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The Laurel Advocate of Oct. 3, 1945, reported Merlin Yost, the first Highway Patrolman based in Laurel, submitted his resignation.
Yost said he planned to go into business with his father who operated a Ford dealership in Sutton. His replacement was James Kantos, a recently discharged veteran of the Army Air Corps.
The war was over but the government was still begging for money.
The Victory Loan Campaign ran from Monday, Oct. 29 through Dec. 8. This campaign, according to County War Finance Chairman S.D. Thornton Jr., would be the last time Nebraskans would be asked to buy bonds.
Money was needed to bring American soldiers home and provide for their care. Money also was needed to help rebuild war-torn Europe.
Cedar County’s quota was set at $372,000 plus another $180,000 in series E bonds. Of this amount, the people of Hartington were expected to contribute $37,300, while Coleridge was on the hook for $18,000 and Laurel was expected to contribute $22,500.
To help promote bond sales, a special train visited 40 of the 48 states. The Victory Bond Special carried military equipment from all branches of the service as well as captured German and Japanese material, and was manned by war veterans. Although the train passed through Nebraska, it stayed on the main transcontinental line and did not venture into this part of the state.
Hunting season got underway in October and birds were not the only victims. Roman Albrecht, 26, and Ignatius Tramp, 42, drowned when their boat overturned on the Missouri river while on a duck hunting expedition.
Frank Tramp, the 73-year-old father of Ignatius, managed to get a grip on the overturned boat and drifted about a mile and a half downstream before he was able to paddle to shore with his hands. Albrecht had been married only seven weeks. On June 18, 1946, a baby girl was born to Mrs. Albrecht. The baby was named Romaine Theresa in honor of the father she never knew.
The war on pheasants opened with a bang, and the pheasants seemed to be getting the best of the engagement.
There weren’t many birds due to the cold and wet spring. The wet weather was ideal for weeds, however, and cover was more dense than it had been in many years.
Hunters reported it was almost impossible to flush the birds without a good hunting dog.
One good hunting dog was Laurel’s first casualty of pheasant season. “Butch,” the family pet and part time hunting dog of the Jack Fennell family, was accidentally shot and killed while hunting with Mr. Fennell and Dr. Embick. “All the kids on the block are in tears,“ said the Advocate.
Congressman Karl Stefan reported Congress had repealed “war time” (daylight savings time). Stefan said war time, which had been established in January 1942, was supposed to increase industrial production and save electricity and coal. War time was popular in cities, he said, but the benefits were more than offset by the hardships imposed elsewhere, particularly among farmers. “We are back on civilized time once more,“ said Laurel Advocate Editor Allison. “It sure caused a lot of trouble in these parts and we are glad to be rid of it.“ The kids don’t have to go to school in the dark and farmers can get back to a sane schedule. The funniest thing we heard about the changeover is that Doc Embick got to church two hours ahead of time. He thought church started an hour earlier and then he forgot to change his clock. So he went blissfully to church only to find out he was two hours too early to pass the collection plate.
Johnny Sullivan, the three-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. James Sullivan, was critically injured in a freak accident. The Sullivan’s were on their way to Sioux City where Mrs. Sullivan was to enter a hospital. Somewhere between Jackson and South Sioux City, Johnny managed to open a door while the car was traveling 50 miles an hour. He fell out and fractured his skull when he hit the pavement.
When Mr. Sullivan realized what happened he returned to find his son in the care of a truck driver who had stopped.
The boy was loaded into the Sullivan car and taken to a hospital where both he and his mother were treated. Johnny must have had a pretty hard head because he made a full recovery, played football in high school, and graduated in 1960.
