Joy Neal Kidney's Blog, page 71

2nd Lt. Dale Ross Wilson

These next few were written for the Stories Behind the Stars website, which plans to remember every WWII fallen. They provided training and a certain format, including footnotes for your research. They even offered to link them to Leora’s Letters: The Story of Love and Loss for An Iowa Family During World War II, but in order to do that I’d need to join something else.

By then, I was finishing up the manuscript for Leora’s Dexter Stories: The Scarcity Years of the Great Depression and was exasperated by trying to jump through all their hoops and gave up. So I’ll post them here.

2nd Lt. Dale Ross Wilson

MIA Over Wewak, New Guinea, DOD

2nd Lt. Dale R. Wilson was born on May 13, 1921, in Stuart, Guthrie County, Iowa. His father, Claiborne Daniel Wilson, and mother, Leora Frances Goff Wilson, were born and raised in Guthrie County, Iowa. His father was a farmer and raiser of championship Duroc Jersey hogs. Dale had two older brothers, who served in the US Navy during the Great Depression and WWII, and two younger brothers, who were also lost during the war. He also had two sisters, one of them his twin.

Dale used the bounty money to buy a pair of shoes for his mother, Leora. She’d cut cardboard to cover holes in the soles of hers. He had money left over for his senior class ring and photo.

Dale Wilson grew up during the Great Depression in and around Dexter, Iowa, where he played football, was on a county championship basketball team, and graduated from Dexter High School in 1939. He farmed with his father and brothers, tenant farmers near Minburn, Iowa, when the war broke out. Dale enlisted in the US Army Air Force in May 1942.

Basic Training was at Santa Ana, CA, in mid 1942. Primary Cadet Training was at Hancock Field, Santa Maria, CA. Basic Training was at Gardner Field, CA, at the end of 1942. Advanced at Roswell, NM, graduating in the Class of 43-B. Transition Training was in B-25s at Greenville, SC. 

2nd Lt. Wilson was the copilot of a new B-25 which flew from the West Coast, island-hopping to Australia in August 1943, for Tactical Training with the 5th Air Force. He was assigned to the 823rd Bomb Squadron of the 38th Bomb Group based, at 17-Mile Field, Port Moresby, New Guinea, in October 1943. 

On November 27, 1943, his B-25 was lost on a mission to Wewak, New Guinea, crashing into the sea near Wewak/Boram. Eye witnesses saw the plane crash.

Dale’s parents received information from three people on the West Coast who had heard a shortwave broadcast March 24, 1944, naming Dale Wilson as a POW of the Japanese. It was never confirmed. 

His official Declaration of Death was set for January 15, 1946, which was well after the war was over. Dale Wilson was survived by his parents, two brothers and two sisters. His father would die of a stroke and a broken heart that October. 

Five Wilson brothers served in the war. Only two came home. Dale Wilson is one of the three young pilots who lost their lives during the war. His parents had a cenotaph added to the family burial plot at Violet Hill Cemetery in Perry, Iowa, to remember sons Dale and Daniel. Only God knows where Lt. Dale Wilson’s remains lie today, and those of the five other men on the crew that day. 

All five Wilson brothers are remembered on the Dallas County Freedom Rock at Minburn, Iowa. 

He is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing, Manila American Cemetery, Philippines.

His family was never awarded his Purple Heart until his niece, Joy Neal Kidney, requested it.

Sources: 

Joy Neal Kidney has copies of Dale Wilson’s 293 (Casualty) File, Missions Reports, Pilot’s Log Book, letters sent home, telegrams sent to his parents, newspaper clippings.  Pacific Wrecks  Leora’s Letters: The Story of Love and Loss for One Iowa Family During World War II Stories about Dale R. Wilson  Findagrave   Manila American Cemetery 

The Great Depression Era for Kids

Some of the most satisfying books about the Great Depression have been these two written for kids.

The Great Depression for Kids

by Cheryl Mullenbach

This is a great resource for any age. It includes a timeline and several pages about the Roaring Twenties to set the stage for the Great Depression.

In addition to photographs, there are activities from playing the stock market to interviewing “an elder.” In the back are websites to explore, notes–chapter by chapter, a great bibliography, plus an index.

What sets this book apart is the addition of several activities to enhance learning about the era.

Cheryl Mullenbach

The author is a former history teacher and librarian, and has authored several other books.

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Children of the Great Depression

by Russell Freedman

Winner of the 2005 Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction

Russell Freedman

Featuring the fine pictures from photographers hired by the Farm Security Administration of FDR’s New Deal, this narrative of the Great Depression is a great resource for any age. It includes Chapter Notes, a Selective Bibliography, and an Index.

Cheryl Mullenbach is also an endorser for Leora’s Dexter Stories: the Scarcity Years of the Great Depression.

Soldiers’ Stories: A Collection of WWII Memoirs, Volume II

The Book

For over five years the Miller Family, Myra Miller, PhD, Ken Miller, Del Miller, Marshall Miller, and Lynette Miller Ballard, have zealously gathered memoirs of World War II servicemen and servicewomen. In 2016 they published Soldiers’ Stories: A Collection of WW II Memoirs. Now, on the 75th anniversary of the end of the war, they have given us a second volume. Were it not for the Miller Family, most of these stories would not have seen the light of day. Tom Brokaw popularized the phrase “The Greatest Generation.” Read the stories and you will see why the title is deserved by all 16 million men and women who served so proudly.

Here are the mysteries of courage, the terrors of violence, and the cruelties and coincidences of war. Here, also, are reminders of the humorous events and day-to-day life of those war years. Our first book collected stories our father told us and accounts of other WWII veterans. More narratives demanded a second volume. History is alive. As any veteran will tell you, our future depends on the choices we make now, choices based on our understanding of the past and the meaning of war. Each person’s story speaks of the precious gift of life and our common humanity beyond national borders.

My Thoughts

I was so taken by the first handsome volume of soldiers stories that I submitted stories for this one. The Wilson family story is laid out so well across eleven pages of this treasure. Five brothers served. Only two came home.

There are nine more pages of information about the Wilson family.

The second edition of the book also includes two pages of my dad, Warren Neal. There are two of his brother, Willis Neal, who flew over “the Hump.” My mother’s cousin, Merrill Goff, is also featured.

There are stories of men and women from every branch of the service, some who survived, some who did not. The memoirs are written by the veterans themselves, by family members, or interested friends. There are stories about the Manhattan Project, Red Cross workers, Rosie the Riveter, men who have adopted the overseas graves of American fallen, even one who found dog tags in Belgium and did the research to find family members. One veteran is honored by memories of his 12-year-old great grandson. Michelle Obama’s grandfather’s service is also documented.

As a follower of G. P. Cox’s Pacific Paratrooper website, I was delighted to find four pages dedicated to WWII stories of his father.

Everett “Smitty” Smith, first of four pages

This superbly crafted oversized volume of personal histories would be a fine gift for any history or World War II enthusiast.

Copies autographed by all five Miller siblings may be ordered directly from them.

More Our American Stories: The Periwinkle Quilt

The photo was taken on the clothesline at Mom’s farm, with the granery in the background.

This eight-minute story was first aired March 30, 2021.

 

Stuart Bank Robbery Attempt 100 Years Ago–Nightwatchman Killed

Yeggmen, as The Guthrian called them, had stolen a Hudson six in Des Moines from in front of the Orpheum Theater the night of March 29, 1921.

In the middle of the same night, five men ordered breakfast at Stuart’s Princess Cafe, where train crewmen also ate at odd hours. Then they broke into a shed at the Rock Island coal chute, stole a pickax, a sledge, and a chisel which they used to break into the Stuart bank.

At 4:15 that morning, nightwatchman, John Kerr Myers, walking through the alley south of the bank, came upon some of the gang and attempted to arrest them. 

A gunfight broke out.

Even though the thugs had cut several nearby phone wires, a woman living over the harness shop, awakened by gunfire, had her son ring up “central.” 

Soon the town was roused by the fire whistle.

Finding Mr. Myers wounded, local men took him to a hospital. The would-be robbers didn’t get any cash before they were discovered, but one of three bullets that had hit Mr. Myers severed an artery in his leg. He died at 8:30 that morning.

Stuart men formed a posse and notified surrounding towns of the attempted robbery, also Sheriff C.C. Kennedy of Guthrie County, the Polk County Sheriff, and the Des Moines police department.

According to The Stuart Herald, the town had organized a Vigilance Committee for the purpose of “helping to suppress the wave of crime prevailing in the county.” 

A bullet had pierced the radiator of the getaway car. Racing to Des Moines, the criminals stopped at Jungman’s farm near Earlham for gas, and for water for the radiator.

When the black Hudson sped through Van Meter, several men fired shots at it. The car, with bullet holes in it and blood stains on the seats and floor, was found in Des Moines later that morning in a shed in an alley between Locust and Walnut, west of Ninth.

Clabe Wilson was hired as the new nightwatchman, staring pay $73.60 per month. Soon a second man was added.

The town provided a .32 caliber revolver, but Wilson didn’t trust it. Instead, he carried a sawed off shotgun with buckshot and a .45 caliber pistol of his own. When he practiced with his guns north of town, he often took young Delbert and Donald with him.

The State of Iowa offered a $500 reward for the arrest and conviction of the men who tried to rob the bank. The First National Bank of Stuart put up the same amount, and the Guthrie County Bankers’ Association offered $1000 “for the arrest and conviction of the men who murdered Nightwatchman, J. K. Meyers.”

On May 12, John Watters was arrested for the murder of Mr. Myers. The next day Wilsons’ twins, Dale and Darlene, were born.

A second suspect, Dave Masters, was arrested in July. Only the two men were bound over to the grand jury in October, charged with murder in the first degree, and with breaking and entering.

The State asked for the death penalty. Clabe Wilson rode the Liza Jane branch train with other Stuart citizens to watch the trial. In spite of over three dozen witnesses for the State, after 27 hours of deliberation, the jury acquitted both men.

The judge announced that the two still faced breaking and entering charges. They paid $3000 bond each and rode off in a Cadillac with one man’s wife, mother, and sister. . . and the other’s girlfriend.

Were they ever convicted of breaking and entering?

When young Delbert Wilson watched his father go up the street at night, he worried. But he was also proud of him–carrying a gun and wearing a badge.

And all the kids at school knew who his dad was.

—–

Donald, Delbert, Dale and Darlene, Doris–Clabe and Leora Wilson’s children, later in 1921, Stuart, Iowa

 

Comfort Bird

I noticed carvings in the background of a photo of Gary Knox’s apartment and asked about them. I could tell that they are award-worthy but, in all the years he’s been carving, he hasn’t entered any of them in the Iowa State Fair or anywhere else.

A smaller carving was in front of a photo of Gary and his late wife Verdeen. It looked like a small plain bird. I asked about it. He called it a comfort bird.

What pleasing simplicity. When he first heard about them, he looked up different designs, then made his own. He later asked if I’d like one. I didn’t realize he still did wood working. I was delighted, and asked if he’d walk me through the steps he does to make one.

I looked up “comfort birds” and found dozens of designs and even poems about them. What a wonderful idea to have something attractive, smooth, and just the right size to hold when you need it.

Catalpa is a pretty blond tone and has an nice grain to it. After a trial run with a practice chunk of wood, Gary sawed, chiseled, sculped, and sanded it into the shape he wanted. Then gave it a nice glaze.

My bird rests in a nest similar to Gary’s, although his sits on a bit of his daughter’s tatting.

He also sent a Ziploc bag with the wood shavings. As the daughter of a wood-worker, I love the scent of wood shavings.

He admitted that there’s something about the comfort bird that may just be more satisfying than his more intricate feathered feats.

I agree. And it’s nearly as comforting to glance at as it is to hold it.

The carver at work

Women’s History Month: Doris (Wilson) Neal, Written by her Grandson

Grandma Doris Neal

By Dan Kidney

(1995)

I never wondered what my grandma’s childhood was like or why she was so optimistic. Even during my early teens, my image of “Granny” was still limited to childhood memories.

When I was in high school, my mom said that Grandma ought to write her memoirs. This struck me as odd. I had never considered Grandma in a historical context – she was just my mother’s mother, the lady with the cat and the cheerful smile.

As a child, I eagerly accepted Grandma’s company and the sugar-coated foods she offered. When I visited her Dexter farm, she always had a bowl of malted milk balls or jelly beans easily accessible to my young hands. (She still does.) Grandma cooked real chocolate pudding and memorable holiday dinners complete with to-die-for dinner rolls.

She enjoyed coming to soccer games and plays that I was in. Her optimism showed through in everything she did. Perhaps the most obvious examples are the names of my mother and my aunt, Joy and Gloria.

I’m glad I had such an idealistic image of my grandma Doris Neal for so long. She was the perfect grandmother–supportive of me and ageless. But the image changed when I asked mom why she thought Grandma should write her memoirs. I grew up a little when she told me.

Mom told how Grandma, then Doris Wilson, was born in a little wooden house during the First World War, the third of [ten] children. Her family moved more than 20 times after losing land during a slump in farm prices after the war and during the Depression.

The Depression was not kind to her family. Whooping cough took the lives of the baby twins, leaving seven children. When I learned how responsible Grandma had felt for her four younger siblings, my respect for her grew. They often ate squirrel or rabbit for dinner. At least once, they only had bread, brown sugar, and water for supper. She never got to go to college, although she got good grades.

Then came World War II. Grandma married a flight instructor who just as the war ended was a B-29 commander scheduled to fly missions over Japan. All five of her brothers served during the war and three never came home – a loss that devastated her family.

She had never let on about any of this to me. Over the months of thinking about Grandma’s history, I have developed a great respect for her.

This woman – who had gone through a lifetime of hard work, hardship, and loss, was the same Grandma who had cooked her special spaghetti for me and came to my choir concerts. She was the amiable grandma that I had always known but was only just now beginning to really see.

Dan enjoying his grandma’s spaghetti in her kitchen with Youngstown cupboards.

Grandma is still as good-natured as ever. We chat over our favorite soup at a local restaurant or play a quick game of cards or try to keep her farmhouse lawn under control. She doesn’t even grab the car’s seat cushions anymore when I take a corner a little too fast with her car.

Dan and his grandma, 1985.

And after all this time I have yet to hear a gloomy word from her. Those who deserve praise and respect are those who quietly endure under extreme circumstances and still manage to radiate joy to others. I believe my grandma is such a person. She continues to reinforce my belief by quiet example.

Published in The Des Moines Register, Friday, September 15, 1995.

Compelling Feedback for a Teacher and Mentor

Twice in one day I received notes about the far-reaching influence of a teacher on a man’s career. Here is another of them, shared anonymously:

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“I am assuming that . . .  you must be the [teacher] who taught me Math at [____] Senior High School. If so I would love to reconnect, although I am not super active on Facebook.

“You are one of the most influential people on my life. I went on to get a Math degree at Iowa State, but you getting me started on Computer Science was what defined my life, and I owe you a huge Thank You. I got a double major in Math and Computer Science at ISU, then went to UIUC (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign) for a Masters and 2 more years after that.

“I ended up working at Intel for 23 years. I guess my biggest claim to fame there was being a member of the Software Directors Council. About 40 people who made all the rules that all the 20,000 programmers at Intel had to follow when developing software. I was on a team of Parallel Programming experts led by David Kuck (you can find him on Wikipedia). The parallel programming tools we developed became critical when multicore processors came on the scene.

“Pixar (who made Toy Story and other computer rendered movies) had a huge server farm making those movies. We sent a team out there and sped up their process by 26 times using the same computers they already had. So a movie sequence that had taken 26 days of computing got done in one, which let them do higher quality image rendering.

“GE healthcare used us to speed up their MRI machines- so that the computing needed to create an MRI image could be done 8 times faster on the same machine. That meant it changed from ‘we will look at the MRI image tomorrow’ to ‘wait in the office, we’ll have the image in an hour.’ And the same multimillion dollar machine could now do 8 times as many images, making the costs go down a lot.

“So whether you realized it or not, You were a part of making those things happen. I have thought about you and Mr. [____] and Mr. [____] numerous times over the years, and more so now that I am retired.

The honored teacher with a student and a keypunch machine.

“Thank you for getting that keypunch for us and setting up the deal with Grinnell to let us run programs. That start got me a summer internship for two summers at Argonne National Labs. I was solving 10 variable differential equations on the computer for Physicists Analyzing Nuclear Reactor Safety. I needed both the Math and the Computer skills to do that.

“Thank You!”

Paul Marston: Teacher and Mentor–by Jerry O’Brien

Jerry O’Brien

I and many others were truly lucky to have Paul Marston as a teacher at Adel High in 1974.

Please allow me this little story to show an insight into this great man who changed my life for the better:

My assignment one week was to write a paper on Diogenes, famous in the ancient world for “searching for an honest man” with his lantern. I thought it would be an easy assignment, and sadly I cut corners and thought I would fool people easily by simply copying text directly from an encyclopedia and its bio on Diogenes. I changed a few words and before the assignment was due. Mr. Marston asked to see our work, one by one, to make sure everything was standing tall before we handed it in. I recall like yesterday how when it was my turn to come up beside his desk, to have him review the paper, I felt a little worried, as I did not know much about him. What if he caught the plagiarism?

So, as he reviewed the one page paper I could tell something was not right – some quiet tension in the air. He said something like – “Jerry, you know, as I read this, it is ok…but you may want to find other books in the library here that have information on Diogenes, and then put it all together. This reads a little generalized and seems like it only came from one source.”

And then he walked over and brought back the “D” encyclopedia from the corner in the room, this being the exact encyclopedia I had copied from. He opened the book at his desk, came to the bio of Diogenes. I still see the pen and ink drawing in my mind of Diogenes “looking for an honest man” with his lantern, the irony of the moment was not lost on me.

Then Mr. Marston’s greatness, gentleness, non-judgmental attitude came through, and he simply moved his finger along the bio in the encyclopedia and his other by my nearly word for word account. And he simply shut the encylopedia once the point was made and handed the paper back and smiled and said, “Yes, maybe just get a few more sources, put it all together as I know you can and bring it back in your voice, Jerry.”

Well, I was relieved he did not rake me over the coals. I went back to the library and reviewed 5 sources and wrote the new paper in my own words. I handed it in. It may have been one of the greatest lessons I ever learned – because I really loved writing and it taught me to always use my voice and search for the truth in every story.

It also showed me people are human – and make mistakes – and that a gentle nudge in the right direction – and a quiet word – is more powerful many times than a sledge.

I ended up writing for a living for a Fortune 6 corporation as a Director of Communications – and I still write for them to this day. Mr. Marston did his duty in the US Army and teaching and then returned to farming – as that is where I feel his truth and beauty were. I always admired him when I heard how he had gone back to the family farm. As it was just like the great Roman Cincinnatus – who led in the Army and then returned to farming.

Paul Marston in later years

I so appreciate the short intersection of our lives had. God bless him and his family – he is the type of person who has made us a better version of ourselves.

Dexter (Iowa) Essentially a College Town–Dexter Normal College

It’s been a surprise to learn that at one time, tiny Dexter, Iowa–with a population never over 800 citizens–used to be a university town.

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Building the three-story Dexter Normal School was started the fall of 1878, and was ready for use by fall or winter of 1879. The brick structure measured 57 by 67 feet with a half mansard roof, tower, and all modern improvements. It sits on about three acres of land at the north end of Marshall Street, in Allen’s addition near the public school building.

Heated by hot air pipes, the school cost $6000 to build. Benjamin J. Bartlett of Des Moines was the architect, and was erected by a stock company, comprising the businessmen of Dexter and farmers from Dallas, Guthrie, Adair, and Madison Counties.

The main building was a fine, three-story brick structure, fully equipped for educational work of the highest efficiency, according to publications, and provided with all the necessary modern educational methods. On the first floor of the building shown was the physical culture rooms, the laboratory and the offices devoted to the business department. The second floor held the rooms for recitation, a library, and college offices. The chapel hall, the art studio, the conservatory of music, and the musical practice rooms were on the third floor.

The dormitory was large and commodious, where the students enjoy all the comforts of home life. A large steam plant furnished heat to all the rooms. In the dining hall, the students sat down daily to excellent fare, in company with the president and seven other members of the faculty, who made it their home.

Six Different Courses of Study

Six different courses were included in the college curriculum–a Normal course, a Classical course, a Literary and Scientific course, a Business department, and departments of Music and Art.

The Normal course was one of the strongest in the college, and “much thought and time has been employed in its arrangement. It covers three school years of forty-four weeks each. The teachers in this department are all graduates of good normal schools, and special attention is paid to psychology and methodology.”

The Classical course also required three years to complete, but students were allowed to take advanced classes when, upon examination, they were found sufficiently advanced. This was also true of the Literary and Scientific course.

The Business department “fully prepared its graduates for business life, affording very full teaching in theory, as well as a very large amount of practice in accordance with the best modern methods.” The conservatory of music was modeled after the “best and most progressive institutions of the kind in the country.”  The art department, under the direction of competent instructors, taught drawing of all kinds, specializing in oil and water color painting.

Dexter Essentially a College Town

No Evil Influences to Counter-act the Good Ones of the School

Although the college was entirely non-sectarian, every member of the faculty was a member of some church. “All persuasive influences are employed to have the students attend some church during their residence at the college.” Dexter was essentially a college town, in which there were “no evil influences to counter-act the good ones of the school. Viewing the institution from every standpoint there are few schools in the country more desirable, and parents and guardians seeking a suitable college for educating their children should write for a catalogue giving full particulars.”

According to Ron Howell, initially the curriculum included civil government, rhetoric, grammar, natural philosophy, arithmetic, orthography, didactics, algebra and vocal music. Students were housed on campus at the Bisbee Dormitory, or they could find off-campus housing for $2.24 per week.

Bisbee Dormitory. You can see the Normal College to the left.

The first commencement was held in 1883.

No names, no date.

From the 1890 Commencement Program, students were listed from Adel, Corning, Cottage, Correctionville, Danbury, Des Moines, Dexter, Earlham, Greenfield, Marne, Menlo, Maquoketa, Minburn, Newton, Redfield, Spencer, Shelby, Utica, Waukee, and Winterset.

In 1890, Dexter’s census was 607.

By 1892, enrollment neared 600 students, essentially doubling the town. The curriculum expanded by 1893, adding the departments for business, art, and music. The Normal department added sciences and mathematics. The curriculum also included Latin, Greek, French, and German.

Positions are Secured for Worthy Graduates

But by 1895, the Dexter Normal School was no longer active. The building was demolished in 1905 to make room for a new high school on the same site.

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Sources: Clipping from an 1893 Homestead publication, thanks to Byron Weesner.

1968 Dexter Centennial History pages 21 and 22.

“Normal College” by Ron Howell in the Rural Schools of Madison County, Iowa FB page, 2017.