USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Memoirs of the Miami valley > Part 58
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In the schools, directed by H. R. McVay, more stress was laid upon the education of pupils, by means of which the economic value of the stamps was impressed upon their parents, also,-than upon mere sales, although the sales were very good. The drive, set for the first of August, lasted ten days, the total sales in Shelby county amounting to $570,000, which was sent in at once. Mr. Lee's resignation went in at the same time, but was not accepted. Chair-
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man Lee attributes great credit to his county assistant, Mr. Wilder- muth, whose knowledge of the county, as well as whose patriotic service, was of the greatest value; also to the rural postmasters, to whom the handling of the large sums of money was unpreced- ented, yet who performed this responsible task with safety and exactness.
A permanent post-drive league was formed at once with the same captains, and basis, officered as follows: Urban H. Doorley, president; F. X. Lauterbur, vice-president; treasurer, Thomas Studevant ; secretary, Theodore Flinn. A final "Bring 'Em Back" campaign is scheduled for the season now current. (1919).
Realizing the undue expenditures of time and labor in the indiv- idual drives for funds, and the increasing calls for money to be used in the different departments of war work, Shelby county followed the example set in many cities of conducting a drive for a war chest, from which each organized avenue of war beneficence could draw for the prosecution of its work, and none be even temporarily em- barrassed for funds, nor under the necessity of taking civilian war workers from their tasks, to solicit separate funds.
A mass meeting was called at the high school auditorium, at which Judge Barnes presided, and the scheme of the war chest was elucidated to the public. A temporary committee was appointed to select a committee and officers for the conduct of the drive, their nomination of Judge J. D. Barnes as general chairman being ac- cepted, and he was vested, thereby, with full authority to select his associate committeemen. In accordance with this, Harry K. For- syth was named secretary, and J. C. Cummins treasurer, the other members being Hon. J. E. Russell, Percy R. Taylor, W. E. Kilborn, Charles Wyman, Prof. H. R. McVay, Clem Crusey, and Ed. F. Salm.
It was concluded upon, after study of the situation, to make a county wide drive for $100,000, to meet the county quota for all war benevolences. The slogan "1 in 31" was adopted, in accordance with the thought that as the soldier was giving thirty-one days each month, the civilian should give no less than the proceeds of one day's work each month for the soldier's benefit. The financial basis taken was, that all men working on salaries should give one day's pay per month, and all others should contribute 4 per cent of the gross income, divided into monthly payments. An educational campaign was conducted. Meetings being held in every township in the county, usually addressed by some local speaker, and also by some returned soldier. As no American soldiers had returned by that time, the soldiers who spoke were usually Canadians, some- times Belgian and Scottish, disabled from wounds received in battle ; and their experiences, related in simple, native eloquence, were effective and convincing.
The educational campaign terminated on May twenty-eighth, the closing feature being the grand rally day in Sidney, when the largest crowd ever assembled in Sidney gave the war chest drive a magnificent send off. The parade-the finest in Sidney's history- started at ten o'clock in the morning, headed by a group of one hun- dred and fifteen selective draft men who were to leave that day for training camp. They bore a banner inscribed : "We go to give our all.
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What are you going to give?" Next, came their mothers, sisters and sweethearts, carrying banners which said: "We are giving our boys. Are you willing to give one day's pay?" Following came the members of Neal Post, G. A. R., all carrying American flags. Next, marched the Red Cross chapter, in force, and after them the em- ployes of Sidney's many manufacturing concerns, every unit carry- ing appropriate banners conveying inspirational information as to their purpose and its relation to the rally. A line of beautiful floats, emblematic of every phase of patriotic effort, and lastly, the entire Sidney public and parochial school enrollment completed the parade, -with the exception of the interesting item that Governor Cox, who arrived in an automobile, marched on foot with the selective draft boys.
After the parade, Governor Cox delivered a thrilling and pat- riotic address from the north entrance of the courthouse. About noon the selectives were escorted to the B. & O. station by the G. A. R. post, headed by the Sidney band and followed by a con- course of citizens.
A feature planned for the day had been the "bombing" of the smaller towns, throughout the county, with handbills dropped from an airplane, driven by Lieut. William Orbison, a Sidney boy, from Fairfield aviation field. Lieut. Orbison started over the county about six o'clock in the morning, but after covering the northern half of the county, was obliged to make a landing, on account of a leaking gas tank. After hasty repairs he again started on his travels, was forced to land again, and was once more ready, but wet ground prevented a good "rise," and the plane smashed into a farm fence damaging its "nose" but not injuring the aviator, though the flight had to be abandoned. Lieut. Orbison had not previously met with an accident during his entire service, and it was a source of keen regret to him, as he had planned some thrilling stunts for the entertainment of his home city.
A little after twelve o'clock, a squadron of twelve planes ap- peared from the south, coming from Fairfield, and flew over the city for some time, exhibiting fine squadron work, and giving the multi- tude a thrilling and novel experience, in witnessing so many planes in formation overhead. After landing, south of the city, the aviators, the Governor, and other honored guests were entertained at the country club.
The county had been so thoroughly organized that the enthus- iasm engendered produced most gratifying results. With a popula- tion of only 25,000, over 8,000 persons subscribed to the chest, and a final tabulation showed the county not merely "over the top," but from starting to reach one hundred thousand dollars, the drive had achieved approximately a quarter of a million. All subscribers were assured that they would not again be solicited for any form of war benevolence for the period of one year from date; also, that when the monthly payments had raised a fund sufficient to meet all county quotas for the recognized benevolences, further payments would be suspended. In accordance with this promise, the payments were suspended after five monthly installments had been paid. To date,
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there is no quota standing against Shelby county. All have been paid in full.
The Five War Loans. The Liberty loan committee for Shelby county, in the Toledo area, was appointed in May, 1917, and con- tinued throughout the period of the war without change. Mr. Will A. Graham, of the Citizens' National bank, as chairman, handled the business of the loans with consummate ability and exactness, and the committee could not have been bettered, even in Sidney. Mr. Urban H. Doorley was detailed as executive secretary, in this as in several other important departments of civilian war work, and the following nine well-known business men and financiers composed the committee: Ben. B. Amann, J. C. Cummins, L. M. Studevant, W. E. Kilborn, Val Lee, J. W. Simmons, H. D. Bennett, B. T. Bulle and C. C. Kelly.
The conduct of the drives was uniformly quiet and the reverse of spectacular, with only the silent appeals of posters by way of display, and addresses of educational intent by men of prominence.
Many women assisted in the First Liberty loan, under the leadership of Mrs. L. M. Studevant, although the work of women was not made a feature of this or subsequent drives, the Sidney women being almost universally occupied to the utmost by National League or Red Cross war work. In the Fifth, or Victory loan, the women were directed to organize with Mrs. J. D. Barnes as chair- man, and accomplished, in their canvass, an amount entitling them to credit for one-third of the whole subscription.
The First loan, in May, 1917, was conducted from the popular basis, the subscriptions amounting to $312,250, divided among 1384 buyers. The Second, in late October, 1917, was guaranteed by the banks, and disposed of to 841 buyers, and totaling $560,400. The Third, in April, 1918, was again carried directly to the public by personal appeal, and 1874 buyers subscribed a total of $655,500. In the Fourth, in Autumn, 1918, 4164 buyers subscribed for $718,250. The Victory loan, heralded by a shower of paper leaflets from an aeroplane, and a convincing speech by Senator Pomerene, rounded up 1583 subscribers and the figures $670,800. The total of Shelby county's record for the five loans is $2,917,200. All loans far ex- ceeded the apportionment for the county, and the number of sub- scribers seems an index, if rightly read, of the interest taken, the growing confidence of the people, their increased ability to sub- scribe-shown particularly in the Fourth loan figures, and the realization of the great value of the loans, as mere investment, evinced in the Victory loan. It may be added that more than fifty per cent of the subscriptions are attributable to Sidney.
The Council of Defense was not fully organized in Shelby coun- ty, owing to the multiplicity of war duties devolving upon the same group of men. Judge J. D. Barnes received the appointment to chairmanship, and Urban H. Doorley was assigned to the secretary's duties, but while the fuel committee was put in operation, and sim- ilar measures were adopted and carried by consent, the organization of the council was still awaiting when the armistice was signed, and the necessity existed no longer.
Shelby county and Sidney neglected, in fact, nothing of local
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possibility in the way of service to the war department, even if organization was here and there incomplete, a general spirit of patriotic co-operation replacing mere formalities with marvelous efficiency. In the last analysis, it is results which speak.
Woman's Work. According to the well-known custom of the past, Sidney women, like the women of other communities, were not given "speaking parts" in the war drama of the Sixties. However, women are now everywhere acknowledged to have been the moral force behind the boys in arms, whether in blue or khaki, and if the women of Sidney displayed signal initiative, in war work, during the two strenuous years just past, it was but a natural inheritance from mothers and grandmothers, who unobtrusively picked lint, rolled bandages, and sewed, and made jellies, and sent letters and comforts of various sorts to the soldiers of a long half century ago. A well worn and yellowed blank book, which served the secretary of the "Ladies' Christian Commission Aid Society," the local auxiliary of the "United States Christian Commission," contains many pages of neat handwriting, which tell the story of the remarkable work done by the women of Sidney, during the year of March, 1864, to April, 1865, under this organization. The journal was kept by Mrs. J. C. Frankeburger, secretary, with great faithfulness and detail. The society was organized March 7, 1864, at the home of Mrs. Thomas Stevenson, with forty ladies present, all of whom signed the books as members, and paid the annual due of twenty-five cents. The number of members subsequently increased to seventy-seven, and besides Mrs. Frankeburger the officers elected were Mrs. Judge Cummins, president; Mrs. Mary Bates, vice-president ; Mrs. E. R. Manor, treasurer ; and Mrs. Black, Mrs. L. C. Barkdull, Mrs. Aug- usta Mathers, and Mrs. Reed, directors. Forty-two meetings were held for work, besides the suppers given every month, and the oc- casional "concerts by the band," by which means was raised nearly all of the money needed for the prosecution of the labor of love to which they were pledged,-"for the brave boys who are periling their lives for their country."
Twelve boxes and five barrels of hospital supplies, surgical dressings, garments and delicacies, were sent during the year from this group of loyal women. Altogether it represented a value of almost eleven hundred and fifty dollars, while the made articles numbered 2172. There had been a few donations of work, money and material, but in the main, the women earned the money for their materials, and did the work; yet were ready at the end of the year to "renew our sacrifices, and, so long as there is need, never relax our efforts." Nearer than they thought was the end of "need," for the meetings ended abruptly in April, 1865, and the conscien- tiously kept journal of the society, closes without a period. The joy of victory was punctuation enough.
It was this spirit that flamed up in the hearts of the daughters and grand-daughters of those same women in an April just fifty- two years later, when the sudden flash along the wires of the nation proclaimed "War with Germany !" and drew the youth of America up standing in response.
No official call had come from Washington to organize for war
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work, or for emergency. Shelby county was quietly plodding its round of duty, its factory wheels humming, and its chimneys belch- ing smoke as usual,-nor did they stop. It was the women into whose hearts the trump of war sent the vital spark. Removed from the great centers of activity, into what avenue of work they were to enter was a question scarcely asked before it was answered. The first that opened.
The National League of Women's Service had speedily, in the year preceding, extended its organization to Cincinnati, and from there it had spread rapidly up the chain of Miami towns. Piqua had a flourishing branch, of which Mrs. Charles Stuart was presi- dent, and through this a small number of Sidney women had become aware of the work that was being done to prepare for war emerg- ency. Miss Ruth Kilborn, also had been an enthusiastic observer of the National League in eastern cities during the winter.
A meeting of loyal Sidney women was called for the afternoon of April ninth, 1917, at the home of Mrs. E. T. Mathers on North Ohio avenue, at which Mrs. Stuart addressed a large number of the active spirits of the city, and amid great enthusiasm the Sidney branch of the National League for Women's Service was formed. Miss Ruth Kilborn was elected president, and Miss Ida Wilson and Mrs. E. W. Laughlin vice-presidents, with Mrs. Robert Marshall, secretary, and Mrs. Laura Beebe Horr, treasurer.
Within ten days, the young president had organized all her committees, and the Armory had been secured as a working centre, through Mr. Ben Higgins, the lessee; sewing machines had been donated by Miss Hannah Collins, Mrs. J. C. Cummins, and Mrs. Harry Given, and delivered by Mr. Sexauer. On the nineteenth of April the members met at the home of the president and listened to further elucidation of work and its purposes and methods, by Miss Grace Latimer Jones, of Columbus. The committees, which comprised the best talent and most faithful hearts of Sidney, had been arranged with unerring discrimination, and the right woman in the right place insured the wonderful results of the next two years. Mrs. W. O. Amann, with Mrs. Hugh T. Mathers and Mrs. W. E. Kilborn, formed the ways and means committee ; purchasing was placed in the hands of Mrs. W. T. Amos, Mrs. P. O. Rhodes and Miss Edith Silver. Soliciting of funds and material and mem- bership was given to Mrs. B. P. Wagner; sewing fell to Mrs. Jesse Laughlin, Mrs. Mary Kennedy and Mrs. O. S. Kenny; surgical dressings were divided into classes, and in due order were detailed to groups of three, as follows: Slings, Misses Julia Kah and Eliza- beth Smith and Mrs. C. B. DeWeese; binders, Mrs. J. W. Costolo and Misses Julia Collins and Louise Amann ; compresses, Mesdames F. S. Foster, B. S. Martin, and Harvey Roth; pillows, Mesdames Carl Custenborder, Morton Piper, and Frederick McLean; gauze packing, Mesdames H. H. Needles, Roy Redinbo, and James Hewitt ; tampons, Mesdames C. F. Hickok, C. M. Dorsey and W. H. Clayton ; comfort kits, Mesdames J. D. Barnes, John Perry and C. H. Fer- rall ; knitting, Mrs. C. B. Orbison, and Mrs. W. H. Davies ; packing, Mrs. Frank Goode, Miss Bertha McLean and Mrs. Hugh Bingham.
Work began at once, but eager fingers were soon wanting more
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THE STORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
material than the collections taken at each meeting could supply. However, the ways and means committee under Mrs. W. O. Amann performed prodigies in the matter of obtaining funds. A chain of parties was devised and carried out, which netted nearly six hundred dollars; a great Red Cross flag was made by the committee and carried in the patriotic parade of May day, 1917, by which $180 in coin was collected, young women and girls in Red Cross nurse uniforms assisting ; occasional donations, voluntary and solicited, swelled the total to $900 during the year. This sum, wisely ex- pended and the material conservatively managed, produced a total of five thousand surgical dressings sent to the National League S. D. committee; 91 sweaters, 116 pairs of socks, and 134 miscel- laneous knitted articles of wool sent to the Navy league by the knitting department; and furnished the soldier boys of Shelby coun- ty with comfort kits to the last one called to the colors.
The value of the work done, and especially of the minute or- ganization of that work, cannot be given too much credit, in the total war work done by Sidney women. It brought to the Red Cross work room a body of trained and disciplined workers, ready skilled in all the needlecraft called for by the exacting requirements ; and it had, in the meantime, lost not a moment of the precious time which had passed before the organization of the Red Cross chapter in Shelby county. The season of apprenticeship was over. By the end of the first year, the Service League had delivered to the Red Cross 56,095 pieces of surgical dressings. In addition, the women of the city had become fully instructed in the importance of conserva- tion as well as of home production, and the whole scheme of women's war work was on foot and moving.
When, in June 1917, in response to an urgent call from Wash- ington to organize, the Shelby county chapter of the American Red Cross was formed and chartered, it inevitably took in all of the women who composed the local branch of the National Service League, and consequently, practically all of the working forces of the Sidney women. In fact, the initial drive for a Red Cross mem- bership, resulting in the enrollment of 1612 names (many of them for life memberships), was mainly the work of women. The men of Sidney came forward as officers of the Chapter, the chairman being Mr. W. T. Amos; vice-chairman, Mr. W. E. Kilborn ; treas- urer, Mr. W. A. Graham; secretary, Mr. Percy R. Taylor. Mr. Taylor resigned August 30th and Miss Elsie Piper was elected to the vacancy.
Mrs. H. M. Robinson was appointed chairman of the committee on instructions to women, and, at the order to organize the work- shop for Red Cross activity, a change in the Sidney work became imminent. It was obvious that the same women could not serve two masters, yet had inadvertently become pledged to both Service league and Red Cross. Herein was the fineness of Sidney woman- hood demonstrated : The Service league met, August 8th, and took steps by which they transposed themselves, as a body already or- ganized, into an auxiliary of the Red Cross Chapter. Twenty of the young women entered the surgical dressings training class conducted by Mrs. Charles Ginn, of Dayton, fifteen completing the course and
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thereafter carrying on the surgical dressings work in the same care- fully detailed manner as before, yet conforming to the Red Cross requirements. From time to time they attended classes in Dayton to learn the latest new "fashions" set by the surgeons at the front.
The practice of specializing the classes for surgical dressings work continued in the League Auxiliary workroom (which had been moved in October to the domestic science room at the high school, for better heating), where the advantage of the system was made apparent early, in the report of "perfect" which came from division headquarters upon receipt of shipments from Sidney.
Before the end of 1917 larger quarters became necessary for the Red Cross work, and the assembly room was chosen, of the three places freely offered,-in the Oldham building, the high school, and the courthouse. Mrs. Howard Grant, Mrs. Harry Rice and Mrs. J. D. Barnes were a committee who transformed the assembly room into a bright attractive Red Cross workroom, fitted up with tables, sewing machines (with electric motor attachment), lockers, desks, telephones and all necessary paraphernalia for work. After January 1, 1918, all Red Cross work was done at or sent out to auxiliaries from this headquarters. The transition of the local N. L. W. S. into an auxiliary force of the Red Cross Chapter had taken place in October, and with the opening of the assembly workshop all effort was merged toward the common end, a self-forgetful harmony pre- vailing. In one respect only did the National Service league main- tain its original identity-as a special committee to provide, out of its own treasury, the comfort kits and knitted comforts for Shelby county men. This work, which was not at first provided for in the Red Cross, had been a part of the Service league plan from the first, and they continued to carry it out until every Shelby county soldier had been furnished with kit and knitted articles, the well-known "Smileage Books" being a feature of the kits.
The Red Cross knitting was at last organized, and put in the charge of Mrs. Orbison and her committee, who had conducted the Service league knitting. Sidney women were not behind the line of march in any department of Red Cross work, but organized with promptness and technical correctness every line of work suggested by the Council of Defense, carrying out the same to the extent of the local field. And not until the last call for effort had ceased was the closing of the Red Cross workshop effected.
At the close of the first year of the Service league (now the Red Cross Auxiliary) Miss Ruth Kilborn, in retiring from the presidency, to engage in other work, took the opportunity to pay deserved tribute to "the wonderful team work of the women of the rank and file, who, when all the work was new, without models to follow, and, unused to bend to others' standards, forgot self in the nobility of the work," and brought about the splendid results re- corded to Sidney's credit.
The Auxiliary then elected new officers for the ensuing year : Mrs. Harry M. Robinson, president; Miss Julia Collins, vice-presi- dent; Miss Ruth Kilborn, second vice-president; Mrs. Robert Mar- shall, secretary ; Mrs. W. Cool Horr, treasurer; Mrs. E. T. Custen- border, financial secretary; special committees: Ways and means,
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THE STORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
backyard poultry, conservation, comfort kits, knitting, cutting, in- spection, wrapping, packing, supply department, and publicity, were presided over respectively by Mesdames William Amos, Anna Rob- inson, W. H. C. Goode, J. D. Barnes, C. B. Orbison, Miss Olive Honnell, Mrs. Shine, Mrs. Howard Grant, Mrs. J. D. Barnes, Miss Julia Kah, Mrs. C. F. Hickok, Miss Oldham and Mrs. Howard Amos. The surgical dressings department was subdivided into special classes for the Auxiliary work, as in the original Service league plan (only with more classes, owing to the increased needs specified by the surgeons to the Red Cross), a method most successful in secur- ing speed as well as accuracy.
The efficiency displayed from first to last in the women's work and its administration has been most signal, and the final figures, stated elsewhere, are a lasting evidence of what Sidney women can do. Due credit must also be given to the auxiliaries, eleven of which were organized at different points in the county, and from which faithful service came until the end. At Jackson Center, the Red Cross sewing was carried on under the chairmanship of Mrs. Ed- ward Kenneaster ; at Botkins, under Mrs. Herbert Sheets; at Anna, under Miss Lena Dale; at Fort Loramie, under Mrs. Frank N. Raterman; at Swanders, under Mrs. Frank Pfaadt; at Houston, under Mrs. James Flinn ; at Oran, under Mrs. Joseph Lehman; at Maplewood, under Mrs. J. C. Wones ; at Port Jefferson, under Mrs. A. L. Nettleship ; at Plattesville, under Mrs. H. G. Princehouse ; and at Pemberton, under Miss Bonnie Hain. The Mount Vernon (church) ladies formed a separate auxiliary in Sidney, and sewed for the garment department with unflagging ardor, under Mrs. Montgomery.
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