"The History of Decatur County, Iowa: 1839 - 1970"

by Himena V. Hoffman
Published by Decatur County Historical Society, Leon IA, 1970
 
Part V: - The Years of Change 1920 - 1970 Section 1, Pp. 197 - 215
Transcription by Sara LeFleur

“So many things have changed but most of all I miss hearing folks laugh.
Once when you came to town you saw men on the street telling jokes, and heard them laugh.
Women laughed too, even if they worked hard, and children were always laughing.
Now it seems no one really laughs.”

- AVIS STRONG RUMLEY

Section 1 - False Prosperity, Depression, Drought and World War II
 
She had lived in the county all of her more than ninety years. Now in the time of uncertain peace, that followed the dark days of World War I and the drab days of the depression, she missed the sound of laughter in the land that had seemed so fair to the pioneers and where there had been such great expectation in the years before World War I.

It was not that all hopes of a bright future ended suddenly or that there were not valiant efforts even in the darkest days to make good thins happen. It must be recognized, too, that Decatur County shared with the rest of the nation an easier way of living. Even during the depression there were new highways and new buildings. What had been luxuries became necessities. Neither the depression nor war changed the demand for faster ways to travel and more things to buy. Even when a drought added to the woes of the depression the demand for amusement increased her as elsewhere.

Decatur County shared, too, in the false prosperity of the years just after World War I. for a short time the dreams of the years just before World War I seemed about to come true. Land had risen in price during the war to the point where only war time prices of the farm products could justify what was paid per acre but it was no until after the war that real speculation on land began. Sometimes this land speculation was greedy, a little of it was vicious but most of it was done by hard working farmers who believed that the land was really worth all or more than it was costing, and by business and professional men of the little towns of Decatur County, son and grandsons of land owners, who believed that the golden days of agriculture had come at last. It was a time of tragic mistakes for so many. Men with good farms, inherited from their fathers or bought and paid for by hard work, mortgaged them to buy more land for themselves or farms for their sons. Men borrowed money to buy land at three times the price it had been ten years earlier, expecting to sell it for double what they paid. Men mortgaged their homes to buy a farm and men too old to again work, invested their life’s savings to buy land that soon would be difficult to sell at almost any price.

The years of false hopes, a time of unfounded expectations. Underneath it all was a lack of security and a restlessness, in part, an aftermath of the war but not due to that alone.

The men who returned from World War I, unlike those who fought earlier, had gone to distant lands. Poison gas, trench warfare, and aerial battles meant that it was a different war from any fought before. They came home (and many of them did come home) for the most part seemingly uninjured in the war. Many of them, however, would die young, not from battle wounds but from the effects of gas attacks, from heart conditions, from stomach ailments and all the other diseases that could be traced back to the days spend in the service. Their early deaths would end the carefree laughter of their loved ones. Mrs. RUMLEY’s two sons were among those who died in middle life, both veterans of World War I.

In the first years of the return of the veterans, however, the ailments that would end their lives in middle age or darken their later years, were not evident. What was evident was their changed attitudes, their restlessness, and in some instancing their disregard for established law and order. The song, “How You Going to Keep Them Down on the Farm After They’ve Seen Parie?” did not present the only problem, though it is true that there were those who came home only long enough to plan to go to the west coast of back east to city living. There was also the problem of adjustment to civilian life back on the farm, or in their own small hometown.

Of course, some made the adjustment quickly. RALPH MCGINNIS and FREDERIC HOFFMAN returned to law school and after graduation practiced law in Leon, HAROLD RUSH had a garage in Leon, FRANK BOIES was employed at the Journal Reporter, RALPH RUMLEY returned to farming and later held county office. FLORIZEL (BERT) KEMP returned to the county and did not leave it until he reenlisted in World War II. These are but a few of the many who came back to the farms and the towns and lived there as before.

American Legion posts were organized in each of the towns except Pleasanton after World War I. These were named, except in two instances, or the first man from that town to die in action or as a result of wounds. In Leon, Post 80 was named for JOHN COWL; in Decatur, for CLIFF MILLER; and in Lamoni, for RALPH JUDSON. Post 236 in Van Wert was FULLER Post and Post 215 in Grand River was named for ALAN LADD. The Davis City Post was known as Davis Post and Post 650, which included LeRoy, Garden Grove and High Point, was Point LeGrove. Lamoni had the first Post chartered, in June 1919, less than two weeks before Cowl Post.

These posts were very active in a social way and in concern for the welfare of veterans. Auxiliaries, whose members consisted of wives, widow, sisters, and daughters of those in the Legion of deceased servicemen, were organized in each town.

The days just after World War I were not only the days during which the veteran returned and re-entered civilian life and the years of land speculation, it was also a time of a gayer and more demanding social life. There were more bridge clubs, larger afternoon parties and evening affairs where sometimes liquor from this or that bootlegger was featured. There were poker games where more money changed hands than the early settlers brought with them when they came out west to Iowa. Leon had a golf course west of town and a small clubhouse was built. Crops were good and priced high at first. The County fair, on the ground about a half mile north of the city limits, drew crows to see the exhibits and to watch the horse races.

However, the years of the false prosperity were short is southern Iowa. Five years before the stock market crash in 1929, hard times had come to Decatur County. Farm prices fell and farmers could not even pay the interest on their mortgages. Men lost the farms that their grandfathers had purchased from the government before the Civil War. One insurance company acquired so many farms through foreclosed mortgages that the yellow color it used to paint the houses and barns acquired became a hated symbol of depression days. Banks in the county had made loans on farmlands based on inflation prices. As the price of farm products fell, farmers had no money to repay loans or even to pay interest. When foreclosures took from the farmers their homes and lands, the value of the land had fallen so low that it did little for the assets of the banks.

Christmas of 1924 was a gloomy one in Decatur County. On December 16, the Farmers and Traders Banks closed its doors in Leon and Garden Grove. It was an institution that had been in the county almost fifty years. Judge JOHN HARVEY had been its president, and the confidence given him had been given to his successors. In 1924, FRED TEALE, son of THOMAS TEALE and husband of EUGENIA SANKEY TEALE, was in charge of the bank and chief stockholder. There was no federal insurance and stockholders lost heavily.

In 1926 a report of the closed banks in the county shows that the Pleasanton State Savings Bank, The C. S. Sterns State Bank at Garden Grove, the Farmers State Bank at Lamoni, the Valley Bank, and the Citizens State Bank were all among those that had closed. Desperate attempts were made to put the Exchange Bank at Leon on a sound basis, but in March 1927 its doors too were closed.

A county that in 1915 had twelve solvent banks, ten years later had none that had not either failed, been liquidated, or was on the verge of disaster. Not only did the depositors lose but stockholders not only lost what they had invested but some, like Dr. WAILES turned over all they had to add to what could be paid to those who had had accounts. Men died poor because their feeling of moral obligation caused them to go beyond what the law required.

Because the farmer had so little money and the unemployed no wages, there was nothing they could pay for goods or services. Stores closed and businessman were bankrupt.

The professional men and women were having as difficult times as the farmer and businessmen. The doctors had patient but bills were unpaid. Few could afford to pay for a nurse. There was legal business but fees could not be collected. Minister’s salaries, never large, were decreased and then often unpaid. School boards employed fewer teachers and paid them less. When taxes were not paid, school warrants could not be cashed.

The depression meant that many cherished plans could not be realize. College students came home when funds failed. There were houses that were never built and trips that were never taken. The end of the depression came too late for many. Marriages were postponed and the size of families decreased. Years later there would be those who would say, “I was a depression baby. They must have loved me for they kept me.” Though in Decatur County there were no abandoned children, parents knew what it was to struggle to secure not luxuries but the necessities for their children. The golf course was abandoned, but a fortunate fire, whose origin was suspected by some, burned the clubhouse, and the insurance paid part of what had been invested. The County Fair Association disbanded and the fairgrounds, after a time, again became a corn field, though for years it could be seen where the race track had been.

When the stock market collapsed in 1929, after five years of hard times, now had added burden of the return to the county of those who had gone elsewhere and who had often held good jobs or been successful in business, but now had neither job nor business. A man who had been an engineer was lucky to get a job digging ditches and an unemployed teacher would become a waitress at a café. Sons and daughters returned to their parents’ home with their families seeking food and shelter. New houses were not built but one family home now housed two or even three families.

Any man or woman with a job was considered fortunate and since any vacancy would bring many applicants employers who chose to take advantage of the situation could cut pay or lengthen hours without fear of losing employees. One wage earner might support his own family, help his parents, send help to an unemployed brother and have member of his wife’s family living in his home. There were few families in Decatur County who were not either giving or receiving help. Even though government aid came to the rescue after 1932 there were almost fifteen years in Decatur County when there was little cause for carefree laughter.

It must, of course, be recognized that the worst effects of depression were not felt here. No one starved to death nor died of cold or exposure, but no one who lived through those years would ever be quite as carefree and hopeful again. It would not be until a new generation grew up that money would be spend without thought of future needs, a mortgage become almost a status symbol, and speculation in the stock market be considered good business.

The closing of the banks the first Monday in March 1933 prepared the people here in the county for rapidly changing conditions and for government action. Some of those who did not live through the depression, or who prefer to forget what the conditions were, talk as though the government measures taken between 1933 and 1940 were not needed and as if nothing in our economic situation demanded drastic and immediate actions, but those who really remembers what happened in Decatur County between 1923 and 1933 can never agree with this viewpoint.

Here, as elsewhere, things happened after the closing of the banks and the reopening of those that were solvent. While the National Recovery Act did not so greatly affect an agricultural region, the Agricultural Adjustment Act did apply directly. As to the Civil Works Administration and the Public Works Administration, later absorbed by the Works Project Administration, these meant that very soon unemployed men and women in Decatur County, as elsewhere in the United States, had work to do and pay for doing it..

Sewing rooms gave work to the women and men who were employed in various projects. It cannot be denied that there was bungling of jobs and too many who supervised. There were things poorly done and unemployed who did not wish to work, but with all this there were many who had almost forgotten what it was to have a chance to earn a living, who welcomed work of any kind. Books were mended at schools and nurses were assigned for health projects. Writers did research and wrote accounts of local history. Young men enrolled in the Civilian Conservation Corps. High School and college students were given employment under N. Y. A. and though some of them derided the New Deal. It made education possible for some who could not have remained in school without it.

As for the C. C. C., the young men were not sent to local camps. While Decatur County boys went elsewhere, the camp in Decatur County, located a mile north of center of Leon, was occupied by boys from the Eastern cities or from the South. Though there were those who feared that to have a hundred or perhaps three hundred such young men brought into the county might present a problem, even those who lived nearest were not disturbed. The camp was well organized. The men left early to work and came back to camp ready for bed at the sound of taps. Those who went to town were well behaved. Perhaps if they had demanded a six-hour day and a five-day week and expected fun and thrills, the story would have been differed, but these were young men who were glad to have a chance to work.

When the buildings and grounds were no longer needed for a Civilian Conservation Camp, the site was sold to be used by the 4-H groups in the county as a fairgrounds. Few of those who had been so proud of the Decatur County Fairgrounds with its race track and its amphitheater lived to see the activities held at the 4-H ground. Those who did must have missed many of the events of the old-time county fairs but have been impressed by what the 4-H clubs could do and enjoyed their exhibits and those of adults who vied for blue ribbons in various departments.

The misfortunes in Decatur County did not end with the coming of the New Deal. Just as the agencies of the federal government were bringing improved conditions, disaster came in the form of drought and the destruction of crops by grasshoppers. Though others besides GUS TINCH had boasted that there had never been a complete crop failure in Decatur County, the drought years of 1934 and 1936 meant just that. The rains that were supposed to come even in the driest years “just one day before it was too late” did not come. Hay crops were scant; the corn stalks without ears and stripes of leaves by hoards of grasshoppers. There was little grass in pasture, the ponds were too often dry, and no water could be secured from wells that had been thought inexhaustible. There was no air conditioning and day after day of extreme heat meant suffering that was particularly harmful to babies, the ill, and the aged. For the first time almost everyone slept in the outdoors. Some slept in the courthouse yard in Leon, in the park at Davis City, or in the square at Decatur. Some took a blanket and slept on hillside in the country. During the day electric fans hummed, wet sheets were hung in windows and some fortunate families that had basements fit for a living space spent part of their days underground.

To add to the suffering from heat and the discouragement of crop failure there was the frustration of so little to do. There was nothing to cultivate and harvest, so the farmers were without occupation. Their wives had no fruit for jams and jellies and no vegetables to can. On the farms, too, there was concern about the livestock, suffering from heat and the water supply failing, and soon to need the corn that had failed to grow. The most trying days of the drought were those when strong winds blew clouds of dust from the dry fields, and there was constant fear of fire.

Fortunately, there were fair crops in 1935. Somehow life went on; but as the depression had been world-wide and the drought had affected so much of the country, there was worry over the economic conditions during all the period between 1933 and 1940.

Though there was little laughter and much grief during the depression, it was not a period of crime in Decatur County. There were during this period no sensational murder trials such as those at the first of the century. CLINT MCCONNELL was killed, but if SAM PETTY shot him he escaped and was never tried. A man was found dead in a field. Someone had shot him but whom or why was never known. There were tales of a black car with out-of-state license seen in the neighborhood and suggestions of vengeance from a perhaps mysterious past but that was all. WALTER CASE was found dead, but whether there was arson or murder that followed arson was just a matter of conjecture. Much discussed, too, was the death of a young girl. Her body was found in a well too tightly closed it seemed for the explanation to be either accident or suicide, but no charges were ever filed. One charge of murder was particularly given some publicity, because those who committed the crime were said to have burned the body of the victim in a stove and because of the questions as to whether others had suffered the same fate. Mrs. ELLA HARRIS, convicted in 1935, died in prison in 1960. ROBERT MCNELLY was pardoned in 1966.

As to arson there was a fire at the ESTES garage whose origin could not be explained, but there were no arrests.

Of course, there was no outbreak of bank robberies. There were banks to rob, though in the prosperous days just after the war, in 1918, the bank at Pleasanton was robbed and the following night the same thing happened at Grand River. JOHN FULTON, the young sheriff, and a posse captured one of the robbers, but a short time later when the Farmers ad traders Bank of Leon was robbed no arrests were made.

There were those who thought the crime had not been committed without local assistance and other thought it possible that a man, rather well known for his illegal activities who had spent a short time in jail, might be responsible. However, there was no evidence sufficient to charge anyone living in the county and no reason to connect with the crime the former inmate of the jail, who had seemed to have no animosity because of his arrest and who had assured the sheriff’s wife that the meals in the Decatur jail were the best of any jail food in which he had ever been confined.

As has been mentioned earlier, the period from 1928 to 1933 was not only a time of changing economic conditions but was also the time of what HERBERT HOOVER called the noble experiment, national prohibition of the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages.

In Decatur County there had always been opposition to saloons though not always as openly expressed as it was during the Civil War when a group of indignant women forced a man selling whiskey from his wagon to leave town. There had always been, too, those who wanted and secured alcoholic drinks. During the period of prohibition both views were expressed, but opposition to the return of saloons anywhere was strong though there had been none in the county.

Even during the prohibition days when bootleggers flourished and homemade liquor was something to brag about, the women who drank were seldom respectable members of society. As for the men who drank they were divided into three classes. First, there were the drunks who had to be picked up and taken home, men who today would be classed as alcoholics, but then were known as drunkards for whose family there was sympathy but, too often, less respect. The second group were known as “hard drinkers,” often not quite sober but seldom, if ever so drunk they could not take care of themselves – men who prided themselves on how much they could drink and still do business and, to a certain extent, but acceptable socials. The third group were those who took a drink when it was offered, kept whiskey and brandy for medicinal purposes or social occasions and who boasted that they were never under the influence of liquor.

Unfortunately, few of the first group ever became members of the third group, while those in the third group did too often join the second or first group. There was also a fourth group, members of which might be placed in one of the other three groups. These were the periodical drinker, some of whom were hard-working farmer who came to town each Saturday and returned home safely only because some member of the family did the driving or because of a well-trained team wagon could reach there without guidance. Others drank to excess only on certain holidays and others, sober for weeks, went on drunken sprees that lasted for days. Many of these belonged in group one and none in group three.

All of these, plus those who felt that prohibition was a challenge to violation, were customers of the bootleggers. There were in Decatur County, as elsewhere, stills more or less hidden, liquor brought in from places where it was made in larger quantities and some attempts at home production for the use of the maker. In the county there was the story of a grey hearse that went through the county regularly until it was discovered that it carried not a coffin but booze. There were those who were supposed to become wealthy selling liquor, though later years did not indicate much affluence.

It is possible that bootlegging would have been more profitable and more liquor consumed in the county during prohibition if the period of prosperity here had not been so brief. After 1923 money was too scarce to make any business pay well.

This was a time when many of the buildings once so important in the county came to an end or were put to another use. In Lamoni the Herald office and church headquarters building became a college dormitory though distant from the Graceland campus. In Leon the Opera House and adjoining hotel burned in 1923. The hotel was rebuilt but a service station took the place that had been that of the Opera House since 1876. In 1934 the mill in Davis City was dismantled and what it had meant to the town became merely a memory. What had been the hotel in High Point was a rat-infested ruin before it was torn down. What had been the Ownby Hotel in Decatur was a private residence. In fact, in each town there was no longer an opera house, hotels in smaller towns were closed and buildings once occupied by banks, were most often empty. Lady Amber Inn, once a hotel in Garden Grove, became a public building. As provided in the will of Squire STEARNS’ widow, the city hall was located there and on the second floor was the meeting place of Chapter T. P.E.O, of which Mrs. STEARNS had been a member.

As to the houses once the center of social life in the county, many of them had been torn down and few belonged to the original owners or their descendants.

The houses in Leon of JOSEPH WARNER, GEORGE T. YOUNG, and S. W. HURST had been torn down. The Judge HARVEY house and the DOSS CASTER house had become apartment houses. The THOMAS TEALE house became the Stewart funeral home, just as a little later a grandson of FRANCIS VARGA established a funeral home in what had been the STEPHEN VARGA residence. The SQUIRE STEARNS house in Garden Grove, once the show place of the county, each year became more of a ruin. The DEKALB house was occupied by tenants and had little of the appearance it had in the day when a special train ran on the wedding day of a daughter of Dr. DEKALB.

In Lamoni there were no longer homes to be pointed out as belonging to the heads of the R. L. D. S. Church, whose headquarters now were in Independence, Missouri. The church institutions, The Children’s Home and The Old People’s Home that had been in the former residences of church leaders, were eventually closed.

In Davis City the houses built by JOHN CLARK had new owners, and in 1940 the church he built was in much need of repair.

Many of the farms, too, had changed hands and only a few remained in the families of the early settlers. Neither of the SCOTT houses were owned by members of that family and one unoccupied for years became unfit for use.

It must not be though that all social activity ended and all organizations died during the period of 1925-40. There was little carefree laughter and the jokes were often grim, but the spirit that made songs like “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” popular meant that there was a determined effort to live as usual. The social life did not mean any longer formal dinners or big receptions, but there were picnics, cooperative supporters and family entertaining.

Though the treasurers of clubs might report, “Due to the failure of the bank in which we deposited our money, we are without funds,” few disbanded and even new ones formed.

As to new organizations, the Rotary Club was organized in 1920. Members active in the early years of this club include Dr. J. W. ROWELL, grandson of FRED BOWMAN, also of pioneer descent; W. H. SHIELDS, who had moved from Grand River; and FRANK STEWART, who had established a furniture store business in 1911. The Business and Professional Woman’s Club was organized in 1935. Among its charter members were EVA RHEA MCGINNIS, IDAVEE CROUSE (Mrs. ORVILLE REED) and MARTHA HOFFMAN, who was admitted to the Bar in 1940. Mrs. OLIVE SPARKS was the first president. The fact that these two clubs came into existence during a depression perhaps accounts for the loyalty of some of their early members, bound together as they were by common hardship.

In was, in fact, a period when there was much interest in “belonging.” Again it may have come from a sense of security in being in a group.

In 1930 there were nine federated clubs in and around Leon – The Amicitia Club, The Thirteen Club, The New Century Club, The Harmony Club, The Priscilla Club, The Reading Circle, The Magazine Club, The Social Club, and The Mutual Improvement Club.

As times improved between 1933 and 1941, a number of social clubs were formed, particularly bridge clubs.

During the twenties a Delphian group was organized as the result of the sale of the Delphian books. All things considered, the Delphian course was expensive, but women who felt the lack of a college education and college women who feared they might lose their college learning bought the books and became members of the Delphian Study Club. For some it was an adventure in learning, but in Leon, as elsewhere, the Delphians did not flourish many years.

Doubtless there were others that existed briefly and disbanded. Some may have been like the Unaliyi Campfire organization which son disbanded and with the same membership became Just-A-Mere Club that met for a monthly party.

Between World War I and World War II, campfire groups, Girl Scouts, and Boy Scout groups appeared and disappeared, as adult interest waxed and waned.

For instance, in 1924 LULU SHIELDS had a very active Campfire group. BLANCHE CHEW was the leader of the first Girl Scout group. Later, JEANNE LEEPER, VIRGINIA and GWEN PENNIWELL were leaders of a Girl Scout group.

The Boy Scout organization, so active before World War I, lost its leader when the Rev. Dr. MCCAMPBELL moved from the town and was not as active again until after World War II, though some boys continued to profit from the organization.

Between 1920 and 1930 the Civic Club was an important organization in Leon. Its club room over the Farmers and Traders Bank was rented for private parties and several organizations had regular meetings there.

After the ESTES building was completed the Masonic hall, which occupied the second and third floors, was the meeting place of all Masonic groups and the Odd Fellows Hall was across the street west from the courthouse. By 1940, the Knights of Pythius that for years had sponsored the town band had disbanded.

Another group that disbanded during the depression was the Daughters of the American Revolution, due not alone to economic conditions but because its national policies did not appeal to some of its members. This society had included members throughout the county, but the membership was, for the most part, from Davis City and Leon.

Of the Legion Posts organized after World War I only those in Leon and Garden Grove held permanent charters in 1940. Lamoni, though chartered in 1919 did not secure a permanent charter until 1946.

Charters were canceled in Davis City in 1931, in Van Wert in 1934, in Weldon in 1927, and in Grand River in 1926. All of these posts suffered much from lost membership. The veterans who had formed them so enthusiastically in the yeas just after the war were most of them victims of the depression which came before they could have financial security or much job seniority. The Leon Post that had purchased the JOHN BELL house no longer owned it and the once flourishing auxiliary struggled for existence.

The interest in sports was affected by the depression, but though the golf course was pasture and the race track became a cornfield, high school teams still played football, and in the summer the small-town teams played baseball on Sunday. Miniature golf that was for a time so popular was enjoyed for a short time in Leon, when WILLIAM SHIELDS financed a course south of the business section. It failed to be a profitable venture. Picture shows continued to offer an escape from reality.

In spite of the depression there was one important addition to the public buildings in the county. In 1931 the Decatur County Hospital was completed. It took courage to vote a bond issue in those years even though the bequest estimated at forty thousand dollars left Dr. ROBERT GARDNER for the building of a county hospital was now available at long last. It is impossible to estimate what this hospital meant to the people of the county during the years after it was built. The county is deeply indebted not only to Dr. GARDNER but to the men and women who persisted in having the fund used for the purpose of which it was intended and worked for a bond issue in depression years.

In 1935 the swimming pool at Leon was built, made possible by a P. W. A. grant. Dr. JULIAN MCFARLAND, Dr. C. D. SCOTT, and FREDERIC HOFFMAN, mayor of Leon, did much to secure this for the town and the county. Children learned to swim in a safe place and, particularly during the years when money for vacations was scarce, many older men and women went down to the pool in the late afternoons and evenings. It was, of course, from the first very popular with the teenagers.

The park in which the pool was located adjoined Harvey Park and was named Noel Park. This reversed spelling of Leon as the park name was suggested by ADDIE LUNBECK CURRY, who in the days before the Civil War had come to Leon with her parents. Once one of ‘the smart PATTERSON girls,’ she was as an old lady able to suggest the winning name.

In 1936 a post office building was built on a site just east of where the courthouse stood in the day just after the Civil War. The mural on its wall was painted by an artist employed, as were other artists at that time, as part of a government project to aid the unemployed. It was a matter of much satisfaction to have this new building and to have men who might otherwise be unemployed build it. Many towns the size of Leon were not able to secure a new post office at this time, so Leon was again fortunate.

Political affairs in Decatur County between 1920 and 1940 were affected as they had been in the past by national trends, but as far as county offices were concerned election still depended to a certain extent on voter appeal not based on party politics.

In 1920 the number of straight Republican tickets gave those of that party the advantage. By 1924 hard times had some effect upon the vote, and after 1932 the Democratic straight ticket gave candidates of that party a majority.

A war record did not play as large a part as expected. Just as World War I produced no man who changed his title from General to President, the county offices were for the most part held by older men without a service record. RALPH RUMLEY, however, a World War veteran and grandson of LEWIS RUMLEY, soldier in the Civil War, was elected a member of the House of Iowa Legislature at a much younger age than most of those who have held that position representing Decatur County.

In 1922 a young woman was nominated as a Democratic candidate for State Superintendent of Schools whose chief qualifications as far as the State Convention was concerned was that her father, C. W. HOFFMAN, had been an active Democrat in Decatur County for over fifty years. As to other qualifications there was no need to inquire, as it was obvious that no one on the State Democratic ticket would be elected that year.

In 1935, for the second time, a woman was named postmistress at Leon. This time there was no doubt that she was a resident as she was living in Leon. Nor was there any question as to whether JESSICA PRYOR was a Democrat, for she was the granddaughter of that stalwart old Democrat, ALLAN PRYOR, and her father GUSS PRYOR, had been a local Democratic politician all his life. Nor was there any question that she had qualifications equal to those of most men appointed to the office. However, Miss PRYOR did not serve long as she resigned after a short term in office. Perhaps she decided that “the political plum was a lemon.”

It was during this period, too, that ROBBERT WARNER, New York newspaperman and grandson of Judge JOSEPH WARNER, stated in his newspaper column that rather than believe the old saying, “as goes Maine so goes the nation,” the returns to be watched were those of Decatur County, Iowa. A study of the election results in the county over a long period of time justified his suggestion “as goes Decatur County so goes the nation.”

Though the people of the county during the depression years were more concerned in economic problems than in world politics, they were not unaware of the rise of Communism and of Nazism. Both the D A R and the American Legion sought to make the members of local groups concerned as to the threat of communism and by 1938 there was a realization that once more Germany threatened the peace of the world, though there had been earlier some who spoke with admiration of what MUSSOLINI and HITLER were doing for their countries.

Here in Decatur County once again preparation for war came as a shock and once again there were many who could not realize that war could come to end all the plans of peace-time world. It was particularly difficult for those who had fought in World War I to win “a war to end wars” to accept the idea that their sons would now be called into training because another war threatened.

In 1940 there was much excitement for a few weeks when it seemed that one of these training camps would be in Decatur County as a plan was announced that such a camp would be located here. While the proposed campsite did not include any of the towns, it did include farmlands, county churches, school ground, cemeteries and the county farm. Include in the farmlands were home of early settlers, particularly in Eden Township. There was, of course, much enthusiasm on the part of the businessmen, particularly in Leon, and to quite an extend in Davis City. At the same time there was realization of what it would mean to have that many men in a camp and concern as to what would happen when the camp would be closed if not needed. The Des Moines Register published articles about the camp, which interviews with people in the county. These varied from the enthusiasm of Mrs. OREL ESTES, Leon businesswoman, to the dim view of Mrs. FRANK CHASTIAN, who with her husband lived on the land that his grandfather had first settled and which was included in the camp area.

Because it was expected that many of the officers would bring other families here for various reasons, there was much concern as to what housing was available and some anxiety as to the overcrowding of the schools. At the same time there were visions of increasing property value, opportunity to rent and the possibility of help from the government if the school situation was acute.

However, just as suddenly as it started, it was ended by an announcement that the proposed camp in Decatur County was no longer being considered. The location of the cantonment of the 7th area would be in Missouri.

Just why so seemingly definite a statement as to the location of the camp here had been made and why the location in Missouri was suddenly chosen instead is still a matter of conjecture. Perhaps the land in Missouri was cheaper and not as productive. (Some good farmland was surely included in the Decatur County area) or perhaps the members of Congress from Missouri had more influence. Perhaps, too, the announcement of the location was premature, based on a possibility rather than definite decision. Whatever the explanation, the hopes and fears connected with having an Army camp in Decatur County were soon over.

But while the Army camp did not come to the county, the possibility that the days of peace would soon end became more and more evident; and when the news of Pearl Harbor came that Sunday in December 1941, there was shock and anger but at the same time something long expected had at last happened. Once again the people of the county saw its men leaving for war and this time, more than ever before, young women, too, entered the service.

As a matter of fact, many men had prepared before the declaration of war on December 8. The Selective Service Act had called some into service, college men had been trained in R. O. T. C., and men who had remained in the Reserves or who were in the National Guard would be among the first to go into action.

OFFIE LEEPER, in R. O. T. C. in World War I, who had been in the Reserves, entered the Army as a captain. RALPH MCGINNIS, an officer in World War I, was commissioned as a major in World War II. BERT KEMP, veteran of World War I and father of eight children, enlisted in the Navy. These were a few of the older men, but just as in all wars, the great majority who went were young men. In this war, with the draft age at 17, the greatest number from the county were between 17 and 22. On the other hand, in World War II exemptions because of dependents did not play the part as it did in 1917-18, so many married men were drafted or enlisted.

Much of the drama of World War I was missing. There was no drawing of numbers, no display of service flags, and men left in such large numbers that there was little fanfare. Unfortunately, too as far as county history is concerned, there was no recording of the counties from which the men came. No companies were recruiter within the counties as in the Civil War and even the somewhat complete coverage given by the newspapers as contingents left the county in 1917-18 is lacking. Perhaps sometime someone may at least attempt to complete a listing of all the men from Decatur County who fought in World War II; but unless sources not now known are found, it would be a vain attempt though any incomplete list would be better than none. The sources now available include files of the county newspaper that do tell of some groups and some individual lists kept by some churches and organization, family records and the facts that can be secured from the veterans themselves or from others who recall the war years of 1941-46. At one time a list of men and women in service was painted on a board in the courthouse yard, but that has long ago been destroyed. There is an incomplete list posted in the courthouse which is of value. However, though no complete list is available, there is much interesting information as to the men and women who served and of what happened in the county during World War II.

Once again distant places became familiar names in Decatur County homes and this time the names were not only the names of European countries and their towns and cities, mountains and rivers but also those of Asia, Africa and islands never before heard of by the people in southern Iowa. Letters came from North Africa, from cities in India, from Sicily in the Mediterranean and from Okinawa in the Far Pacific. It was not a large county, but men who had lived there when Pearl Harbor was destroyed were in all parts of the world from the cold of Iceland to the heat of the Sahara Desert.

DONALD HORN, grandson of that youthful Civil War veteran, JOHN BOWMAN, was in India. His brother, CHARLES, was in the Philippines. LORAL HULLINGER, descendant of WILLIAM HAMILTON, the pioneer, was in the Air Corps. G. F. HOFFMAN made his first flight as a tail gunner over the city from which his great-grandfather, CARL HOFFMAN, had been taken as a little baby when his parents fled from Germany. MARIAN SLADE, granddaughter of the Hungarian exile, FRANCIS VARGA, was an Army nurse. JOSEPHINE GARBER DALE enlisted as a WAC after her son went into the service. IRENE HARRIS, daughter of ELMER HARRIS, served as an officer with the WAVES.

A family that had a record number in service was that of the CARL UPFIELDS. Not only was BARBARA UPFIELD a yeoman in the Waves but her brother, ROBERT, was an Air Force pilot. Two brothers, WESTON and RICHARD, were paratroopers, JAMES was in the regular Army, and MURRAY was a staff sergeant in the Air Corps. DOROTHY COX, great-granddaughter of JOSEPH BEAVERS, served in the Waves and at least one of the future astronauts as one time received instruction from her. JUDD ARNOLD, descendant of SYLVANUS ARNOLD and of HAWKINS JUDD, was a Navy officer, who retired as an admiral after the war.

News of deaths came to many homes. MARIAN MCINTOSH, grandson of the Civil War veteran, JOHN CHERRINGTON, was killed in an accident while in training. FLOYD CARTER, only son of LEON CARTER, was killed fighting with the Air Force in the Pacific; FRANCIS COX, only son of ROY and GRACE COX and great-grandson of the pioneer, JOSEPH BEAVERS, was killed, as was WARREN ALLEN, grandson of Civil War veteran, A. J. ALLEN, and son of HATTIE HACKER ALLEN and FRANK ALLEN, one of the county’s first mail carriers. MAE REYNOLDS, a widow with several sons in service, became a Gold Star mother as did Mrs. DELLA SPICER. Just as it is difficult to secure the names of those who served, it is difficult to compile a list of those from the county who died in service, so only a few will be mentioned here. FERREL MILLER, son of WILBUR MILLER, died in service also.

While men and women were entering service, life in the county changed as it always does in time of war. This time the rationing included many things not included in the list in World War I and the shortages affected almost everything connected with living. No matter how much a shopper had to spend she could buy rationed articles only if she had the necessary coupons. Meat, sugar, and canned goods were all rationed. In addition to the rationed items there were also those that were difficult to secure. Lines formed to buy bananas or to purchase a can of Eagle Brand milk. Shoppers in the small towns in the county no longer bought at one store. In Leon and Lamoni they went from store to store or, if their gasoline supply permitted, hurried to the country store at High Point or over to Grand River if there was a rumor that something not available in hometown stores could be found elsewhere. It is doubtless true that some stood in line to buy things they didn’t want and that some horded everything from laundry soap to nylon hose, either because of panic or greed. On the other hand, far more used their ration books to their best advantage, shared with others when necessary and bought nothing not really needed. Many soldiers on furlough enjoyed roasts and steaks without ever realizing that members of their family became vegetarians for weeks so that they could have what they liked while home.

It is true that in a rural sections such as Decatur County the food rationing and shortages were not felt as in the cities. Except for sugar and coffee, farm families were not too affected as to food; but for them, as for everyone else, other rationing such as that of shoes and shortages of equipment and building supplies were often keenly felt.

The rationing of gasoline was, of course, something that affected almost everyone in one way or another. It was over gasoline that the most bitter feelings arose; for, though there were charges of food hoarding, of meat sold to favored customers without coupons and black market buying, eating was more or less a private affair and suspicions were difficult to prove. The use of gasoline, however, could not be kept a secret and those who drove cars could not be invisible. Because of this, while other rationing boards (all of which are made up of local people) were subject to criticism, it was the Gas Rationing Board that had the most difficult job and was most often charged with unfairness. Charges were made of their being wheedled by some of the women and being influenced by some men, who during war always seemed to have enough gas for their cars. There were also instances, perhaps, of arbitrary rulings and times when too much credence seemed to have been given to those who became informers to satisfy a grudge.

The tasks of the Board was made more difficult because of the special allowances. Servicemen on leave could secure gas, school administrators could secure extra coupons, consideration was given doctors, and farmers and certain businessmen might be allowed extra coupons. Without a doubt, the Ration Board did make mistakes subject to pressure and at the same time having power without previous experience; and without a doubt there were those who, too selfish to give up peace-time habits, in time of war secured gas to which they were not entitled, by misrepresentation of their needs. Again, however, as in the food rationing, far more were willing to limit their use of gas even below what their coupons allowed.

Even more demanding of sacrifice than the shortage of food, the rationing of gas and shoe coupons was the shortage of men in civilian life as more and more were called into service.

FRANK STEWART carried on his business without the help of his son JACK who was in the Navy. Dr. DOSS went into service and no one took his place, leaving Dr. BOWMAN, no longer young, was the chief doctor in Leon. Dr. ELMO GAMET Leon with but two dentists: Dr. C. D. SCOTT, a reserve officer, left for the service, leaving Leon with but two dentists: Dr. J. W. ROWELL and Dr. E. J. HINES. STEPHEN CARTER, county attorney, went into service and his position was filled by MARTHA HOFFMAN who served as county attorney until the next election. CHARLES PYFER’s store was managed by his wife; MARY RIDDLE HULLINGER took over the real estate and insurance business of her husband, LORAL, when he entered the Air Corps. Again farmers who had depended on their sons to do the heavy farm work resumed the tasks they had thought would never be theirs again. As the young men left jobs in the stores, the courthouse and the banks, older men, even more often, women replaced them. In Decatur County as elsewhere more and more married women were employed, and for the first time children in the school ceased to expect to say Miss when speaking of a woman teacher, though during the depression few, if any, married women were employed in the schools.

Wages rose as there were fewer to do the work and boys of 12 and 14 demanded and were paid as much an hour as men had received for a day’s work during the depression.

Once again there were more gardens in back yards and on vacant lots than there had been since 1918, gardens which were planed and cultivated by women, who often had more patriotic zeal than skill.

In spite of all else that the women were doing, the Red Cross did not lack workers. In Leon, MARY PARRISH, retired Des Moines teacher, was in charge of the knitting. AMY HOFFHINES TRUSDALE, daughter of JONAS HOFFHINES, Civil War veteran who lived beyond his 100th birthday, was one of those who led in the knitting of socks. Groups of women met in each town to make hospital supplies.

Men and women alike bought government bonds and responded to appeals for funds from the U. S. O., the Salvation Army and various other organizations. It was not only a matter of responding. Men and women not only bought bounds and gave to drives but in every town and township there were those who spoke at rallies and went from door to door to secure funds.

Social life changed as the war continued. Organizations continued to meet but the emphasis was on the war effort. Bonds were bought and donations made. There were few young men in the county to attend dances and few women who had time for bridge, though as far as the last was concerned bridge clubs did continue to meet.

The schools in the county faced many problems. For while school administrators were exempt, and in some instances men teachers, a young man fit for service who didn’t wave his exemption was not likely to be respected by his students, particularly the boys who knew they would be drafted if they did not enlist when they graduated or quit school. On the other hand, a school taught only by older men and by women was subject to criticism, particularly as some of the married women who returned to teaching had been out of the profession for years.

Changes were made in the curriculum by adding special courses which would prepare students for service or war-time jobs. These included aviation, auto mechanics and classes in whatever modern language for which a teacher was available. Girls took classes in home nursing and first aid, and the number enrolled in secretarial courses doubled and tripled. Emphasis was put on science and mathematics.

The enrollment remained about the same. Boys in school were exempt until graduation, which in some instances kept those in school who in peacetime would have been dropouts. On the other hand, some boys enlisted before graduation, eager to be classed as men. A few boys entered college without graduating, as colleges with low male enrollments (many having entered the service) would accept high school students with less than the formerly required credits.

The end of the war in Europe in the summer of 1945 followed by the surrender of the Japanese a little later was welcomed in Decatur County as elsewhere, ending years of anxiety and sacrifice and men in many families the return of one for whose safety there had constant concern.

The first news of peace had been celebrated with bonfires, ringing bells and gatherings of people in the little towns of the county just as at the close of World War I. Decatur County had in some ways no adjustments to make. There was no training camp in the county or even near it and no wartime industry had been established here. From the economic aspect, the chief question was what effect the end of the war would have on the price of agricultural products and upon the price of the land that produced them.

As for the returning soldiers, while there were problems in connection with their return to civilian life, there were in Decatur County personal problems of the men themselves and not a matter of public concern in an areas such as this.

Unlike the men who returned in 1918, the veterans of World War II had the benefits of what was popularly known as the G. I. Act which offered help in many ways. Here in Decatur County as elsewhere many entered college including some who would never have considered further education if it had not been for government aid. Others received on-the-job training or secured money to buy homes or establish a business. Young men interested in farming attended evening classes, which in the county were so popular that ten years after the war there were two instructors employed in the night school at Leon, with a good enrollment.

The war had ended, the men and women in service had returned home, but more years of change were yet to come.
 
 
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