West Virginia Land Girls in the Taylor Orchards, Clyde, Ohio, 1944. Toledo Blade Photographer Norman Hauger, 1944. Image used with permission by Toledo Blade Newspaper, Toledo, Ohio.

This is the story of Genevieve “Jean” Wolfe, one of the initial group of 40 young women recruited from West Virginia who traveled to Ohio during World War II as members of the Women’s Land Army. Genevieve is second from left in the image above from a 1944 Toledo Blade story.

Because there was no demand for help on the farms in West Virginia, the Extension Service recruited workers for fruit and truck farms in northern Ohio. In all, there were 60 West Virginia girls placed in three camps the summer of 1944. The camps were Gilmore Manor at Huron, a YWCA camp in Elyria, and the American Legion Home in Fremont.

Genevieve, from Charleston, wrote letters home, detailing life at camp in Fremont and the girls’ work in  the orchards at Clyde. That correspondence is posted on the anniversary of its writing and may be seen here, along with photos and supporting documents from that era.

To read about the history of the West Virginia Women’s Land Army in Ohio, and the Women’s Land Army during WWI and WWII, check the column to the right to access the stories listed as chapters. The letters are listed in chronological order under monthly headings.

–Betty Owens’ Daughter