WORLD WAR II NEWS

by Ruth Barnebey

Entry T80 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Thermometer designed by Jacque Jeffords and
Harry Leach to show pounds of scrap iron brought
in for WW II Drive. Mrs. Claudia Tompkins teacher.

After Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941 and
war was declared our Mullen Community
really began organizing to get projects in
motion to help our boys in service. The
Mullen Bank made a plea in the local paper
"If at all possible, let us buy 3 times as many
bonds as we did in the past. Let us be just as
determined to fill our Quota as our boys are
to win the war."

There were a lot of Bond Drives made in
Mullen. The Bank of Mullen encouraged
buying bonds through offering low interest of
2 percent loans to enable people to buy the
bonds. The United States Postoffice had
Uncle Sam's poster telling people to help in
the war effort.

Mullen planned a very interesting and
exciting program by the Commerical Club to
raise money to help with the various projects
for the war effort. This was carried out a
number of times and usually held on Satur-
day when everyone came to town with their
produce. Citizens were invited to bring any
article or articles they did not want, to be
auctioned on the street. Bids were exciting
and competive; a glass sugar bowl might bring
$15 or $20, big items much.more. An example;
at the 1943 County Fair, a box of shotgun
shells that had been donated sold for $1100.
Mullen's quota at this particular time was
$76,500. There was $20,000 raised at this Fair
and Barbecue.

The registration for the first ration books
for sugar, meat, and gas was held in the
Elementary School basement. The teachers
had been instructed in a training session the
procedure in registering the public. After the
initial registering, the ration books had to be
applied for in the courthouse office which had
been set up as a rationing office.

A slogan that was often printed or voiced
was "Slap a Jap-Sell your scrap" In late
September of 1942, a scrap drive was made
in Mullen everyone acted as a committee of
one to fill the "big crib" on main street so as
to remain ahead of the other counties and
received the $1,000 offered by the World
Herald of Omaha. Salvage Chairman E.E.
Wadlow said Hooker County must declare
War on the AXIS. The Junior Commandos
were organized to canvas every house in town
or country to find where the salvage was
hiding. Ranchers and truckers were asked to
help. The scrap that was bought from the one
bringing it in, donated the money to the fund
for buying new equipment for the Fire
Department, also for the prairie fire equip-
ment.

The Sunday World-Herald took pictures
of the Scrap Champs and some of the
captions read as follows: Nellie Johnston was
one of the most active women in the Hooker
County Campaign. She stood at the big
scales, accurately weighing in over a half
million pounds - at the rate of 80 and 90
thousand pounds a day. Frank Stoughton,
the Fire Chief and refinery operator, took
time off from his job, as did all the merchants,
business and professional people, virtually
closing up the town of Mullen for several
days, to search the Sandhills for scrap of all
kinds. That is what happened to the old `sad
irons', pot bellied iron stoves, iron kettles and
what not. Mel Condron of the Clyde Arnold
Store gave five gallons of ice cream to the
Mullen youngsters in return for scrap, and
Bob Long, drayman, brought in enough scrap
to give Hooker County a chance to be on top
in Nebraska. High School teacher Laurence
L. Jones and Sheriff H.R. Ridenour helped
bring in a 4700 pound safe from the basement
of the County Courthouse. Second to none in
enthusiasm was Rev. Harold S. Baker, photo-
graphing the growing piles of scrap and
keeping the other Nebraska counties infor-
med that Hooker County was 100 percent
behind the salvage campaign.

The papers came out of towns "Hooker
County Takes The Lead With 199.5 Pounds"
of scrap per person. Population 1,253 in the
county, 24,407 pounds of scrap, per capita
199.05 pounds.

In October of 1942, the school youngsters,
not to be outdone by the adults, piled scrap
in the street in front of the Elementary
school. They carried much in by armfuls,
some brought in with little wagons, parents
helped their children pack a lot of it. They
labored mightily during the Corn-Hawk
scrap contest and were given much of the
credit for the fact that Hooker County still
led the state per capita. Scrap Queens of the
High School that were nominated were:
Katherine Hamilton, freshman; Carol Si-
monson, sophomore; Jeffie Gibson, Junior;
Gladys Buechler, Senior. Louis Bragg was the
High School superintendent at the time.
Jeffie Gibson was the finalist as the Queen.

The Elementary 5th and 6th grade de-
signed a thermometer to place in the hall to
show how much scrap was being brought in
by indicating how Hot it was getting for the
AXIS. The sixth grade students, Jacque
Jeffords and Harry Leach designed the
thermometer and kept it updated.

Hooker County also made its rubber quota
of 20 tons.

Yes, the Hooker County and the surroun-
ding area, with team work certainly did their
part in the war effort.