The Courier Tribune
31 Oct 1940
page 1
The Wheel of Fortune Spins
For Registrants
Determine Draft Order — No. 1 in Nemaha Is Ivan Bryant, Wetmore
The wheel of fortune spins — and where — it stops nobody knows.
The wheel is spinning in the United States for some 17 million young men. It started when Congress decreed that they should register for possible military service. Then came the registration; then the spin which gave each man in the county a serial number. Tuesday of this week came the whirl that determined the order in which men will behandled by the local draft board for filling Uncle Sam’s quotas.
There will be many turns of the wheel. Questionnaires will be sent to the registrants, in teh order that master numbers were drawn at Washington. Then men will be classified. There will be many who for one reason or another will not be placed in Class One. As numbers are passed when a quota of men fromt eh county is being filled, the wheel will thus point to numbers father and farther down the list.
Other circumstances will affect the wheel, too. The matter of quotas is one that has not been fully figured. When the army determines the number of men it will induct at a certain date, there will be state quotas. Consideration will be given to the men each state already has in Uncle Sam’s service. It is expected this deduction will be broken into counties. There may be but few men in the first calls from Nemaha county for that reason.
No. 1 from Wetmore
The above paragraphs were written Friday morning as introductory while the nation was awaiting to hear the report of first numbers drawn in the national lottery at Washington.
First number taken was No. 158.
In Nemaha County No. 158 is held by Ivan Harold Bryant of Wetmore, who thus becomes No. 1 on the county’s order number. No. 2 was Leo J. Spielman of Baileyville.
It will take a little time for the county draft board to figure the order numbers, for this reason. Whenever a number was drawn that was higher than the number registered in this county, it did not apply. The first number selected which did fit into the county list became its next order number.
The county draft board, too, will wait official notice from Washington concerning the draft numbers. The radio and press dispatches do not form an official list.
The Order Not Yet Exact
Daily newspapers attempt to give the order numbers of some of the men in their locality but it cannot be understood how this can be done with exactness.
There are original registration cards yet floating over the country, from men who registered away from home. These must still be given local serial numbers as they are received by their boards. The Nemaha county board assigned numbers to a group yesterday and there may still be a few cards out. Thus it is not definite just what will be NEmaha county’s highest serial number. The end stands now at No. 1689. Let us suppose a person is following the order in which the numbers were drawn nationally and comes upon
column 2
the number 1695. If the Nemaha list reaches 1695, that serial number will became an order number for Nemaha county; if not, the next order number will go to the next serial number drawn which was within the Nemaha list.
However, if Nemaha county does reach a 1695, the effect would be only to add that number tot he order list and shove the order numbers below it one lower. It is the last of the first 100 numbers which apparently apply to Nemaha county:
Order Numbers 1-10
158 Ivan Harold Bryant We
192 Leo John Spielman Ba
105 Harvey Elmer Hittle Sa
188 William Zery Murphy Ce
120 Lawrence Joseph Schmidt Sa
846 John Joseph Rilinger Se
161 Vernet Harry Randel Co
14 James Edward Wilcox Ba
57 Archie LeRoy Swogger Be
153 Alphia Henry Aberle Sa
Order Numbers 11-20
19 Paul Raymond Mathewson Se
766 Aloysius Fredr’s Otting Se
172 Leslie Gordon Tate Se
126 Lee William Henry Sa
187 James Oliver McCoy On
167 Wilbur James Grimm On
1369 Earnest Shumaker We
162 Bernard J Dalinghaus Ba
147 Donald Charles Wood Sa
1300 Arthur Louis Becker Se
Order Numbers 21-30
1355 Raymond N. Buser We
689 Lorenzo Dale Fletchall sa
1295 Lee Cocran Ce
1234 Gilbert C. Ridgway Se
31 Herman Jacob Engel We
156 Kenneth Sherman Taylor Ba
676 Gerald John Wempe Se
112 Aloysius August Steinlage Co
185 Emil Kenneth Haug Se
1362 Frederick Henry Keehn Go
Order Numbers 31-40
108 Lloyd W Frederickson Co
109 Albert Francis Olberding Se
1443 Marin Richard Ford We
184 Roland August Surdez Ce
116 Alphonse Joseph Holthaus Se
174 Cletus John Engelken Se
131 Raymond Lenord Sweet Co
125 James Patrick O’Toole Ax
138 Arthur R. Hartter Sa
142 Edward John Vogel Be
Order Numbers 41-50
166 Orval Merland Bryant We
135 Max Elvin Gutknecht Sa
183 James Catlet Kelley Sa
148 Anthony Aloyoius Deters Ba
198 Louis William Wiegers Se
139 Thomas Morse Reed Ci
146 Moses Edelman Sa
6 Cyril Francis Olberding Ba
122 Robert John Haug Ve
83 Wilbur Louis Roeder Ba
Order Numbers 51-60
280 Walter Stauffer On
169 Vincent Frank Wessel Ba
1398 Gerald Edwin Wiggins Go
145 Raymond Clarence Shaffer So
9 George Darrel Hawley So
765 Bernard F Runnebaum Se
121 Ferdinand Henry Niehues Go
625 Sylvester Joseph Wietharn Ba
181 Edward John Hasenkamp Ax
1305 William Joseph Flaherty Ha
Order Numbers 61-70
660 Elmer Walter Allen Co
702 Willis Eugene Barnes Ve
86 LeRoy Hunzeker Be
114 Raymond Hudson Weaver We
136 Raymond A. Ronnebaum Se
820 Bernard Aloysius Becker Se
228 Merle Vernon Chase Sa
612 Roy Yens Gustin Ce
231 Rolland Paul Grote Sa
1421 Elmer Wagner Go
Order Numbers 71-80
203 Orlo Henry Drinkwater Ce
196 Austin Willard Vogel Sa
21 Emet Francis Hightower Ce
165 Herman Arthur Beyreis Se
768 Joseph Hiald Moore Go
747 Eugene Frans Showman Sa
159 Anthony Francis Speilman Ce
79 William Kenneth Rucker We
681 Floyd Emerson Downing Sa
782 Boyd Robert Cawood We
Order Numbers 81-90
1476 David Meyer Sa
678 Odilo John Koelzer Ba
78 Floyd Iven Baumgartner On
45 Harry GIlmore Whittle, JR Sa
25 Roy Meyer Be
609 Louis Ross Warfel Sa
603 Norbert A. Stallbaumer Se
154 Virgil Vernon Bumgarner On
1428 Raymond W. Rasmussen Be
77 Francis John Block Se
Order Numbers 91-100
160 Ruben Stauffer On
764 Rahael G Stallbaumer Ax
666 Emil Roy Edelman Sa
190 Asia LeRoy Turpin Go
210 Paul Leon Irwin Sa
1431 Kenneth edgar Hall Sa
67 Louis LeRoy Dannevik Ce
107 Melvin Lester Deaver Sa
37 John Jordan Barrett On
180 Robert Goodrich Wilson Se
His Number Was Lost
Elmer J. Brinker, Winterscheidt grain elevator manager, recently married, came near losing out in the draft drawing. His number 1033 was one of the missing eight numbers at the end of the drawing. Numbers missed, completing a list of 9,000 were put into a fish bowl a half hour after the main drawing. Brinker’s order number is near the end, 8998.
His Number Called
Leo Spielman of Baileyville was given the serial number 192 in Nemaha county in the selective service registration. The number of course, stuck in his mind and last week at the Catholic bazaar, Seneca, he made use of it. He took home a quilt, one which was made, by the way, by his brother-in-law, Joe Kramer, and quilted by ladies of the church.
In Tuesday of this week, the national drawing for the draft order was held. Second number drawn was 192.
To Help with the Draft Questions
A County-Wide Service for Registrants
There are numerous boards in connection with the selective service system. One of those which will function soon will be the advisory board. The work of this board is to assist the registrant in filling the questionnaire which he will receive form the government, if the registrant wishes such assistance.
Ray, Eley, Seneca, is a member of the advisory board for this judicial district. These men have been named as association members:
Seneca — John D. Cunningham, Clifford W. Baldwin, Harry A. Lanning, e. A. Grollmes, Dan Dreiling.
Centralia — Ed. Drumma and Ray Condit
Corning — B. J. Clemens and John G. Robinson
Goff — A. H. Fitzwater and E. E. Holston
Wetmore — Edgar W. Campbell and S. E. Thornburrow
Oneida — John Sparling and W. H. Moore
Sabetha — Michael Seltzer, J. L. Haley, M. F. Mock, Drax Burke
Bern — Geo W. Hofmann, Frank L. Craig
Baileyville — J. A. Heiman
Added Serial Numbers
Here are more of the Nemaha county serial numbers, added to the first lists. These names were added from absentee registration cards which have been in transit and have reached the county board only within the past few days. It is repeated that these are county serial numbers – not the draft order numbers.
1675 Noel Franics Young Sa
1676 Asa Robert Campbell Sa
1677 Clifford Fred Wissler Se
1678 Robert Melvin Lowe Sa
1679 Vincent Henry Kongs Se
1680 Roland Wesly Harmon Se
1681 Gale Edward Gakle Sa
1682 Wilmer Henry Nelson Be
1683 Lawrence Earl Scott Sa
1684 Lawrence B. Labbe Ona
1685 Felix Walter Rilinger Se
1686 Ivan Robert Wissler Se
1687 Albert Joseph Ketter Go
1688 Hugh Ashley Mitchell Sa
1689 Frederic B Emery Se
