.jpg)
Christmas 1945 must have been a stressful time in the Albert Hansen home.
Hansen was the night engineer at the light plant. Around 8:30 on the evening of Dec. 19, Marshal Frank Curtis stopped at the plant while making his evening rounds.
He found Mr. Hansen lying in a pool of blood near the west door of the engine room clutching a block of belt dressing in one hand.
Curtis called for help and Hansen was rushed to a Sioux City hospital by Bill Holm and Bill Chambers.
Hansen remained unconscious for several days and had no recollection of what happened when he came to. As he had been suffering from occasional bouts of dizziness for some time, it was thought he may have had a spell while applying dressing to one of the big belts in the plant. Somehow his hand became caught in the belt and he was thrown to the floor with such force his skull was fractured.
Hansen remained in the hospital until the latter part of January 1946. His recovery was slow and he was unable to attend the wedding of his daughter Glendora (Tootie) to Donald Brittell on March 24. But he eventually recovered and lived until 1977.
Another tragic accident occurred the same day. On Wednesday, Dec.
19, Ed Hokamp, who farmed south of Belden, came to Laurel to attend a sale in the Sale Barn.
On the way home, he crashed into the rear of one of Elmer Hattig’s trucks. The accident occurred 2 1/2 miles west of Laurel on Highway 20.
Hokamp was pinned in the wreckage, his chest crushed by the steering column. He was transported by ambulance to a Sioux City hospital but died along the way.
Herman Graf, who was in the car with Hokamp, was not seriously injured nor was Art Anderson, driver of the Hattig truck.
Hokamp’s brother Henry had recently purchased Chunk Iler’s pool hall on the corner of Main and Elm. He ran it for less than six months before selling it back to Iler and returning to farming. Hokamp would return to Laurel in 1969 but died a year later.
Maurice L. Christensen was hired to replace Miss Deirup who taught English and dramatics in the high school. Deirup tendered her resignation at the semester in order to get married. Christensen had just been discharged from the Navy where he had served as a fighter pilot. Before entering the service he was the Belden school superintendent.
Harold Martindale, district manager of the Cedar-Knox Public Power District, announced that the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) had approved a $260,000 loan to finance 250 additional miles of rural power lines in Cedar and Knox counties.
Martindale said he hoped most of the unelectrified farms in the two counties would have power by the end of 1946.
Alphonse Heine of Saint Helena was Cedar County’s champion in DeKalb’s national corn growing contest. Heine’s corn made 91.96 bushels per acre. The normal average yield was 35 bushels per acre.
Following the death of President Franklin Roosevelt in April 1945, America’s attitude toward the Soviet Union began to change.
Under Truman, there were no more glowing references to “Uncle Joe” Stalin. In the Dec. 5 issue of the Advocate, Congressman Karl Stefan answered some of the questions he had been asked about Russia: “No one in Russia owns land or a business. There is only one employer – the state. In Russia, you cannot change jobs or residence unless you secure permission.
There is only one political party.
The theater and radio industries are owned by the state. So are the newspapers. The agricultural system is a system of state landlordism. A peasant may have a small garden, a pig, and a few chickens, but he must work on a state owned farm. Communism is compulsory.
Millions of Russian political prisoners are in forced labor camps.
Russia wants Uncle Sam to give her the atomic bomb secrets and a $6 million loan.”
Communism: coming soon to a city near you?
America’s attitude toward another wartime ally seem to be changing as well. In the national news section of the Advocate of December 12, it was reported that Patrick Hurley, former ambassador to China, told Congress that a number of State Department diplomats had been siding with the Chinese communists against the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai Shek. Hurley said that several State Department officials had told the Communists they should not enter into a unified government with the Nationalists unless they (the Communists) retained military control.
Meanwhile, a congressional committee began investigating the Pearl Harbor catastrophe. Admiral James Richardson, former Commander-in Chief of the U.S.
Navy, testified that he had opposed Roosevelt’s order to move the Pacific fleet from San Diego to Pearl Harbor in 1940. Richardson said Pearl Harbor lacked security, had problems of supply as well as the berthing, entry and departure of large ships. For expressing his objections Admiral Richardson was relieved of command.
In a later session, Congress was informed on Dec. 3, 1941, the Navy had intercepted and decoded a message revealing Japan’s intent to wage war on the United States.
The so-called “Winds Message” was said to have been transmitted to the White House, the War and State departments, all of which failed to pass it on to the army. The charge could not be verified as all copies of the message had somehow disappeared from Navy files before the hearings began. Whether or not Roosevelt knew in advance of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor is still being debated.
Roger Tryon is a Laurel native and retired teacher, who has written a history column for the Laurel Advocate for over 30 years, now. Anyone with story ideas is encouraged to contact him at edwrdtryn@ aol.com
