USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > New London > Mirror to America : a history of New London, New Hampshire, 1900-1950 > Part 21
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39The first newspaper mention of the Scytheville Technical Society is in the F. J-T., March 24, 1932.
40Scytheville Park in Elkins, marking the site of the old office build- ing of the New London Scythe Works, was built in 1929 by Mr. and Mrs. Herbert D. Swift, and has been maintained by them since that time.
41Allen H. Eaton, Handicrafts of New England, New York, 1949, pp. 295-313, pays a well-deserved tribute to the work of Mrs. Coolidge and this organization. New Hampshire is one of three States in the nation - the other two being Vermont and Connecticut - which offer State-supported programs of assistance to their native craftsmen. See Elizabeth M. Smith,
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A HISTORY OF NEW LONDON
"New Hampshire Crafts, 1950," The New Hampshire Troubadour, Septem- ber, 1950; and Don Murray, "New Hampshire Makes Old-Fashioned Skills Pay Human, Financial Dividends," Boston Herald, April, 1951.
42The Speaker, August, 1938; January, 1939. Miss Margaret Abbott was the first chairman of the New London branch.
43The Speaker, October, 1939.
44For a summary of the 1949 program as held in New London on August 14, 1949, see Fifty-first Annual Old Home Week, August 20-27, 1949, Report of the State Association, Concord, N. H., 1950, pp. 66-67. Two New London men, Herbert D. Swift and J. Duane Squires, in 1950 were serving on the executive board of the State Association. At the Old Home Day meeting in New London in 1949 one of the speakers uttered the following terse and thoughtful epigram: "I haven't lived here for many years, but the longer I've lived here I wish I'd lived here longer."
45F. J-T., March 5, 1936.
13
New London in the Service of the Nation,
" . . . it is towns such as New London . . . which are . vitalizing forces in keeping New Hampshire a living unit of the United States, and an eventual worthy part of One World."
- Helen Kidder Greenaway
1. The Impact of World War I on New London
To New London people, as to other Americans, the outbreak of war among the Great Powers of Europe in August, 1914 came as an almost unbelievable shock. There was no disagreement with President Wilson's prompt proclamation of American neutrality, and there is no reason to think that most men and women on New London Hill believed then that some day the war would have any personal effect upon them.1
As the conflict deepened in intensity and as more nations were involved, however, sentiment in New London hardened in favor of the Allies. The sinking of the Cunard liner, Lusitania, on May 7, 1915, brought the war home to those in Town who had friends or acquaintances on the ill-fated ship. Other German actions had a similar effect on local opin- ion. When the President of the United States proclaimed the first Flag Day of our history on June 14, 1915, New London men and women responded heartily to his appeal.2 A Town
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A HISTORY OF NEW LONDON
that had been founded in the midst of the War for Inde- pendence, that had sent scores of its best men to save the Union in the great Civil War, that observed Memorial Day each year with a kind of devotion possible only to an old American community proud of its history and background, - such a community knew the meaning of liberty and the threat thereto as the somber months of the European struggle passed.3
The memorable events that ushered in the spring and summer of 1917 found the Town ready for the national emergency. Just prior to the U. S. declaration of war on Im- perial Germany on April 6, 1917, Governor Keyes had issued an appeal for solidarity of support from New Hampshire people. New London's response, as noted in Chapter Two, was prompt and hearty. In the last week of May, 1917, Mrs. Jane A. Tracy founded the New London Branch of the Franklin Chapter of the American Red Cross. Three months later, in New London the Red Cross Auxiliary alone had ninety members, and in October the first of the Red Cross war- time roll calls was oversubscribed by almost 100%.4 In the same spirit the first of the Liberty Loan drives, held in June, 1917, saw the Town more than meet its bond quota of $25,000.5 Local people joined their fellow Americans every- where in singing the gay and insouciant songs of 1917-1918: "Over There," "Smiles," "Wait Till the Cows Come Home," "Oh Johnny! Oh Johnny!", "Goodbye Broadway, Hello France," "Where do We Go from Here?", "Good Morning, Mr. Zip-Zip-Zip," "Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning," "K-K-K-Katy," and "Till We Meet Again." Unlike World War II, the first great conflict for Americans was a singing war, and the haunting refrains of these songs and ballads were heard in New London for decades after the Armistice.
On June 5, 1917, throughout the whole nation all men between the ages of 21 and 30 were required to register under the provisions of the recently-passed Selective Service Act. In New London there were precisely fifty who fell within this category, and their names were registered accordingly.& The registrants under each local draft board received serial num-
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NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1900-1950
bers in the order of their filing. On July 20, 1917, Secretary of War Newton D. Baker took his place before a large bowl in the War Department at Washington, in which had been placed 10,319 numbered capsules, that total being the largest number of men registered with any local board anywhere in the United States. The first number to be drawn was 258. The drawing continued until each man registered had been as- signed a call number. In the order of their call numbers the men were then brought before the local boards for classifi- cation into one of the five groups under the law. Class I - i.e., those subject for military duty - numbered over 3,700,000 men throughout the nation, and it was from their ranks that the first draftees went off to the sixteen training camps that the army was rushing to build that year. Members of the National Guard, of course, and thousands of volunteers swelled the total of the drafted men until by Armistice Day, 1918, the American armed forces had grown to 4,791,172 persons.7
In this vast array of the armed might of the United States, New London was represented by thirty-two men and women who actually wore the uniform of their country. Their names were:8
Myron R. Adams
Charles A. Lamson
Frank H. Butler
Donald C. Lamson
Carl L. Coleman
M. Roy London
Dura P. Crockett
Daniel N. MacInnis
William N. Croteau
Howard W. Morse
George W. Currier
Harry A. Nelson
Eva E. Dean
Eugene F. Perkins
*James E. Fitz-Wilson
George N. Pingree
Robert L. Gardner
Walter F. Piper
Myra E. Gay Paul B. Gay
John N. Pressey
Earle L. Remington
Charles A. Gordon
Rodney E. Robie
Lura G. Knowlton
Herbert A. Rose
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A HISTORY OF NEW LONDON
Amos H. Shepard
James E. Shepard II
Earl V. Smith
Stillman G. Stanley
*Robert C. Stimson
Roland F. Thompson Edwin H. Weir
Gilbert N. Wiggins
New London men fought the armies of the Kaiser along the Marne and over the gloomy Argonne hills. Others from the Town served in the Navy, in the Medical Corps, in the mer- chant marine, with the Red Cross overseas, and as nurses in the military hospitals. They learned in the hardest of all schools the meaning of modern war, and they came back to New London's "Welcome Home" celebration of July 4, 1919 with few false notions of provincialism or isolation left in them.9
No less creditable, however, was the behavior of New London folk on the home front. With unruffled calm they en- dured the shortages which seem to be inevitable in warfare.10 They weathered the hysteria of alleged German spies and se- cret agents.11 Obedient to Herbert Hoover's dictum that "Food Will Win the War," they planted "Victory Gardens" with en- thusiasm in the spring of 1918. They put up with the incon- venience of "meatless" days, "heatless" days, and "gasolineless" Sundays. They oversubscribed every appeal of the Red Cross and other war-time relief agencies. They led Merrimack Coun- ty in the sale of War Savings and Thrift Stamps with an aver- age per capita purchase of $19.27, a total exceeded in only three other Towns in the State.12 They more than equalled their quota in each of the five bond campaigns - two in 1917, two in 1918, and one in the spring of 1919. In the last of the five drives, the Town quota was $30,800. Despite the natural "let-down" of interest after the end of a war, the local com- mittee, including the Rev. Ira M. Baird, James Eli Shepard and his son Charles, and Mrs. Emma L. Colby, went “over the top" with subscriptions in excess of $32,000.13 Fortunately for the local people, the terrible influenza epidemic of 1918- 1919 touched the Town only lightly, and New London was
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spared the anguish and grief that desolated many American communities.
Seen in retrospect after the bitter years of World War II, the impact of World War I on the Town may seem to have been slight. But to think so is to be unfair to New London's men and women who endured the first war. They suffered as deeply as did their successors in the second great struggle; they felt their losses as keenly; and they did their duty as uncomplainingly. They rejoiced in victory as heartily as did the men and women of 1945;14 they looked forward to a better world with perhaps even more optimism. They made a record between 1917 and 1919 of which New London can always be proud, one which the passage of Time can never dim.
2. The Effect of World War II on New London
Much more aware of world events than had been their fathers, New London people watched with apprehension the descent of Europe into the maelstrom of war during the 1930's. The Italian attack on Ethiopia in 1935-1936; Hitler's re- arming of the Rhineland after 1936; the Nazi seizure of Austria in 1938 and of Czechoslovakia in 1939, - all these ill-starred developments were closely observed by local men and women. Months before the fatal appeasement at Munich in September, 1938, the local American Legion sponsored a letter-writing campaign to Congress, urging a larger measure of national defense. In December, 1938, the Post organized a blood donor squad for any possible emergency that might be- fall the Town.15 The effort of the New London Forum to bring home the local meaning of world events has already been set forth in Chapter Eleven.
After open warfare began with Hitler's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, New Londoners watched world affairs with even greater absorption. Following the collapse of France in June, 1940, Congress passed the first peace-time draft law in American history. Signed by the President on Septem- ber 16, 1940, the draft law registration of all men between 21 and 36 was set for October 16. On that date, as had the men of
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A HISTORY OF NEW LONDON
1917-1918, male New Londoners between the required ages went to the Town Hall to fill out their papers. Shortly there- after the first draftees began their passage into the armed services. In the conflicting currents of American public opin- ion during 1940-1941, most local people sympathized with the objective of William Allen White's Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies. The passage of the Lend-Lease Bill in March, 1941 was approved in Town, as were the prin- ciples of the Atlantic Charter made public on August 14, 1941.16 On October 18, 1941, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke to seven hundred people in the New London Baptist Church - among others the Governor of New Hampshire - stressing the perils which confronted the nation, and urging alertness by all citizens.17
Nevertheless, the shock of December 7, 1941 struck New London with the same impact that characterized its effect on all other parts of the nation. Eight days later the New London Forum passed a resolution that spoke for the local citizens and for all their country-men18:
"The people of New London, N. H., in public meeting as- sembled on the evening of December 15, 1941, - the one hundred and fiftieth birthday of the American Bill of Rights - do unan- imously resolve
(1) That they wholeheartedly pledge their support to the Government and national leadership of the United States in the present war;
(2) That they stand ready to cooperate in every way in the national war effort."
That spirit was to be characteristic of the Town until the last gun had been fired.
The first organized community reaction to the actual out- break of the war was the organization of civilian defense. Authorization for a State Council of Defense had been made by the legislative session of 1941, and immediately after Pearl Harbor its skeleton form was filled out to the full. Under its authority, the New London Public Safety Committee was created in January, 1942. Its original scope and personnel were as follows:19
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NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1900-1950
Office and Duties
Air Raid Wardens
Regular and Auxiliary Fire Forces First Aid Squads
Regular and Auxiliary Police Rescue and Demolition Squads Public Utilities and Communications Emergency Shelter and Feeding Emergency Evacuation and Red Cross Gas Protection and Decontamination Publicity and Recorder
Chairman George H. Pierce A. Stanley Little Dr. Oliver S. Hayward William A. Colburn Kenneth M. Rich Howard E. Todd Walter E. Gay
Ervin P. Edmunds
Leon W. Bickford Richard A. Crossley
Headquarters for reporting possible air raids were set at the New London Fire Hall, and an elaborate system of warning signals, integrated with the state-wide organization, was devised. The public air raid warning was the fire siren giving intermittent blasts for five minutes, and the "all-clear" signal was two short blasts. The citizens of the Town were organized into trained services known as the Citizens' Defense Corps. According to the national Office of Civilian Defense, the Corps was to comprise fourteen sections, each one with its armband and distinct duties.20 New London conditions did not require a complete organization, but at least eight of the sections were activated locally. Under the State Council of Defense the official in charge of all local civilian defense planning was the chairman of the county in which that town was situated. So far as New London was concerned, it was fortunate that the chairman for Merrimack County was Her- bert D. Swift, a local resident. Mr. Swift had twenty-seven town organizations under his direction, but because he lived in New London he was able to give it especial attention. From the beginning to the end, the local civilian defense program functioned smoothly. Particularly notable was the manning of the air-raid warning post in the Fire Hall. For many months during 1942-1943, there were observers in that post on a twenty-four hour day, seven- day-a week basis.21
For the successful prosecution of a modern war, a care-
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fully-organized home front is a presquisite. For three and a half years after Pearl Harbor, New London furnished an excellent example of the way such organization affects civilian life. Ration books were issued to all Americans in May, 1942, and from then to V-J Day these books with their "red" and "blue" stamps were an indispensable part of housewifely economy. Gasoline was rationed from the beginning of hostil- ities and tires shortly thereafter. New London people received from Newport - the location of their War Price and Ration Board - little coupon books which entitled them to "A", "B", or "C" amounts of gasoline; and, starting in October, 1942, those with oil burners had issued to them tickets which were necessary for the purchase of fuel oil. The Office of Price Administration (OPA) fixed all manner of retail prices, ar- ranged for priorities, and endeavored to prevent shortages in such foodstuffs as meat. Nevertheless, at times shortages ap- peared. In 1934-1944 there was a period when meat was avail- able in local stores not more than once or twice a week. On such occasions, "meat lines" would form as early as 6 A. M., and some would stand for hours seeking to buy. Looked at as a whole, however, the price and rationing worked no actual hardship on the people, although they frequently chafed under the system.
In New London, as throughout New Hampshire, the school children took an active part in the war effort. Apropos locally are the words by which the official history of New Hampshire at war characterizes this phase of World War II:22
"School children lent a hand in harvesting crops, fighting fires, gathering scrap, and conducting campaigns such as the March of Dimes ... In three years, New Hampshire school children purchased approximately $5,000,000 in bonds and stamps. Elementary pupils gathered twelve thousand bags of milkweed floss for life jackets, for which they received twenty cents a bag from the federal government. During a twenty-day scrap drive in October 1942, the school children of the state collected three thousand tons of scrap metal, rubber, and paper; in the month of April 1944 they collected six hundred tons of paper."
Indicative of the spirit of the youth of New London was the fact that for all the later months of the war the New Lon-
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don Central School flew from its staff a pennant indicating that more than 90% of the pupils had purchased war bonds and stamps.
Mention of this achievement leads naturally to a con- sideration of New London's accomplishment in meeting the enormous demands of wartime finance. There were eight gov- ernment bond drives during the war and much interim selling also. To these eight campaigns and in the interim selling of bonds and war savings stamps, New London subscribed the impressive total of more than $525,000. That the Town went "over the top" so consistently and so well was largely owing to the efforts of an able local committee headed by Postmaster James E. Shepard II.23 The same results were notable in the annual Red Cross roll calls and in the National War Fund Campaign. In each war year - 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945 - New London people oversubscribed the quotas of these fine organi- zations, and made records which, in percentage of assigned quotas, were among the best in the Granite State. For most of the war local chairmen of these two groups were, respec- tively, Ervin P. Edmunds and J. Duane Squires.
The New London Branch of the Red Cross in the first year of the war alone prepared upwards of 40,000 surgical dressings. Working in various places, including the Parish House and Sargent's store, the women usually spent Wednes- day afternoon and all day Friday at their work. Active in these endeavors were Mrs. Lindsay Wallace, Mrs. Frank Butler, Mrs. Charles A. Gordon, Mrs. H. Leslie Sawyer, Mrs. Walter T. Moreland, and Mrs. James E. Shepard II. The Red Cross gave special work in Home Nursing, and many local women took the course successfully. Nursing Aides for the New London Hospital were trained by another group of Red Cross workers, and valuable help was given by this organization in keeping in touch with persons from New London who had been im- prisoned behind enemy lines. Home Service assistance was rendered by the Red Cross to needy families of service men, and much thought given to plans connected with emergency and disaster relief.24
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A HISTORY OF NEW LONDON
As the largest private institution in a non-manufacturing Town, Colby Junior College played an energetic part in all the activities of the New London home front. The help of students in the air raid warning center has already been noted, as have the launching of the SS SUSAN COLBY in 1944, and the Colby Summer Forum during the entire period of the war. In March, 1944, a unit of the American Red Cross was organized at the College, the only such unit in New Hamp- shire. In the same college year, Colby students purchased enough war savings stamps to buy a jeep for the armed forces. An extensive organization for blood donors was worked out by Clayton E. Fisher; and efforts made by Genevieve Millar to provide for entertainment of service men while visiting in the community. Under the direction of Guy F. Williams, members of the Colby Department of Science gave unnum- bered hours of their time in special instruction to nurses at the Margaret Pillsbury Hospital in Concord, N. H. President Sawyer was the first State Chairman of the USO in New Hamp- shire, to be succeeded by Dr. Squires in January, 1944. The latter also served for part of 1943-1944 as a special historical consultant to General of the Army Henry H. Arnold in Wash- ington, D. C.
All these activities of the New London home front, of course, were but auxiliary to the efforts of its sons and daugh- ters in the armed services. The local contribution to the fight- ing phases of the war may profitably be glimpsed in its rela- tionship to the effort of the Granite State as a whole:25
"World War II touched the life of every human being in New Hampshire, but it laid its hand most heavily on those who served in the armed forces. From the beginning to end, fully sixty thousand New Hampshire men and women wore the uniform of the United States. Eleven general officers of the Army and nine flag officers of the Navy claimed either residence or nativity here. The commanding officers of the WAVES and of the Marine Corps Women's Reserve had close ties with New Hampshire, and the Secretary of the Navy was an adopted son. Three men from the Granite State were given the nation's highest award for valor, the Congressional Medal of Honor; and sixteen hundred laid down their lives for state and nation.
"On September 1, 1945, the day that Japan signed the terms of surrender aboard the U. S. S. Missouri, there were officially
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credited to New Hampshire 56,900 enlisted, inducted, and com- missioned personnel. The Army accounted for more than two- thirds of these, or 38,700, including 739 WACS; the Navy for over a quarter, or 15,700, including 527 WAVES; the Marine Corps for 2,100, including 87 in the Women's Reserve; and the Coast Guard for 400, of whom 32 were SPARS, All told, practically one out of every eight sons and daughters of the state went into uniform - more than the total population of Nashua and Con- cord combined, and enough to form four Army divisions."
Numbered among this great array of men and women from New Hampshire were more than one hundred from New London. In tribute to them the Town prepared a huge service flag which during the war years was hung on special poles in front of the Town Hall. Four of them gave their lives during the course of the great struggle. Their names are starred in the list which follows:26
Roland H. Baker
Frank N. Cricenti
George Barrett
George A. S. Cricenti
Harry J. Barrett
Nicholas J. Cricenti
Robert Barrett
David R. Crockett
Carleton F. Barton
Sydney L. Crook Harry A. Cross
Lynn S. Beals, Jr.
Leon W. Bickford
Cecil D. Currier
Charles H. Bool, Jr.
Donald De J. Cutter
Edgar L. Braley Heber L. Braley Robert S. Braley
John L. Dayton
William O. Brown
Carl E. Duffett, Jr.
Isabelle Emma Duffet
Norman K. Buker Earl G. Burns
James B. Emery
Walton W. Chadwick
Charles N. Frost
*Burt C. Gay Donald T. Gay
Bernard C. Chase Eliot G. Clemons James C. Cleveland Newcomb Cleveland
Kathleen E. Gay
Ralph A. Gay, Jr.
Elmer E. Goings
Joseph M. Clough Nathaniel H. Colby Philip A. Crane
George D. Graves, Jr. William D. Green
Victor J. Dean Edward A. Dexter
Harold W. Buker, Jr.
Charles E. Davis
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A HISTORY OF NEW LONDON
Robert C. Hall
David D. Hartshorn Oliver S. Hayward Esther M. Hemmings Kathlyn C. Hilton John G. Holteen John D. Johnson, Jr. William F. Kidder
Kenneth M. Rich
Edwin Roberts
Gilbert B. Roberts
Kenneth D. Roberts
Raymond W. Roberts
Robert G. Sawyer Maitland C. Shepard Alton L. Sholes
Matthew A. Kristl
James E. Simpson
Walter Simpson
Seth A. Lamson
Elizabeth M. Sladen
Arthur S. Leach
Harold P. Snow
Arthur S. Little
Lawrence R. Spaulding H. Sumner Stanley
Clement W. Lovering
Clarence M. Lull, Jr.
William C. Stanley
Gordon L. Lull
Richard F. Stetson
Richard C. Lull
Eugene R. Temple
George D. MacDonald
Robert G. MacMichael
Lester P. Marshall
Francis S. Merritt
*Richard E. Messer Roy F. Messer
*Theodore J. Towne Walter E. Towne Howard Walker
Walter T. Moreland, Jr.
Gerald H. Moulton
Ernest E. Welch, Jr.
Donald F. Nudd
Herbert E. West, Jr.
Kenneth L. Nudd
Kenneth West Wayne K. Wheeler
Phillip Parker
Russell White, Jr.
Edward F. Picknell
Guy F. Williams, Jr.
George E. Picknell
Herbert O. Williams
John T. Pierce
James B. Woodman
Charles O. Pratt John Reid, III
George E. Yates
From the first day at Corregidor to the last event of the war, men and women from New London saw action all over
Earl F. Pardy
Robert T. Wallace
Theodore Nelson
Joseph B. Tilton Edward A. Todd
Harry M. Towne *Robert H. Towne
Arthur W. LaFoe
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NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1900-1950
the earth and on the seven seas wherever the American flag went. They "flew the Hump" over the Himalayas; they drop- ped by parachute on the battlefields of Europe; they stormed the jungles and coral isles of the Pacific; they served in the "Seabees," with the M. P.'s, and in every branch of the armed forces; they manned the ships for the Service of Supply; they served in hospitals and medical centers; they struggled against German fortifications in Normandy, along the Rhine, and in Italy; they knew the terrors of "kamikazes." Like their elder brothers of 1917-1918, these men and women returned to the hills of New Hampshire, having studied the implications of "One World" in a stern school.
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