Serial Numbers

Courier Tribune
24 Oct 1940

List Nemaha Serial Numbers for the Draft

Over 1600 names are in the County Roll

A Master List Will Be Chosen in Washington, D.C.
Tuesday to Determine Order in Which Local
Numbers Will Be Called

The Courier-Tribune prints today a list of names and numbers important to almost every home in Nemaha county. It is the list of men between ages of 21 and 36 who enrolled on Wednesday, October 16th, for possible service to their country, and with each man’s name, the county serial number which has been drawn for him by the local draft board.

The arrangement is by number rather than by names because numbers will be the important thing next Tuesday, October 29th, when a master list is to be drawn at Washington, D.C. to determine the order in which local numbers will be called. President Roosevelt will draw the first number.

All over the country, local registration boards have shuffled the cards of their registrants, drawn cards from the pile, and given each a local serial number, just as has been done in Nemaha county. It is expected the highest number of cards handled by any one board is approximately 7,500, so that the highest serial number is near that figure.

Numbers reaching to the highest serial number and past will be prepared at Washington and placed in capsules through which they cannot be read. The president, who will start the drawing, will select a capsule from the same goldfish bowl that was used in the World War draft.

If the number first drawn is 999, it will mean that the 999’s in each registration area all over the United States will be the first men to be asked to report for classification. The number is used only as an example. In Nemaha County it is held by Raymond Henry Dague, Wetmore.

Registrants and their families will want to hold onto this issue of the paper. It will be easy, with the list at hand, to check with the master list as it is announced from Washington.

Draftees get the results of a double system of chance: The cards were shuffled for drawing of local numbers. The national drawing will determine the order in which the numbers will be called.

The local drawing and listing was completed Tuesday except perhaps for a few straggling cards. The board officially posted the list yesterday and sent a copy to state headquarters. The Sabetha Herald and Courier-Tribune joined in setting the large amount of type necessary and the list is printed in the two papers. TO avoid running the type to still greater length, a key system is sued to abbreviate names of towns. Where two letters make the name of the town clear, only two are used. Seneca becomes Se; Sabetha Sa; Corning Co; Centralia Ce; Goff GO; Wetmore We; and Baileyville, Bern, Kelly, Havensville, Soldier, Pawnee, Axtell and other points are similarly abbreviated. Oneida and Onaga addresses required the use of Onei and Ona. The Nemaha County list follows:

1 Harold Bishop Ham We
2 Vincent Eugene Haug Ve
3 Sylvester Joseph Kongs Go
4 Wayne Max McCall We
5 Raymond Leonard Mooney Ce
6 Cyril Francis Olberding Ba
7 Maurice Anthony Gudenkauf Co
8 John Kenneth Kenworthy Ax
9 George Darrel Hawley So
10 Ray Elden Creed Be
11 Paul Albertus Johnson Se
12 Lester Eugene Noble On
13 Virgil Henry R Sires Go
14 James Edward Wilcox Ba
15 William Eberhard Rempe Co
16 Willard Bertram Alcorn Ba
17 Home Leland Cox Go
18 Walter Franklin Bryan Ce
19 Paul Raymond Mathewson Se
20 Benton Frank Luse Se
21 Emet Francis Hightower Ce
22 LeRoy Glen Myers Sa
23 John Wendell Tyler Sa
24 Albert Henry Meyer Sa
25 Roy Meyer Be
26 Fridolin August Boeding Se
27 Robert John Mitchell Ax
28 Merrill Orlin Wood Sa
29 Garrett Francis Gulhan, Jr So
30 Wilfred B. Stallbaumer Go
31 Herman Jacob Engel We
32 Wilbern Frances Oenbring Ba
33 Henry Armond Bachand Ba
34 Wilfred Michael Eisenbarth Go
35 Cyril Henry Holthaus Ce
36 Benedict William Schmidt Ba
37 John Jordan Barrett On
38 Harvard Judson Goodrich Se
39 Lawrence Anthony Huerter Ke
40 Howard Clinton Kreitzer Sa
41 Bert Henry Keim Sa
42 Clemenns Carl Sudbeck Se
43 Bernard Charles Oconner Ce
44 Delmer Arnold Fletchall Co
45 Harry Gilmore Whittle, Jr Sa
46 Daniel Frances Mitchell Ax
47 Howard Ignatius Gallagher Se
48 Robert Vincent Vardy Se
49 Peter William Schmits Ce
50 Lawrence August Weyer Ce