoke to find a man standing at the entrance of their brush arbor peering down at them. She was startled for an instance but regained her composure and nudged Wade and woke him. They were all soon awake but the man turned and wandered off without saying a word. The next day they learned he was a mental patient that had escaped from a nearby institution.
Demonstrations by the vets were a daily happening, on the Capitol steps, where the 72nd Congress was in session. There were, at times, 8,000 men sitting on the steps and lawn of the Capitol grounds, waiting for news from the Senate Chamber on the out come of the vote. When they did finally get around to voting on the bill it was defeated 62 to 18. Instead of rioting, like some thought they would, Walter Waters shouted to them to start singing America.
Tension was now running high between the DC Police and the veterans even though the Police Commander, retired Brigadier General Pelham Glassford, was a friend of the B.E.F. He had given the vet’s permission to occupy the old deserted buildings near the capitol. On Thursday morning July 28 the first real confrontation between the two groups took place. A few men of the Bonus Army, one of which was carrying an American flag, attempted to cross the street and were stopped by the police who wrestled the flag from him. When he was hit with a nightstick bricks, from the other vets, began to fly. Chief Glassford came and stopped the confrontation before it got out of hand. Two hours later there was another dispute when the police tried to prevent some veterans from entering a building they had been using. During one of these skirmishes a police officer panicked and shot and killed a vet named William J. Hushka. Another policeman came to help out and he also opened fire. When it was over two veterans were dead who were not armed and could not defend themselves. President Hoover then decided to call in General Douglas MacArthur and gave him orders to evict the vets, their families, and to destroy the shacks, tents, and buildings they were living in. He used, as an excuse to evict the B.E.F., that the buildings and grounds the vets were occupying were needed for the construction of new buildings and to provide work for the construction force. The day this order came, Wade, Steve and Sweat had gone into Washington and while they were there saw General MacArthur and his Calvary, with sabers bared, advancing on the vets living quarters in the Pennsylvania and Constitution Ave. area. [Wade said he remembered seeing General MacArthur riding a white horse] The (Hoover Boys) as Steve called them, routed and burned out the 6th Division camp. This was turning out to be a battle of American soldiers against American soldiers and their families. After the calvary came the infantry with their iron hats, rifles with bayonets fixed, tear gas, masks and torches. They used the tear gas to run the people out and then set fire to the building with firebombs when it was vacated. Following the infantry came six tanks, a mounted machine gun squadron, 300 policemen, secret servicemen and Treasury agents. All of these just to evacuate defenseless men, women and children.
Steve, Wade and Sweat all got a good whiff of the tear gas and decided it was time to get out of there and back across the river to the safety of their own camp. That night the band was supposed to play for the troops at Camp Marks. They loaded the instruments and themselves into Rob’s car and as they were about to enter the campgrounds a policeman stopped them. When ask where they were going they told him “to entertain the troops”. He said, “The only entertainment they will get tonight will be bullets.” They were then forced to return to their own campsite. It was then that they all realized the time had come for them to leave.
They made it back to camp as darkness was setting in. From their campsite, smoke and fire, from the burning buildings in DC, could be seen in the distance. Anacostia was the next target for the soldiers so they packed all their belongings into Rob’s car and left, headed south in the direction of home. They were all traveling together but Sweat’s car ran out of gas so he stayed around while the rest headed towards Hwy. #1 and Richmond, VA. As soon as they found a good camp sight they stopped for the night. At 8:00am Friday July 29 they were on their way again. Having had to leave Anacostia so sudden they had little funds to buy gas or food. They made it to Amelia, VA before running out of money. They stopped at a service station and had the owner send a telegram to Mary’s sister, asking her to wire them $5.00 to be picked up in Danville. They put on a concert there in Amelia and got $1.90. After spending the night they arose at 6:00am and headed to Danville, arriving there at 1:00pm. After picking up the wired money they went on into Greensboro. While there Steve went by the American Legion and they gave him 90 cents and 6 gallons of gas. About 5 miles out of town they stopped at an old couple’s home for something to eat. They played some music for them and was given a cake and each one a bottle of coke-cola. They made it home arriving at 8:30pm and never did have to use the $5.00. To their surprise Sweat was there waiting for them.
Steve made his home with Lillie and Wade while they went back to work in the cotton mill. He tended to the two children, Audrey and Bill and did the house work for his room and board. He was a good draftsman so everyday when Wade returned home from work he would relate his ideas for is inventions to Steve who then put it all on paper.
While living with Lillie and Wade, Steve met Wade’s brother Russell, who introduced him to Margaret Boger, they were married in 1936. The family eventually moved back to the Washington area where he drove a bus for Capitol Transit. They made annual trips to NC to visit her folk and the Linebarrier’s. The summer of 1942 was the last visit due to the war efforts. At that last visit Bill was 10 years old and Steve and Margaret’s eldest child, Madeline, was 5.
AND NOW….THE REST OF THE STORY
The Korean War began in 1950 and Bill joined the Navy. His first duty was in Hawaii as an aviation photographer at Barbers Point Naval Air Station. In 1952 he was transferred to the Naval Photo Interpretation Center in Anacostia. This local was the same Anacostia Flats that his parents entertained the Bonus Army 20 years earlier. Bill’s first task after reporting for duty in Anacostia was to telephone Steve and Margaret who was living just 25 miles away in Waldorf, Maryland.
It was then that Bill saw Madeline (10 years later) and eventually they were married June 2, 1956. They made their home in Asheboro where the Linebarrier’s had lived since 1945. Steve and Margaret relocated to Asheboro in 1969. Wade, Steve, Rob and Mary have passed away. Lillie and Margaret lived with their children, Bill and Madeline until their deaths. Margaret, July 11, 2004 and Lillie, December 23, 2005.
Bill Linebarrier
