HB 6.10.2021

The Hastings Banner — Thursday, June 10, 2021 — Page 7

Compulsory draft, world news foretold impending war

Conclusion

Kathy Maurer

Copy Editor

A month after President

Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized

the first peacetime draft in the

nation’s history in mid-September

1940, hundreds of local men

filled out registration cards. Their

assigned numbers were printed in

the Oct. 31, 1940, Hastings

Banner – all 2,287 of them.

The calls to service were

sparse over the next several

months, with quotas requesting a

few men at a time. The Aug. 14,

1941, Banner reported that three

recent inductees from Hastings

had been transferred from Fort

Custer: Jean England (No. 1920

on the local registration list) to

Camp Grant, Illinois; Leon “Bud”

Flynn (1539) to Camp Lee,

Virginia; and Dwight Chase

(1709) to Chanute Field, Illinois.

That same Banner announced

that the Barry County Draft Board

had received notification of a

tentative call for 12 selectees to

leave for training camp in

September.

However, the Sept. 11, 1941,

edition listed just eight selectees

who were to leave Sept. 22: Floyd

Winfred Culver, Route 6, Battle

Creek (2166); John Russell

Bulling, Woodland (1855); Lloyd

Ellsworth Linsley, Route 3,

Nashville (946); Dennis Otto

Allerding, Route 2, Woodland

(1067); William Clair Hiscock,

Route 7, Battle Creek (2091);

Kenneth Clinton Burpee; Route

1, Dowling (1679); and Joseph

Oscar Merchant, Cressey (2249).

A ninth man, V. Harry

Adrounie (1732) volunteered to

join the group, which was to

depart from Hastings at 7 a.m.

Monday, Sept. 22.

Despite the lower number

than had been anticipated a month

earlier, the paper warned that

heavier calls were probable in

October and November.

The reprinted list, which

began with the May 20 Banner ,

continues:

1600. John James Witters


1601. Lynden Robert
      Johncock


1602. William Rush Kyee


1603. Gerald Russel
      Thompson


1604. Fain Samuel Williams


1605. Raymond Anders


1606. Peter Ulrich Fedewa


1607. Robert Melvin Rhodes


1608. Merle Grayden Tasker


1609. Maurice Earl Burchett


1610. Maurice F. Cogswell


1611. Carl Albert Ward


1612. Arthur Cecil Skidmore


1613. Raymond Leon
      Wisnewski


1614. Rozell Parker Stanton


1615. John Duane Lammers


1616. Benjamin Andrew
      Adcock


1617. Lloyd Weldon Steeby


1618. Howard B. Watson


1619. Norman C. Hall


1620. Radford Hamlin
      Stidham


1621. Garold Richard
      McMillen


1622. Richard John Powers


1623. John Homer Ingram


1624. Frankie Byron McNutt


1625. Robert Bruce Mackinder


1626. Arthur Shirley Freese


1627. Marion Francis West


1628. Clair Franklin Barnum


1629. Harold Barnum


1630. Donald Ora Moore


1631. Donald L. McDonald


1632. Joseph Patrick
      Armstrong


1633. Charles Stanton
      McNulty


1634. Clarence Ember Pixley


1635. Rankin Frank Hughes


1636. Richard Stiles Cutshaw


1637. Wayne Edger Williams


1638. Voyle Woodrow Benner


1639. Robert Gordon
      Thompson


1640. Lawrence Wesley

Payne

1641. Neville Charles King


1642. Lester H. Larabee


1643. Lloyd Paul Towns


1644. Lynn Otis Lawrence


1645. Victor Voelker Eckardt


1646. Francis Edward Lowry


1647. Leslie Fredrick Steeby


1648. Claude William Miller


1649. Maurice Howard
      Houvener


1650. Richard Clare Chaffee


1651. Franklin Charles
      Beckwith


1652. Theo Max Kennedy


1653. Ernest John Ball


1654. Ray William Lumbert


1655. Walter Henry Mapes


1656. Linwood Elijah Angus


1657. Leon F. Thomas


1658. Charles Wendall Potter


1659. Chester Laurence
      Arehart


1660. Stewart Charles Reigler


1661. Norman Todd Barry


1662. William Hugh Sprague

Earth Day co-founder lived

in Hastings at time of draft

Kathy Maurer
Copy Editor
Credit for the motivation and efforts that
led to the first Earth Day in 1970 remains
unclear. One name associated with its
founding is Morton S. Hilbert.
Online resources such as Wikipedia and
the Bentley Historical Library at the University
of Michigan fleetingly mention that Hilbert,
born in Pasadena, Calif., graduated from the
University of California in 1940 and began
his career as a public health official and field
engineer in Michigan.
What such sources don’t say is where in
Michigan he first lived: Hastings.
The recent college graduate had been
working as a student engineer with the Barry
County Health Department, which, as this
column recapped earlier this year, had been
developed and funded by W.K. Kellogg as a
model for public health. Perhaps the
department’s distinction is what drew the
lifelong Californian to Michigan.
Hilbert’s name is one of 2,287 on a list of
men who registered for the nation’s first
peacetime draft in the fall of 1940. The day
before Congress passed the draft registration
law, the Battle Creek Enquirer mentioned
Hilbert in its updates on “Professional
Activities.”
“Morton Hilbert of the University of
California has had as his territory Middleville,
Yankee Springs and Thornapple townships,

where he has done work with creameries,

sewage disposal, water supply, resorts and

homes, mapping the various activities,” the

Sept. 15, 1940, Enquirer reported. “Much of

the construction of the new Middleville

creamery and the new sewage system has

been under his jurisdiction. At the close of the

season, he was transferred to Battle Creek to

work in one of the laboratories in the ‘health

games.’”

He must have remained in Hastings and

commuted to Battle Creek, since his draft

registration card, which he signed Oct. 16,

1940, listed 118 W. Walnut St., Hastings, as

his address.

Hilbert was still living in Hastings when

he married his first wife, Doris Smith, a

teacher from Fremont, May 24, 1941.

Shortly after, he enrolled in the U-M

School of Public Health and earned a master’s

degree.

The Wyandotte News Herald Nov. 16,

1944, reported that Hilbert, then director of

engineering with the Wayne County Health

Department, declared a public health hazard

in many areas with open drainage ditches

transporting wastewater. A law banning such

practices had been enacted two years earlier,

and Hilbert asked that violations of the law be

reported to the health department.

Hilbert returned to the University of

Michigan, beginning a 25-year role as a

professor. While teaching in Ann Arbor, he

helped organize the 1968 Human Ecology

Symposium, an environmental conference for

students to learn from scientists the

connections between environmental

degradation and human health. From that,

Hilbert worked with graduate students

nationwide, ultimately organizing the first

Earth Day in March 1970 at the U-M Ann

Arbor campus.

He also served as president of a variety of

state and local public health organizations,

was a member of the president’s Task Force

on Urban Problems and helped relocate 1

million refugees in Vietnam.

Hilbert lived for a time in Brussels, before

eventually returning to the West Coast. He

died in Bellevue, Wash., Dec. 24, 1998, at age

81.

For a while though, this Earth Day

co-founder was a fresh-faced college grad

who lived on a tree-lined street in Hastings.

Sources: Hastings Banner , familysearch.

org, findagrave.com, ancestry.com,

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov, Bentley.umich.

edu, newspapers.com and Wikipedia.com.

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AIF®

Karen Hayward

Administrative Assistant

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Woodlawn Meadows: 1821 N. East St Hastings, MI

Lengthy draft list stirs memories

Kathy Maurer

Copy Editor

As I scrolled through fuzzy images on

microfilmed reels of the 1940 Banner at

Hastings Public Library, a list of names

caught my attention. I had been looking for

information on the county’s last Civil War

veteran, Truman O. Webber, hoping to find

him listed among special guests at what

would be the final Veterans Day ceremony of

his life.

The normal blocks of text, headlines and

advertisements haven’t changed much in 80

years. As I fast-forwarded through the pages,

columns and columns of short text suddenly

broke the familiar arrangement. Zooming in, I

saw a numbered list with names – local

names, surnames inherently connected with

certain parts of the county – Leinaar, Durkee,

Stanton, Garlinger, Finkbeiner and more.

I recognized No. 78 Homer DeWeerd.

Better known as “Dee” DeWeerd, he operated

the Standard gas station in Middleville and

sponsored my brothers’ Little League team.

Chester Geukes, No. 550, owned the meat

market on Main Street and probably likewise

supported the Little League program.

And No. 81 Earl VanSickle, the superinten-

dent who died when I was in first grade. One

of his grandchildren was a classmate. I didn’t

know what a superintendent was then or how

to spell the title, but I remember the signifi-

cance of the teacher gathering us in a circle to

talk about Mr. VanSickle’s death.

What was this list, I wondered. Why is it so

long? Why are no women included?

I had to scroll backward to get my answer:

A draft list of local men, ages 21 to 35, from

the Oct. 31, 1940, Banner.

The men whose names I recognized were

gray-haired by the time I knew them. Decades

before, however, as World War II loomed,

they eagerly or uneasily made the obligatory

trip to town and filled out the little card, pro-

viding name, address (many were still RFD,

or rural fire department, addresses; RR, or

rural routes, had yet to be adopted), telephone

(if they had one), birth information, citizen-

ship, “Name of person who will always know

your address” and relationship to that person,

employer’s name and address (some listed the

Works Projects Administration, part of

Roosevelt’s New Deal, established five years

earlier).

The back of the cards, filled out by a regis-

trar, asked for weight, height, hair and eye

color, complexion and “obvious physical

characteristics that will aid in identification.”

As I skipped backward and forward through

the list, random names continued to pull me

back to my childhood:

No. 1353, Carl Seger, a soft-spoken man

with a weathered face who drove the after-

noon kindergarten bus I took to school. I

specifically remember the time he stopped the

bus on a gravel road and half-whispered,

“Look at that, kids,” directing our 5-year-old

eyes to a whitetail deer grazing in a clearing

(back when they were scarce).

No. 1765, Simon Maichele, a 4-H leader

whose voice seemed to carry for miles and

whose enthusiasm was without end. And No.

179, Bill Kirkpatrick, the county’s long-serv-

ing 4-H Extension agent.

Archie Burd, No. 1046, and Marshall Tripp,

1040, who married sisters Ester and Alberta

Green, friends of my aunts since about 1930.

The Burd and Tripp lawns were always neat

and tidy; their homes, like some preserved

museum models, rarely changed over the

decades.

No. 754, Joseph Fiala, who lived not far

from the Burds. He was the husband of my

third-grade teacher. He frequently helped her

out by filling in for recess duty.

Charlie Townsend, No. 1853, also married

to a teacher, was likewise a familiar helper at

school.

Our family attended the same church as

Carl Hula, No. 1206. With an ever-present

twinkle in his kindly blue eyes, he couldn’t

help but play peek-a-boo with little ones or

pretend to “steal the nose” of a toddler.

According to his draft registration card, he

was working at Bliss Manufacturing in

Hastings. Five months earlier, he had married

Eva Strumburger, his lifelong counterpart,

and 11 days before signing the card, he’d

turned 25. The card lists him as 5 feet, 8 inch-

es tall, with brown hair, blue eyes and a ruddy

complexion. The card left no room to indicate

whether his eyes had a certain sparkle.

I hadn’t thought about Mr. Hula in quite a

while, but I was grateful the unusual and

unexpected collection of names had stirred

the memory of that sweet, smiling (sometimes

mischievously), soul. I found myself smiling,

too, at the thought of him.

The familiar names were not just from my

childhood.

No. 922, Mel Jacobs, a former boss who

was patient but firm, a great teacher in his

quiet way. Scarlet fever would prevent him

from serving. Ultimately, he and his wife

would buy the Reminder publication from

Fay and Mae Green, parents of No. 242, Winn

Delos Green. A U.S. Army technician fifth

grade, or Tec 5, Winn Green died shortly

before Christmas 1944, lost at sea near the

Philippines.

No. 1424 was Ernie Belson, whose story

I’d just learned in 2019. Also an Army Tec 5,

Belson died of malaria in the Philippines two

days before the Japanese surrendered. In his

final letter home, he wrote to his mother about

being excited to soon see “that little girl,” his

new niece. That same niece, Linda, was at a

memorial ceremony on Sept. 30, 2019, along

with a few other family members, and Jim and

Ted Dibble, grandsons of a neighboring fami-

ly.

A few years earlier, the Dibble brothers had

learned that Belson’s name was not on a

memorial plaque at Hastings High School.

They learned that his education had ended at

Edger School; he was not able to attend high

school because he needed to work to help his

family. The Dibbles recalled a certain sadness

when their grandmother spoke of the neighbor

boy who, like her own son, never returned.

The Dibbles also came to realize that no for-

mal memorial service was conducted for

Belson, so they set out on a mission to make

sure that, after 75 years, Ernie Belson was no

longer “a missing man.”

Not every name has such a sad association.

Howard Ferris, No. 152, had a picturesque

farm on the edge of Hastings. I encountered

him only a few times, yet he’s the person who

immediately comes to mind when I hear the

term “gentleman farmer.”

Paul Gibson and Russell Solomon – gentle-

men and farmers – also raised horses and had

wagons with which they provided hayrides at

the fair or on country roads. They, too, were

married to teachers from my elementary

school days.

Les Raber, No. 786, was a Michigan

Fiddlers Hall of Fame inductee who also per-

formed at the Smithsonian Festival of

American Folklife in Washington, D.C., and

was known in the Midwest for his fiddle-play-

ing. He was kind enough to lend me a spare

fiddle once after I showed interest in playing.

Awed by his kind offer, I enjoyed running the

bow over the strings, but ultimately decided I

would rather listen to someone else play.

Seeing his name again reminded me of his

generosity – and his musical gifts.

Names of others pop up frequently in sto-

ries about the city in decades past, such as No.

127, Cedric Morey; No. 75, William J.

Schilhaneck; No. 234, Norb Schowalter; or

No. 675, Ken Laberteaux. I can’t remember

their roles, but their names, in my mind, have

a direct connection to the city.

Some surnames seem to firmly place the

individual in a certain part of the county.

Perhaps their families were early settlers,

lending their surnames to nearby road:

Whitmore, Brumm, Enzian, Gackler, Tischer,

Kingsbury and Cogswell are, literally, just a

few.

Besides the generally common names like

Smith, Williams or Johnson, many local sur-

names are recurrent in the list, such as

Allerding (12 times); Belson (10); Johncock

(8); Babcock, Barnum, Slocum and Tobias

(7); Demond/DeMond, Ferris, Hammond,

Kidder, Peake and Swift (6); Barry, Foote,

Kenyon, Lester and Roush, (5). Other local

surnames appearing three or four times

include Bender, Bowman, Brodbeck and

Burdick; Case and Chase; Lammers,

Laubaugh and Lechleitner; McKelvey,

McKeown and McKibbin; Pufpaff and

Pennock; as well as and Stamm and Stanton.

Obviously, much more could be said about

this collection of names – occupation, age,

common first or middle names (the frequency

of Raymond, Burdette and Kenneth surprised

me – as did the multiple spelling variations of

Merl/Murle, etc.), hometown or rural school,

or even who ultimately was drafted and who

died while serving (more than 80).

Regardless of how it is scrutinized,

researched or fashioned, this list is a perma-

nent snapshot of the young men living and

working in Barry County in October 1940.

I knew only a small fraction of them, but

I’m thankful for the unexpected discovery of

this list and the memories it has stirred of

some from “the greatest generation.”

I hope others, too, in scanning these names,

have found similar satisfaction in remember-

ing a former neighbor, business owner, teach-

er, farmer or acquaintance from years ago.

Morton S. Hilbert, who became an
accomplished engineer, professor and a
co-founder of Earth Day, lived in Hastings
in the early 1940s and worked for the
local health department. (Wikipedia.com)

All men between the ages of 21 and 35 were required to register for the draft
October 1940. That included Morton Shelly Hilbert, a sanitary engineer who lived on
West Walnut Street in Hastings. He was No. 1921 out of 2,287 in the first draft.
(Ancestry.com)

Continued next page