USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > New London > Mirror to America : a history of New London, New Hampshire, 1900-1950 > Part 22
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Two noteworthy community programs sought to express the Town's feeling toward its service men and women. At 7:30 P. M. on May 8, 1945, the day on which the German war ended, the New London Church was packed to the doors at a V-E Day Service. Representatives from the Town, the Church, and the college took part.27 A little more than a year later, on Thursday, May 30, 1946, the American Legion Post pre- pared an impressive welcome home program for all service men and women. Honor guests on this occasion were the veterans from the three towns from which the local post drew its members, - New London, Sutton, and Wilmot. A lunch- eon in the Parish House was followed by a parade and a largely-attended service in the New London Baptist Church. Principal speaker at this affair was Major General Edward P. King, Jr., a veteran of Bataan, and a survivor of forty-four months in a Japanese prison camp28 As the veterans merged into civilian life again, New London drew pride and satisfac- tion from their records during the bitter years of the war, knowing well that lessons learned on the far-flung fields of battle would not be forgotten in days to come.29
3. New London in the National Mobilization of 1950
In the summer of 1950, just prior to the outbreak of war in Korea, Governor Sherman Adams, apparently sensing the tension of the time, proposed the creation of a new civil de-
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A HISTORY OF NEW LONDON
fense agency for New Hampshire. The chief executive's pre- science was well founded, for the beginning of fighting in the Far East on June 25 found the Granite State better prepared for the resulting national emergency than most of its sister commonwealths. Early in July the governor appointed Her- bert D. Swift of New London chairman of the civil defense program in Merrimack County. The local man thus took over where he had laid down his World War II responsibilities in 1945.30
Under Chairman Swift's guidance the New London civil defense organization was formed during the ensuing months. By the end of 1950 it included the following activities and leaders:31
Office and Duties
Chairman
Director for New London
Clayton E. Fisher
Deputy Director
M. Roy London
Warning and Communications
Arthur S. Little
Ground Observers
Fremont H. Annis
Refugees
Mary C. Barrett
Fire Fighting
Merle C. Gay
Police
Myron R. Adams
Warden
Carl E. Duffett
Engineering
Henry M. Stanley
Transportation
Edwin F. Edmunds
Health and Sanitation
William P. Clough Jr., M.D.
Medical, Nursing, and First Aid Kenneth M. Rich
Rescue and Evacuation
G. W. Dean
The first Director of civil defense in New Hampshire in 1950 was Rear Admiral Miles R. Browning, USN (Ret.). He spoke before a large audience of "town and gown" in New London on October 25, 1950. The problems to be faced by New Hampshire people in general and by New London folk in particular, in case of a national emergency, were frankly discussed. A few weeks later, on November 13, George W. Mor- rill Jr., State adviser on radiological defense, gave a lecture in
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NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1900-1950
the New London Town Hall on the theme: "The Atomic Bomb: How it will Affect New Hampshire." His address was illustrated with slides and moving pictures. As the economics of defense mobilization began to impinge on New London, local consumers again felt the pinch of rising prices, and noted once more the effect of government to keep the inflationary spiral under control. Save for the change in nomenclature from OPA to OPS, 1950 seemed surprisingly like 1942.32
Once again, and for the third time in the memories of many, the long arm of selective service and the lure of the recruiting office reached into New London, and drew away many of its young men and women to the colors. By the end of 1950 almost thirty from the Town were in the nation's service. They were scattered all the way from the northern portions of Korea to the occupied areas of Germany. As nearly com- plete as possible, a roll compiled by the New London Service Organization Inc., on December 31, 1950, included the follow- ing names: 33
Lloyd Albee
John A. Lull
Donald Barrett
Donald Lyman
John Bickford
Charles G. MacCreighton
Newcomb Cleveland
Warren Mason
Nathaniel H. Colby
Alan Moore
Philip A. Crane
Oland E. Murray
Jerry Cross
Albert Picknell
Clayton Dow, Jr. Ila Drake
Kenneth D. Roberts
John Sargent
Edwin F. Edmunds, Jr.
Robert Sargent
Margaret Hemmings
Harold P. Snow
Henry J. Homan, Jr.
Jerry Stanley
Daniel Kristl
Harold Whittemore
Donald Kristl
Roland Wiggins
In 1950, as always in time of crisis, New London and its citizens responded to the call of national service.
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A HISTORY OF NEW LONDON
NOTES FOR CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The quotation at the head of this chapter is from an article by Mrs. Greenaway in the Yankee Magazine, October, 1947.
1As early as the opening month of the war, however, one New London resident, a recently-arrived laborer of Italian origin, sailed for his home- land, declaring that he expected Italy would enter the war in the months ahead, and stating that he wished to be ready for the call to the colors; F. J-T., August 27, 1914.
2Wrote President Wilson in words that were echoed in New London hearts: "We remind ourselves of those things that are greater than we are, of those principles by which we believe our hearts to be elevated, of the more difficult things that we must undertake in these days of per- plexity."
3In the autumn of 1916, the fact of higher prices resulting from the war was widely noticed in New London; see F. J-T., December 7, 1916. During the fall and winter there was a local coal shortage that further brought home the war's impact even upon nations still neutral; ibid., November 16, 1916.
4F. J-T., May 31, 1917; September 6, 1917; October 4, 1917. In the summer of 1917 Mrs. Tracy sponsored a long-remembered antique show for the benefit of the New London branch of the Red Cross.
5F. J-T., June 28, 1917.
6The list of the fifty names is printed in the F. J-T., July 12, 1917. In the same registration Andover had 80, Boscawen 70, and Danbury 38.
7In 1918 there was a modification of the Selective Service law so that all men between the ages of 18 and 45 who had not hitherto been registered were now required to do so. The registration day was September 12, 1918.
8Taken from the honor roll on the New London Town Monument. The first service flag in Town was unveiled early in 1918; F. J-T., February 21, 1918. In the beginning it contained 17 stars, but more were added as subsequent draftees and volunteers entered the services.
9On the "Welcome Home" program for July 4, 1919, see the plans as announced in the F. J-T., June 19, 1919. There is a shrewd analysis of the state of mind of returning service men in 1919 by G. W. Johnson, Incredible Tale: The Odyssey of the Average American in the Last Half Century, New York, 1950, pp. 60-69.
10For comments on the "sugar famine" in New London, see the F. J-T., November 15, 1917. Local wartime "highs" in certain staple foodstuffs saw butter at 75c a pound; eggs at 80c a dozen; and potatoes at $1.70 per peck.
11There was a local spy scare in the autumn of 1917; F. J-T., October 25, November 15, 1917.
12F. J-T., December 12, 1918.
13F. J-T., May 15, 1919; also statement of Charles E. Shepard to the writer, May 11, 1950. Fred B. Gay served as local chairman for at least one of the five bond drives during World War I.
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NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1900-1950
14The celebrated "false armistice" on November 7, 1918, was enthusi- astically observed in New London. James Eli Shepard led an impromptu parade along Main Street and gave away several tubs of hard candy to the rejoicing youth of the Town.
15On the letter writing campaign, note F. J-T., February 17, 1938; on the blood donor squad, consult The Speaker, December, 1938.
61The meeting for the preparation of the Atlantic Charter was the first of ten such conferences between President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill during the course of the war. For Churchill's descrip- tion of this meeting in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, see his volume The Grand Alliance, Boston, 1950, pp. 431-450. By an interesting coincidence one New London resident, Mrs. Marguerite H. Morey, was in Newfound- land at the time, and saw the U. S. S. Augusta and H. M. S. Prince of Wales as these two great ships lay anchored in the harbor. Aside from eye- witnesses, few people in the world at that time knew the exact location of the Atlantic Charter assemblage.
17 Manchester Morning Union, October 20, 1941. Mrs. Roosevelt re- ferred cordially to her reception in New London in the next issue of her famous newspaper column entitled "My Day."
18Cited by U. S. Senator Styles Bridges in the Congressional Record, 77th Congress, First Session, December 18, 1941, p. 10,213.
19From the original organization sheet, in the possession of the writer. As the war years lengthened, many changes in personnel were made.
20A Handbook for Auxiliary Police, U. S. Office of Civilian Defense, Washington D. C., 1942, pp 40-41. The New London effort along these lines stressed training in first aid. Scores of classes were held between 1941-1943 in the New London Fire Hall.
21 Among those who served as chairmen of the aircraft warning work were Wayne K. Wheeler and Clayton E. Fisher. College students for many months furnished teams that took over for at least six hours a day.
In 1942 the Town of New London appropriated $300 for the local Civilian Defense program; in 1943 the appropriation for the same purpose was $1200. Part of this sum was used to erect a cupola on the roof of the Fire House for more adequate observation.
Herbert D. Swift, as Civil Defense Chairman for Merrimack County, set up three ration boards in his district: Pittsfield, Concord, and Franklin. For a time New London people used the Franklin office, but later in the war, for convenience sake, were assigned to the Newport office, even though that was located in another county.
In the closing months of the war Mr. Swift appointed M. Roy London and A. S. Little to serve with him as "associate committeemen" in helping returning service personnel adjust to civil life again.
22Philip N. Guyol, Democracy Fights: A History of New Hampshire in World War II, Hanover, N. H., 1951, p. 212.
23New Hampshire made one of the finest records in the entire country in wartime bond purchases. In the sixth and seventh loans, New Hampshire led the nation in overall percentage of quota achieved, and in the last drive it was among the first ten of the States. New London was one of the leading Towns in New Hampshire in all the drives.
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A HISTORY OF NEW LONDON
24In 1942 Stanley A. Spiller published Flashes from the Hilltop, a news- worthy leaflet which he sent to all New London service men and women throughout the world as a Christmas greeting. In the same year there began another publication entitled The Service Men's News-Letter, sponsored by the New London Baptist Church and edited by Mrs. Carl E. Duffett. Its monthly files provide an unsurpassed running narrative of the home front in New London during the later years of the war. See also The Chronicle, published by the Franklin Chapter, ARC in 1944, and contain- ing an excellent account of the New London Red Cross effort for that year. In 1944 the Town voted at the March meeting to send official greetings to its sons and daughters through the columns of The Service Men's News-Letter.
25Guyol, op. cit, p. 3.
26 Based on the list published in the N. L. T. Rpt. for 1945 A hand- some scrapbook with pictures and data on each of the men and women above listed was prepared during the post-war years by the New London Service Organization Inc., and is now on file in the Tracy Memorial Library of New London.
27 There was no public meeting on V-J Day, August 14, 1945, in New London. An impromptu parade was formed, however, shortly after the radio carried the news of Japan's surrender, and wended its way down Main Street. It was led by Mrs. Emma S. Gould who pounded the same drum that her father had carried in the parade at the end of World War I in 1918. The Fire Department joined in the line of march, and Robert M. Lovely gave a pyrotechnic touch to the celebration by firing some long hoarded rockets.
28General King in 1946 was in the Inspector General's Office of the Army. He told people in New London that he had met and remembered Lt. Burt C. Gay, who like himself, had been made a prisoner of the Japanese in 1942, but who did not survive the ordeal.
29In 1949 New London welcomed its first "D.P." family, a group from Latvia consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Mikelis Meimers and their three children; see the Neighborhood Exchange, January 9, 1950.
30Manchester Morning Union, July 7, 1950. The elaborate air-raid warning system projected for the State was outlined in the Newport Guardian and Kearsarge-Sunapee Sun, July 13, 1950.
31From the organizational table furnished the writer by Director Clayton E. Fisher, June 20, 1951.
32On the national aspects of these matters, see P. F. Gemmill, The Economics of Defense Mobilization, New York, 1951.
33 As 1950 closed, the New London Service Organization Inc. pro- jected a monthly publication for the Town's sons and daughters in uniform. Edited by Mrs. Henry J. Homan, it was entitled "Happenings at Home," and was to be sent to all local youth in national service. In addi- tion to this enterprise, the Service Organization and the American Legion, Post No. 40, undertook to remember local men and women in the armed forces with letters, Christmas packages, and other gifts.
Conclusion
14
Mirror to America: A Half Century of Changes and Enduring Realities
". . . the history of a town or a state or a country is often not the history of its religion or its politics at all, though many a historian has seemed to wish to make it so. It is the history of people, - people with minds and hearts set upon purposes and plans, with eyes steadfastly turned ahead, and of people whose experiences, if we knew them and understood them, can help us also go forward as they did or wanted to."
- Elmer Munson Hunt
If history is to be worthwhile, it must impress deeply upon our contemporary minds two prime lessons. First, it must convince us of the inevitability and desirability of change in many areas of life and in many ways of thinking about the meaning of human existence. Second, and not less important, it must show us the significance of constancy and continuity in certain other basic aspects of human affairs. Unless modern Americans understand and accept the necessity of change, we shall become mired in the ruts of the past and unfit ourselves for tomorrow. On the other hand, unless we realize full well the vital necessity of retaining certain values out of the past, we shall lose our balance wheel and fly off into eccentricity. To perceive and to reconcile these two apparently conflicting forces in mortal affairs is to benefit from the lessons of history.
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A HISTORY OF NEW LONDON
The development of the Town of New London and its people between 1900 and 1950 happily illustrates alike the forces of change and of constancy. A summary of the last fifty years will make this evident.
There can be no doubt about the forces of change in rural New England since the beginning of the twentieth century. No one has better expressed this fact than has Lewis Gannett:1
"Even some of our all-year residents have the quaint illusion that ours is an unspoiled and unchanging New England hill town. They like to talk about its fine old families, its quaint old charac- ters, its spacious old houses, its simple Yankee democracy, and its persistent traditions.
"Yet the obvious fact is that our town started changing when it was settled and has been changing - fast - ever since, and one of the oddest changes in it is this development of the quaintly un-American notion that change is undesirable and that avoidance of change is possible."
While "Fifty Years Ain't Long,"2 and while changes have cer- tainly been transpiring in New London since its beginning in 1779, still the last fifty years have incontestably been the most dynamic in modern history, and the extent and sweep of local changes have been correspondingly great.
To begin with, the woods have been coming back. There is ample pictorial evidence that in 1900 more of New London was cleared land than was true in 1950. For instance, at the beginning of the century, from the slopes of Knight Hill one could look over open fields to the southeast, and see every building on Main Street. In 1950 a resurgent forest had won back the painfully-wrought clearings of the pioneers, and observers on Knight Hill could see no more of Main Street. Elsewhere locally the same phenomenon was true. All over the Town one could come upon impressive lichen-grown stone walls deep in the woods, silent witness to the arduous land- clearing labors of older generations. The great hurricane of 1938 temporarily reversed the trend and opened new vistas through the woods; but twelve years later, in 1950, Nature was on the march to repair the ravages, and multitudes of new trees had sprung up to efface the scars. The twentieth
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NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1900 - 1950
century engineer built fine roads through New London, sweeping across swamps with skill and efficiency. These efforts did indeed change the face of the earth to some extent. But the effortless drive of the forest was fully as effective as the power machines of man. Both operated during the five decades after 1900 to alter the physical appearance of the Town.
In the second place, the extraordinary technological developments of the twentieth century wrought wonders in the daily life of New London people. At the end of the nine- teenth century, local residents lived in a manner closer to that of colonial times than to that of 1950. Despite the invention of the steam engine and the attendant Industrial Revolution, the tempo of daily affairs in a New Hampshire hill town off the railroad was not notably different in 1900 from that of George Washington's day. Horses provided the principal means of transport; lamps were the basic source of domestic illumination; roads were built of dirt or sand, packed with snow in the winter, muddy in the spring, dusty in the summer and autumn. Running water in a home was a rarity, and wells or springs the basic source of supply. Fire was an ever-present hazard at all times of the year; medical and surgical care for serious illness required either treatment at home or hurried travel to a hospital outside of Town. State inspection of dairy herds had not even been envisaged.
By 1950 every single one of these conditions had been altered in a manner that, had the alterations come abruptly, would have been unbelievable. The horse was only occasional- ly in evidence, and automobiles from every part of the nation crowded local highways at all seasons of the year. The same comforts in illumination and heating that could be found in the most luxurious city homes were enjoyed locally. Much of the Town had a constant supply of running water, and an extensive village sewerage system was in operation. Fine high- ways traversed the community, built and maintained by tech- niques and machinery undreamed of a half century before. A Town Fire Department, integrated with the State authorities, gave protection against an ancient hazard. The New London
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A HISTORY OF NEW LONDON
Hospital offered first-class care to those in pain, and provided many of the diagnostic and therapeutic resources familiar in urban centers. Dairy cattle, eating places, and food suppliers were carefully inspected by State authority. Every domestic comfort and convenience powered by electricity was used by local people, and from the nearby hills aerial lighthouses winked their signals to planes passing at night.3
In these technological advances, not necessarily shared evenly by every local resident, but still available in the Town, New London marched in full step with modern America. Technology helped to weaken insularity and provided the means by which many city folk were able to achieve their life- long ambition for decentralized living.4 One who made the decision to leave the metropolis for New London has written of his choice in the following words:5
"After ten years of city life a feeling came to us that some important element was missing from the picture. It began to seem that life was revolving around a cycle that included fifty weeks of business with a two-week vacation break in the summer. The idea began to develop that instead of choosing a business and living nearby, it would be far better to choose an ideal place to live, and then find a business that would fit.
"Rather quickly the New England area became a logical loca- tion. Certain requirements were set up, among which were:
Small Town High Educational and Social Level
Geographic Location
Elevation over 1,000 feet
Mountains and Lakes Near at Hand
"In December, 1948, I resigned from R. C. A., and, armed with all the topographic maps of New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and New York, my wife and I started to explore every town that could possibly fill the requirements. Within a remarkably short time, most towns and states were eliminated and a few spots in New Hampshire were highlighted. A trip to New London con- vinced both of us that here was the town we sought.
"In February, 1949, we moved away from New York and New Jersey - also from all family and friends, and started a new way of living here in New Hampshire. After a year and a half, we feel that we were not wrong in our decisions. The town and its people have filled all expectations."
It was believed by astute observers of the American scene in 1950 that this trend toward decentralization would increase, and that many small New England towns such as New London
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NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1900 - 1950
would continue to grow.6 Such a development, made possible be it repeated, by the amazing advances in material welfare in the United States since 1900 caused men like Paul G. Hoff- man and Clyde B. Davis to make their well-documented state- ments in 1950 concerning the improvement of American life since the turn of the century.7
Directly related to these technological changes in Ameri- can and New London life since 1900 was another series of developments: an increasing complexity in social and public relations. Some examples will illustrate this. In 1900 New Lon- don women baked their own bread; in 1950 the bread on most New London tables was prepared miles away in a city bakery. So with butter; so with many other foodstuffs. In 1900 men fished about as they wanted to, paying small attention to size of the catch, but in 1950 game wardens and fishing licenses with their attendant regulations were essential to the sports- man's behavior. In 1900 youngsters swam where they pleased and as they pleased; in 1950 the Town had public bathing beaches,with swimming instruction and lifeguard supervision. In 1900 people made their own ice cream and ate it from a dish; in 1950 most ice cream was commercially prepared and the cone was a standard method of retailing it. In 1900 the thrifty housewife canned vegetables and fruits in glass jars, boiled for long hours on the kitchen stove; in 1950 she may well have placed the products in cardboard cartons, and deposited them in the freezing plant.
So with the larger aspects of community living. In 1900 there was one church in Town; in 1950 there were five. In 1900 the Town Library was a single room in the Grange Hall, costing little to support and offering a minimum of service. In 1950 the New London Public Library was one of the finest for a community of its size in the nation. In 1900 "doctor's bills" were an unpredictable hazard of life; in 1950 Blue Cross and Blue Shield were a mainstay for hundreds of Town people. In 1900 fraternal organizations in Town were well established; but they were greatly developed and expanded in the ensuing fifty years, and many new groups, especially for
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A HISTORY OF NEW LONDON
youth, were introduced into the community pattern. Educa- tion in 1900 was a matter of several one-room country schools and a struggling Academy. A half century later New London had a handsome centralized school and offered twelve grades of instruction. The Colby Academy of 1900 with fewer than one hundred students had become the Colby Junior College in 1950 with an enrollment of 430 girls from all parts of the world. In 1900 men built where they wished and as they wished, but in 1950 there were many who held that planning and zoning were desirable for a proper utilization of the Town's advantages.
If technological change led to increasing social com- plexity, the latter, in turn, inexorably increased the interde- pendence of local affairs with national and world develop- ments. This was the fourth change to manifest itself locally in the half century between 1900 and 1950. When the moving picture came to Town, New London was at once linked in a new way to the world outside the hills of Merrimack County. When the radio appeared a few years later, the tie grew even stronger. When television arrived in the 1940's, the inter- action between rural village and the world was completed. National and international news bulletins were available throughout the day, and - thanks to the sequence of time zones - affairs in Europe were known in New London before the local clocks had reached the hour being talked about from Europe. The great annual drives of the Red Cross, the In- fantile Paralysis Foundation, the American Cancer Society, the efforts of CARE, and many other stimuli linked local sympathies with the needs of the nation and of the world. Chain stores with their alluring packaging brought delica- cies from far-away places to the pantries of the Town. The two world wars, attended by immense costs in life and money, destroyed forever the comforting isolation of 1900, and made New Londoners in 1950 less independent but also more anxious.
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