In the autumn of 1942, the war around the world ground on. Although very few local men were killed or wounded, the war was an integral part of the war.. Almost every day a young man was enlisting or was drafted into the armed forces. All eyes were on the ground and around the home to find find a piece of anything which could be recycled was picked up and piled up for the war effort.
The September 15, 1942 front page of the Dublin Courier Herald there was a story of the Japanese dropping a bomb in a thick forest in Oregon which caused a forest fire. Reports were coming in of the sinking of the USS Yorktown, Hubert Wilkes, Jack Thigpen, Marvin Way, E.W. Harville, and Edward Bankston of Laurens County were serving aboard the beleaguered ship when it sank.
Perhaps the best good news of the first year of the war came in September with the announcement of the construction of a large airfield northwest of town. The airfield, built primarily with local funds, would be in consideration as an auxiliary base for larger Army Air Corps bases in the area.
To help out in the drive for scrap metal, especially cars, the Dublin Courier Herald printed a form for it s readers to send in to the War Production Board the location of junk autos to help the soldiers in Australia, England and North Africa.
A massive drive for desperately needed scrap was initiated by local chairman, Spright Dowell, Jr.. Dowell, whose father was President of Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now Auburn University, from 1920 to 1927, and of Mercer University from 1928 to 1953, was please by record collections primarily through the efforts of school students, movie goers and civic club members.
Mrs. Lenora Varnadoe and Mrs. Mark Lester were the first persons to answer a new call for scrap iron, The two ladies gathered 410 pounds of mostly household equipment to exceed the established goal of 100 pounds. County agent Harry Edge claimed that if every person in Dublin would meet the goal of 100 pounds per person, the drive would collect at least 800,000 in the city and 3 million pounds for the county as a whole.
Scrap drive champs, K.G. Wiggins and George Moore, donated one day’s work amounting to 6,900 pounds. The young boys, with the aid of W.L. Eberhart, took the large load to junk dealer P.M. Watson, who gave the proud boys, $38.00, which they donated to a charity.
County agent Harry Edge, suggested that area farmers use the proceeds from their scrap materials to purchase pure bred bulls for better cattle to help the war effort.
Dublin schools piled scrap into tall piles as a sign that their students were helping to defeat the Axis powers piled on school grounds. During two matinees at Rose Theater approximately 1000 students attended the movie with at least five pounds of scrap as an admission fee. These children along accounted for fifty to sixty thousand pounds of scraps out of the seventy five thousand pounds collected.
Abraham Lease and his family donated a 100 year-old cooper boiler made in their homeland or Russia. The five-pound, 10-inch, 5-inch wide, pot was used to deep fry fish. The senior Lease made the donation in support of his sons, Izzie Lease, of the Army Ferrying Command, and Corporal Nat lease, an aviator in the Army Air Corps. The Leases had already donated tons of abandoned equipment from their back yard laundry. Lease donated these proceeds to empty stocking fund.
Local banks experienced a shortage of pennies and nickels, so much so that the banks had to begin rationing them. The shortage was the result, for the most part, in the fact that it was cotton picking time and the demand for the copper and nickel inside. In the following year, the U.S. Mint began to issue steel pennies and nickels made of silver, copper and manganese.
In people news, W.W. “Buck” Brisnon, a Dublin businessman, took over the reins of the Dublin Red Cross chapter. Hardeman Blackshear, a local attorney, who had served as a Captain in Georgia State Guards, District 24, was assigned to a position in Office of Price Administration in Washington.
Inspectors from the Army Air Corps in Savannah rated the plane spotters in Laurens County as tops in this section.
Reports of pilot Lt. Paul Scarboro, of Royston and brother of A.C. Scarboro of Dublin, in his 12th mission paticpated in attack on Rabaul Base.
The Rose Theater, then the sole movie house in Dublin, joined thousands of theaters around the country began to run countless announcements to raise money for war bond sales.
In October, for the first time during the not yet year-old war, married men were called for draft exams. Jimmy Canady was the first of sixty married men without children to get the call to report for testing.
For the first time, the U.S. Army Air Corps opened a permanent recruiting office in Dublin. Captain Nugent E. Brown, headed the office, which located in room 204 of the U.S. Post Office building on the northeastern end of the courthouse square.
Lt. Cecil Waters of Laurens County, a former supply sergeant with the guards since 1940, was assigned to head the Signal Corps Unit of District 24 by Major Marshall Chapman. Captain Felton Pierce transferred from Dist 24 Staff to Captain of the local unit replacing Charles A. Hodges, resigned.
Gen. Eric Fisher Wood, traveled from Fort Benning, to meet and inspect the Local guards. Met by Major Marshall Chapman, Capt. J.A. Middleton, lt. Cecil Waters and Capt. Felton Pierce. Inspected armory field inspection of the troops at the football field. Commended the members of LC units 48 and 275
General Wood was an American civil engineer, architect, author, and officer in the United States Army. He is best known as being one of the initial founders of the American Legion veterans' organization in 1919.
The first holiday season of the war was about to come. Hearts were breaking and mothers were crying as their sons and husbands were far away from home.
The September 15, 1942 front page of the Dublin Courier Herald there was a story of the Japanese dropping a bomb in a thick forest in Oregon which caused a forest fire. Reports were coming in of the sinking of the USS Yorktown, Hubert Wilkes, Jack Thigpen, Marvin Way, E.W. Harville, and Edward Bankston of Laurens County were serving aboard the beleaguered ship when it sank.
Perhaps the best good news of the first year of the war came in September with the announcement of the construction of a large airfield northwest of town. The airfield, built primarily with local funds, would be in consideration as an auxiliary base for larger Army Air Corps bases in the area.
To help out in the drive for scrap metal, especially cars, the Dublin Courier Herald printed a form for it s readers to send in to the War Production Board the location of junk autos to help the soldiers in Australia, England and North Africa.
A massive drive for desperately needed scrap was initiated by local chairman, Spright Dowell, Jr.. Dowell, whose father was President of Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now Auburn University, from 1920 to 1927, and of Mercer University from 1928 to 1953, was please by record collections primarily through the efforts of school students, movie goers and civic club members.
Mrs. Lenora Varnadoe and Mrs. Mark Lester were the first persons to answer a new call for scrap iron, The two ladies gathered 410 pounds of mostly household equipment to exceed the established goal of 100 pounds. County agent Harry Edge claimed that if every person in Dublin would meet the goal of 100 pounds per person, the drive would collect at least 800,000 in the city and 3 million pounds for the county as a whole.
Scrap drive champs, K.G. Wiggins and George Moore, donated one day’s work amounting to 6,900 pounds. The young boys, with the aid of W.L. Eberhart, took the large load to junk dealer P.M. Watson, who gave the proud boys, $38.00, which they donated to a charity.
County agent Harry Edge, suggested that area farmers use the proceeds from their scrap materials to purchase pure bred bulls for better cattle to help the war effort.
Dublin schools piled scrap into tall piles as a sign that their students were helping to defeat the Axis powers piled on school grounds. During two matinees at Rose Theater approximately 1000 students attended the movie with at least five pounds of scrap as an admission fee. These children along accounted for fifty to sixty thousand pounds of scraps out of the seventy five thousand pounds collected.
Abraham Lease and his family donated a 100 year-old cooper boiler made in their homeland or Russia. The five-pound, 10-inch, 5-inch wide, pot was used to deep fry fish. The senior Lease made the donation in support of his sons, Izzie Lease, of the Army Ferrying Command, and Corporal Nat lease, an aviator in the Army Air Corps. The Leases had already donated tons of abandoned equipment from their back yard laundry. Lease donated these proceeds to empty stocking fund.
Local banks experienced a shortage of pennies and nickels, so much so that the banks had to begin rationing them. The shortage was the result, for the most part, in the fact that it was cotton picking time and the demand for the copper and nickel inside. In the following year, the U.S. Mint began to issue steel pennies and nickels made of silver, copper and manganese.
In people news, W.W. “Buck” Brisnon, a Dublin businessman, took over the reins of the Dublin Red Cross chapter. Hardeman Blackshear, a local attorney, who had served as a Captain in Georgia State Guards, District 24, was assigned to a position in Office of Price Administration in Washington.
Inspectors from the Army Air Corps in Savannah rated the plane spotters in Laurens County as tops in this section.
Reports of pilot Lt. Paul Scarboro, of Royston and brother of A.C. Scarboro of Dublin, in his 12th mission paticpated in attack on Rabaul Base.
The Rose Theater, then the sole movie house in Dublin, joined thousands of theaters around the country began to run countless announcements to raise money for war bond sales.
In October, for the first time during the not yet year-old war, married men were called for draft exams. Jimmy Canady was the first of sixty married men without children to get the call to report for testing.
For the first time, the U.S. Army Air Corps opened a permanent recruiting office in Dublin. Captain Nugent E. Brown, headed the office, which located in room 204 of the U.S. Post Office building on the northeastern end of the courthouse square.
Lt. Cecil Waters of Laurens County, a former supply sergeant with the guards since 1940, was assigned to head the Signal Corps Unit of District 24 by Major Marshall Chapman. Captain Felton Pierce transferred from Dist 24 Staff to Captain of the local unit replacing Charles A. Hodges, resigned.
General Wood was an American civil engineer, architect, author, and officer in the United States Army. He is best known as being one of the initial founders of the American Legion veterans' organization in 1919.
The first holiday season of the war was about to come. Hearts were breaking and mothers were crying as their sons and husbands were far away from home.
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