Mailbag

Do you remember the days of the SASE, putting one in a letter and then waiting for it to come back to you? (SASE: Self addressed stamped envelope) Well, even though I didn’t receive a SASE in the mail, I did receive a bounty of genealogy documents in the mail recently!

One package was from the Frankfort Community Public Library in Clinton County, Indiana and contained photocopies of probate records for my Ricketts/Reed family.

The other package was a thumb drive from Brad Quinlan. In June, he posted in the Facebook group, Descendants of Andersonville Prison, that he was making a trip to Washington, D.C. to do research and had time to take on more clients during that trip. Even though I had already requested the military and pension files for my civil war ancestors from the national archives, I did not know at the time about requesting the ENTIRE file. Not knowing what I might be missing, I elected to inquire about whether he had time to fulfill my requests. He did have time to take on my requests and a thumb drive arrived recently containing the images obtained from those files.

In both cases, there was an exchange of money. However, what I spent obtaining the records was a small percentage of what it would cost to pay travel expenses for me to obtain them myself.

I am thankful to have these records. Now, I have lots of work to do to get these transcribed!

• Probate Record for John Ricketts (2MTW-355)
• Partition file for John Ricketts’ estate
• Probate record for Mary Reed (KLVH-CFM)
• Military file for George Mentzer (LHKS-17Q)
• Pension file for George Mentzer
• Military file for James M. Ricketts (KV21-XBR)
• Pension file for James M. Ricketts
• Military file for Noah Briles (K2Q1-RG9)
• Pension file for Noah Briles
• Military files (3 of them) for Richmond F. Hammond (2B2M-GXK)
• Pension file for Richmond F. Hammond
• Military file for Washington Marion Crawford (KHFD-XRW)
• Pension file for Washington Marion Crawford

Saturday Tidbits

Nemaha County Men Leave for Camp

The Courier Tribune
Monday, January 6, 1941
page 1

The United States is building for possible war but largely this has been a matter of registration, of steps being taken at other places, no great change close at hand.
But military preparedness struck home in Nemaha county Friday of last week, when Sabetha saw its Battery D. of the 130th field artillery leave by special train for a year’s training at Camp Joseph Robinson, near Little Rock, Arkansas. The battery includes many men from Nemaha County.
There was a large crowd at the station, the Sabetha band played martial music and there were tears as the train pulled out promptly at 10 o’clock, with the band playing the national anthem.
Bill Tennal of the Sabetha Herald took these photographs which by arrangement will be used in this newspaper and the Herald.
The photographs are identified as follows:
Top picture, Battery D boys as they stood around at the Rock Island station at 9:30 Friday morning awaiting orders to “fall in” preparatory to boarding the special train made up at Sabetha. They have regulation packs, empty pistol holsters.
The middle picture shows the boys after they had fallen in, heard a short talk by Mayor S. M. Hibbard, then had started to march onto the waiting Pullman cars. In the foreground with face turned towards the camera is First sergeant Virgil Lehnherr. Beside him with backs to the camera are Second Lieutenants Vernon Dilliplain and Clyde Bloxom. (Bloxom’s wife is a sister of Dale Ridgway, Seneca coach.)
In the lower picture, from the only two Pullman windows they were able to get open, four men wave farewell.
Not all of the battery went by train. Capt. J. W. Cavendar and Lieut. Ray Pittinger, with 22 men, took the battery’s nine trucks and two station wagons.

Memorial Day

Today is the day that was established to honor those who died while serving our country. Can you identify your ancestors or cousins whom we would honor today? Although I am aware of some of my cousins, I cannot readily name them.

However, my genealogy program is a database. Thus, I should be able to use the program and create a list. Unfortunately, searching for this type of information in a database requires that data be entered accurately. And I can attest to the fact incomplete or missing data in my file will impact my ability to pull this information.

Knowing that my mom has a couple of 2nd cousins who died during World War II, I started trying to create a list of those who died during that war. My first step was to create a group. This feature is located under the command palette, whose icon is located in the upper right corner of RootsMagic 8.

Opening the list of commands, I scroll down to GROUPS. Since I want to create a group, I’m looking for the command to ‘Add, delete or modify the list of gorups’.

Clicking that choice opens the GROUPS window. This window shows my existing groups and has buttons to add (new), edit, delete or rename a group.

To create my group, I click on the NEW button. A window opens prompting me to enter a name for this group. For this example, I’m going to name my group ‘WWII Deaths’.

That opens a window titled RootsMagic Explorer that shows a list of everyone in my file with boxes for checkmarks to indicate group membership. Since I’m creating this group from scratch, I want to use the MARK button.

Clicking the MARK button opens a pull-down menu showing my choices. Since I’m wanting to create a list based on the death date and place, I want to use the ‘By Data Fields’ choice.

This opens a window that allows me to select data fields and create a ‘sentence’ defining my search. Sometimes figuring out this ‘sentence’ is trial and error. This is also where incomplete data can impact the results. For my first ‘trial’, I’m going to search for those people with a military fact who died between 7 Dec 1941 and 2 Sept 1945. I am using 7 Dec 1941 as my start date since that is the date in which the United States was attacked.

When I click the OK button, the software searches my file and finds 9 people that have a military fact who died during the specified time period.

To finish creating the group, I have to click on the OK button and then click on the SELECT button in the lower right corner of the window. If I forget to click SELECT, my group is not created. That closes the selection window and returns me to the group window, where I have to again click OK to close the window.

The easiest way to review my group is to use the INDEX on the side of the PEOPLE screen. The default for the Index is to SHOW EVERYONE.

When I click on the ‘Show Everyone’ box, a menu opens showing the groups I have created.

If I scroll down the list, I can locate my newly created WWII DEATHS group.

Selecting the WWII DEATHS group causes the index to display the members of this group.

Looking at that list, I have several people born before 1900 who were included on the list. I have two options to ‘clean up’ this list. One option is to look at each person in question, evaluate their information and then remove them from the list if they don’t meet my criteria.

For example, Lloyd William Barnes is on my list with a death date of 14 Dec 1941. He also has a military fact, but it is dated 1918.

Below his parents is the GROUP information. When I click on the word GROUPS, it opens a list of all of my groups on the right side of the person window.

Scrolling down, I can locate the WWII Deaths group and remove the check mark by that group and then close the person window. That removes him from the list of people in the group under the index.

I can continue working my way thru the group one person at a time, or I could edit my group and add a statement to help narrow the selection. In this case, I might add a statement requiring the birth date to be after 1900. To do this, I follow the same procedure used to open the GROUPS menu. Then I scroll down to locate my group, WWI Deaths.

This time, I want to click on the EDIT button. This opens the RootsMagic Explorer window where I can mark/unmark members in this group. Since I’m editing an existing group, I usually check UNMARK and select prior to going back in and editing my selection. This makes sure that those I don’t want in the group are removed. Once I’m back in the RootsMagic Explorer window, I select MARK and pick BY DATA FIELDs as before. My previous ‘sentence’ is still there. I only need to ADD to it. Thus, I’m gong to add a 4th line for the Birth Date is after 31 Dec 1899.

Clicking OK causes the program to search using my new criteria. Five people are now marked. This is where I need to remember to click SELECT after clicking the OK button.

Working my way thru these 5 people, I can verify that I have information entered for each of them about their death during World War II.

Using this process, I created groups for the Korean War, World War II, World War I and the Civil War.

Korean War Deaths

• John Frederick Christy

World War II Deaths

• Meredith C. Hall
• Aaron Lighter
• Lovell Jennings Mentzer
• Cleo Byron Peake
• Claude Arnold Walters

World War I Deaths

• None

Civil War Deaths

• John Nelson Ralston
• John Wesley Roberts

While creating these groups is the easiest way I know of to identify these cousins deserving to be honored this Memorial Day. However, this method is not perfect. (Remember, it depends on the completeness and accuracy of my data.) Since I remembered writing about a service member who died when his plane crashed, I expected him to be on my list. And, he is NOT.

My blog post, Plane Down, identifies him as 2nd Lieutenant Gene Marion Ashmore.

Checking what information I have for Gene Marion Ashmore, I can verify that he has a military fact. However, his death date is outside of the dates I used for my search. It is a few days AFTER the official end of World War II. Thus, the computer did not add his name to my group of WWII Deaths.

Since I would like to be able to include him in my list of WWII veterans to be honored on Memorial Day, I can manually add him to the list. If I click on GROUPS (below his parents) and then scroll down my list of groups, I can locate the ‘WWII Deaths’ group.

When I return to the index and select the WWI Deaths group, I can verify that he has been added.

As my database grows, I will either need to remember to update these lists as I identify a veteran or use the GROUPS menu to edit the group.

How about you? Can you identify people in your tree to be honored on Memorial Day?

Saturday Tidbits

1940 Draft

Continued

Courier Tribune
Thursday, November 21, 1940
page 1

Draft Order
(Official List Continued)

51 Wilbur Louis Roeder
52 Virgil Elmer Brockman
53 Walter Stauffer
54 Vincent Frank Wessel
55 Gerald Edwin Wiggins
56 Raymond Clarence Shaffer
57 George Darrel Hawley
58 Bernard Frances Runnebaum
59 Ferdinand Henry Niehues
60 Sylvester Joseph Wietharn
61 Edward john Hasenkamp
62 William Joseph Flaherty
63 Elmer Walter Allen
64 Willis Eugene Barnes
65 LeRoy Hunzeker
66 Raymond Hudson Weaver
67 Raymond Aloysius Ronnebaum
68 Bernard Aloysius Becker
69 Merle Vernon Chase
70 Roy Yens Gustin
71 Roland Paul Grote
72 Elmer Wagner
73 Orlo Henry Drinkwater
74 Austin W. Vogel
75 Emet Francis Hightower
76 Herman Arthur Beyreis
77 Joseph Hiald Moore
78 Eugene Francis showman
79 Anthony Francis Spielman
80 William Kenneth Rucker
81 Floyd Emerson Downing
82 Boyd Robert Cawood
83 David Meyer
84 Odile John Koelzer
85 Floyd Iven Baumgartner
86 Harry Gilmore Whittle Jr
87 Roy Meyer
88 Louis Ross Warfel
89 Norbert Andrew Stallbaumer
90 Virgil Vernon Bumgarner
91 Raymond William Rasmussen
92 Francis John Block
93 Ruben Stauffer
94 Raphael John Blocker
95 Emil Roy Edelman
96 Asia Roy Turpin
97 Paul Leon Irwin
98 Kenneth Edgar Hall
99 Louis Leroy Dannevik
100 Melvin Lester Deaver
101 Robert Goodrich Wilson
102 Amzi Gordon Mosteller
103 Ben Paul Kreutzman
104 Clarence Richard Hazlett
105 Leonard William Grimm
106 Edward Ferdinand Deters
107 James Jay Adriance
108 Ralph Benjamine Ward
109 Vincent August Buessing
110 Glenn Wilbur L[u]bbe
111 Raymond Eldrid Noland
112 Herman Louis Stallbaumer
113 William Robert Geren
114 Homer Leroy Turner
115 Eli Brunner
116 Roscoe George Smith
117 Allie John Hermesch
118 James Alvin Hoskins
119 Emmett Thackeray Dodson
120 Mirl Herman Bontrager
121 John Jessee Barrett
122 Melvin Elmer Rauss
123 Belford J. Duryea
124 William Audley Sneed
125 William Francis Koch
126 Clifton Allen Holland
127 Garth Edwin Brinkworth
128 George Lee Miller
129 Gregory Henry Holthaus
130 Elmer W. McConnaughey
131 James Milbern Johnstone
132 Raymond Clement Gugelman
133 Harry Charles Churchill
134 Francis James Levret
135 Henry Grady Stegall
136 Cyril John Stallbaumer
137 John Charles Baldwin
138 Firmin Joseph Koch
139 Wilbur Henry Keim
140 Edwin Henry Wietharn
141 Frank Edward Stuke
142 Lawrence Joseph Olberding
143 Lester Laverne Williamson
144 Leslie Kenneth Wright
145 Edwin August Brokamp
146 Fred Edward Amos
147 Henry Aloysius Holthaus
148 Howard Freeman bell
149 Orville Douglas Edman
150 Bert Andrew Simmons

Saturday Tidbits

1940 Draft Numbers

from page 1 of the November 18, 1940 issue of The Courier-Tribune

First Blanks This Week
To the Draftees

Questionnaires Will Likely Start into the Mails Wednesday

The Nemaha county draft board will send the first federal draft questionnaires to “draftees” this week probably starting with 50 on Wednesday.
The county has a total of 1695 men registered. There has been a great amount of clerical work in handling the registration cards, listing order numbers, preparing “cover sheets” in which each questionnaire will be filed, and now is re-sorting the registration cards and placing them in alphabetical arrangement.
The new draft board has been approved federally, B. E. Stratton is chairman, O. J. Ward is secretary and Loyd J. Cobun is the third member.
First questionnaires go to the men who want to enlist for their year of service, regardless of order number. Also for early handling are the men who have enlisted, as with the national guard, and are awaiting call.
Order numbers were assigned recently to registration cards. The county office is now completing a full order number list. The Courier-Tribune will print this list in the next few papers, as space permits, because it is official. A list of the first 500 order number was printed before, but was unofficial. Save this list below and watch for succeeding issues:
Official Order List

1 Ivan Harold Bryant We
2 Leo John Spielman Ba
3 Harvey Elmer Hittle Sa
4 William Zery Murphy Ce
5 Lawrence Jos Schmidt Sa
6 John Joseph Rilinger Se
7 Vernet Harry Randel C0
8 James Edward Wilcox Ba
9 Archie LeRoy Swogger Be
10 Alphla Henry Aberle Sa
11 Paul Raymond Mathewson Se
12 Aloysius Fred Otting Se
13 Leslie Gordon Tate Se
14 Lee William Henry Sa
15 James Oliver McCoy On
16 Wilbur James Grimm On
17 Earnest Shumaker We
18 Bernard J. Dalinghaus Ba
19 Donald Charles Wood Sa
20 Arthur Louis Becker Se
21 Raymond N. Buser We
22 Lorenzo Dale Fletchall Sa
23 Lee Cochran Ce
24 Gilbert C. Ridgway Se
25 Herman Jacob Engel We
26 Kenneth Sherman Taylor Ba
27 Gerald John Wempe Se
28 Aloysius August Steinlage Co
29 Emil Kenneth Haug Se
30 Frederick Henry Keen Go
31 Lloyd W. Frederickson Co
32 Albert Francis Olberding Se
33 Marion Richard Ford We
34 Roland August Surdez Ce
35 Alphonse Joseph Holthaus Se
6 Cletus John Engelken Se
37 Rayomon Lenord Sweet Co
38 James Patrick O’Toole Ax
39 Arthur R Harrter Sa
40 Edward John Vogel Be
41 Orval Merland Bryant We
42 Max Elvin Gutknecht Sa
43 James Catlet Kelley Sa
44 Anthony Aloysius Deters Ba
45 Vernon Nance Kistner Sa
46 Louis William Wiegers Se
47 Thomas Morse Reed Ci
48 Moses Edelman Sa
49 Cyril Francis Olberding Ba
50 Robert John Haug Ve

There is a change in the first 50 number from the unofficial list, No. 45, Vernon Nance Kistner, not having been included in the unofficial listing.

Saturday Tidbits

Page 8 of the November 11, 1940 issue of the Courier Tribune

Ralph Anderson, Hiawatha, son of Mr. and Mrs. J.S. Anderson, Oneida, a lieutenant in the naval radio reserve, has been called to Washington, D.C. His wife is packing her household goods and will join him soon. Ralph’s cousin, Harold Anderson, Sabetha is also a member of the naval radio reserve corps and is in training at Hiawatha. He is a senior in Sabetha high and expects to take up naval training when school is out. Ralph presented his cousin with his masterpiece, a navy radio set he had made.

Page 8 of the November 14, 1940 issue of the Courier Tribune

Mr. and Mrs. Guy Griffith received word from their son, Bob, last week that he had joined the Army air corps and has been at Hamilton Field, near San Francisco until recently, when he sailed for the Philippines.

Page 2 of the November 28, 1940 issue of the Courier Tribune

Defense Program Takes Higgins from Teaching
Arlie Higgins is a former Seneca young man who is called from school work by the national defense program. Arlie has been high school principal at Florence, Kansas, where he has taught three years. He is a member of the Reserve Officers corps of the army as well as a teacher and the army now comes first. Arlie was here the first of the week to visit his mother, Mrs. W. H. Higgins, then went on to Fort Crook, Nebr., where he has been assigned as captain of the 3rd infantry. He is called for a year’s duty. He will look for a place to live at Ft. Crook and then he and his wife will move their household goods from Florence.

Saturday Tidbits

Bell Fighter

The Army’s newest battle of the skies. Armed with five machine guns, the Bell Fighter is the most formidable fighting plane in the U. S. Air Corps

Planes such as the Bell Fighter pictured above are being added to the nation’s air force as fast as modern production methods can supply them. To man this equipment the army is daily adding to its ground and air strength.
The President’s recent proclamation increasing the regular army to 227,000 soldiers opens an unusual opportunity to intelligent young men with their eyes on the future.
Seven hundred young men meeting army requirements will be recruited before December 31 in the eight mid-western states of the Seventh Corps Area for service at McChord Field, the new Air Corps station near Tacoma, Washington.
Applicants must be 18 to 35 years of age, unmarried and must pass a physical examination. Enlistment is for three years and advancement rests largely with the individual. The army is rapidly becoming mechanized and the opportunity for the man with technical or craft training is greater than ever before, with substantial increases in pay ratings for specialists. Enlistments will be taken for the Air Corps proper and the Air Corps Medical and Quartermaster units.
An applicant for enlistment to the Air Corps must have a high school education, or its equivalent or a journeyman rating in a mechanical trade.
McChord Field adjoins Fort Lewis, Washington, recognized as the most ideally situated army post in the United States. Fort Lewis is midway between Tacoma, a city of 140,000 and Olympia, the State Capital. Seattle, 400,000 population is a two-hour drive on the Pacific highway. The Fort Lewis reservation, 76,000 acres is literally a hunter’s and fisherman’s paradise, with deer, ducks, geese, pheasant, trout and salmon in abundance. The reservation includes every kind of terrain, high mountains, beautiful forests and mountain streams and the sea itself. The climate is mild, there is seldom a freeze, and Fort Lewis is rarely muddy due to the sandy-loam soil. Information regarding the nearest recruiting station may be obtained at your post office.

From page 2 of the 30 November 1939 issue of the Courier Tribune

1939 Air Corps

The following articles about Nemaha countians in the air corp were found in the 1939 issues of Seneca area paper.

Want Forty Men for the Air Corps

Recruiting activities to strengthen the national defense hit a new high in Wichita recently when Major L. D. Bogan, army recruiting officer, issued a call for 40 men for the air corps in California.

This is the largest order for air corps men yet made through the Wichita office. the call, authorized by General Bishop,, commandant of the Seventh Corps Area at Omaha was for men for Moffet Field, California.

The men must be recruited by September 26th or 27th, Major Bogan said, because they must report at Moffet Field not later than September 30th.

Major Bogan said application for the 40 select positions among the best in any branch of Uncle Sam’s fighting services will be taken commencing September 15.

Courier Tribune (Seneca, KS) September 18, 1939 page 2

Max Millen, youngest son of Mrs. Bertha Millen, Seneca, has joined the army air corps at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Max has been employed in Blackwell, Oklahoma for some time and likes his new work and his associates.

Courier Tribune (Seneca, KS) August 28, 1939 page 3

May Go to Air Corps

Walter Lancaster, son of Mr. and Mrs. Mel Lancaster of Oneida was one of six recruits for the U.S. army air corps sent from Topeka to Ft. Riley for a final examination, which, if passed will permit them to go to Moffet Field, California for training.

Courier tribune (Seneca, KS) September 28, 1939 page 7

1939 ROTC

The following was found in a Seneca area paper about the military rank and assignments for three young Nemaha county men after serving in the R.O.T.C. at the University of Kansas.

Three students in the University of Kansas from Seneca have been appointed second lieutenants in the Officers’ Reserve Corps of the United States Army, it is announced by Col. Karl F. Baldwin, in command of the R.O.T.C. at the University. Vincent Carl Rethman, a senior in the School of Engineering, has been appointed to the Chemical Warfare Reserve; Lester Anthony Haug, also a senior in the School of Engineering, has been appointed to the Coast Artillery Reserve and Omer Funk, a graduate, has been appointed to the Infantry Reserve.

Courier Tribune (Seneca, KS) May 8, 1939 page 3

1939 Navy Boys

Part 2

The following tidbits of local news regarding Nemaha men who served in the U.S. Navy in 1939.

Andrew J. Herold in Civil Service in Hawaii

Were it not for the old home paper the old home town would lose track of many old home town boys. It is the business of the newspaper to keep the reading public informed so far as it can. Those who have news of old home town boys should aid in this matter.

Old home town boy, Andrew J. Herold, is now in the Hawaiian Islands, stationed at Honolulu where he is an electrical engineer in the navy. Andrew has civilian civil service rating. He and his wife, went to the Islands about May 1st. this is work for which he always has had a bent and suits him much better than former employment with REA.

Courier Tribune (Seneca, KS) June 26, 1939 page 2

Joe Schon, 20, son of Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Schon, Lincoln and grandson of Mrs. C. D. Hinkley of Bern has joined the navy and is now in California.

Courier tribune (Seneca, KS) July 10, 1939 page 5

Mr. and Mrs. Fred Baugh are looking forward to a visit from their son, Bob, who is in the navy and has been stationed near Honolulu for the past six months.

Courier Tribune (Seneca, KS) July 13, 1939 page 8

Mrs. Alta Robertson Elliott and her husband, R. H. Elliott live in apartment five at 3835 Third avenue, San Diego. Mr. Elliott is employed in air mechanical service at the Navy station on North Island.

Courier Tribune (Seneca, KS) July 27, 1939 page 4

Reuben Bieri, U.S. Navy, reached Seneca last night on a 20-day leave.

Courier Tribune (Seneca, KS) August 14, 1939 page 3

Kenneth Grigsby, Kansas City, wrote his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Claude Grigsby that he is thinking seriously of rejoining the Navy in which he served four years but did not “ship over” after his term expired in the spring of ’38. Kenneth is employed in the Sears Roebuck store in Kansas City.

Courier Tribune (Seneca, KS) September 21, 1939 page 8