Memories of World War l were fresh in the minds of Kewaunee County residents when less than 20 years later conscription started all over again. In 1939 there were quotas to be met, quotas set in Washington D.C. There were some who enlisted, but most were drafted during a time when the U.S. was gearing up for war that had not been declared.
Then came December 7, 1941 and the attack at Pearl Harbor, followed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Declaration of War on Japan. Two days later Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S., a declaration met with Roosevelt's own the next day.
In the years following the first World War, residents knew how much Kewaunee County had sacrificed, maybe more than many others. During World War l, county men were exceptionally physically fit, but in less than 20 years that changed. When drafting started in 1939, many were rejected as unfit. No doubt changes in vision, hearing and other standards made part of the difference.
Men throughout the country were issued numbers, and numbers drawn in Washington indicated the order in which men would be called. Number 258 was the number everybody was glad they didn't have. It was still fresh in memory from the last war. Drawings in Washington for 21 year olds meant that Vernon Hearley and Francis Makovec were Kewaunee County's first 21 year old draftees. Ironically, while the men were being drafted in 1939, county men who served in World War l were being awarded their Purple Hearts. Those from Algoma included Louis Kirchman, C.A. Lidral, C.W. Zastrow, Urban Kashik, Quiren Groessl, Clarence Capelle, Joseph Guillette, Frank Havel, Auggie Wasserbach, Anton Weisner, Fred Zastrow and George Jorgenson.
Algoma Record Herald office was a designated U.S. Navy "sub-station." It had the necessary information which also pointed out that education, all food and lodging, a set of clothing, and free sports and entertainment that included new movies were provided to those who joined the Navy. All that plus free travel. According to the information supplied, the Navy was "better than civilian life."
The U.S. didn't have much of a military when things exploded in Europe in 1914. When it entered the war in 1917, there still wasn't much of a military and men were sent to the battlefields of Europe with very little training. That was changing even before Pearl Harbor.
As Kewaunee County men were inducted, there was usually a little send-off at the courthouse. When Algoma attorney J.H. McGowan spoke to the departing men, he must have been thinking about Abraham Lincoln's words, "We cannot escape history." McGowan told the men that "perhaps" within their lifetime, there would be a time when they would not see soldiers marching off. And that was 75 years ago! McGowan said that he wasn't one of those afraid that "Hitler is coming over here" and went on to say that preparedness would have saved the U.S. from "trouble" in the last war. He told the inductees how he saw local men, including his own son, leave totally untrained. He told them that unlike the last war they were enroute to training and schooling. He told them that European allies agreed that Americans paid such a high price in World War l because there was such lack of proper training. He went on to say that future regular military training was probably going to be "part and parcel" of necessity. McGowan probably would not have agreed with General George Patton who said, "War is the only place where a man truly lives."
The public spirited James McGowan was an Algoma attorney who also served as mayor. McGowan had interesting beginnings as a rural school teacher at Ryan, at the age of 17. He entered law in Green Bay in 1892 and was admitted to the bar in 1894. As Algoma's Ward l supervisor to the county board, McGowan was elected for his first term as chairman in 1912. He continued to serve on a number of committees at the local and county level and served as Food Administrator during World War l. McGowan died in 1942 and never lived to see his vision of the day when young men were no longer marching off to war.
Sources: Information comes from Algoma Herald and Algoma Record, Kewaunee County Board files found at the ARC at UW-GB, and Commercial History of Algoma, WI c. 2006. The World War l soldier photo is one from the blogger's family..
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