Another one bites the dust in September 1942

Another area newspaper bit the dust on August 27, 1942. Under the headline “Our Obituary,” Editor Bert Rumsey announced that he was suspending publication of the Belden Progress.

Rumsey said he had planned to make Belden his future home but lack of support from the public and the business community put him in the hole.

With less than $4.00 per week in advertising revenue and $350 due in unpaid subscriptions, Rumsey said he had no choice but to close the office. He said he would leave the printing equipment in place until he could either sell it or move it to another town. “I am a printer and know nothing about other work,” he said.

One might think Rumsey would be ready to retire as he was almost 73 years old. Instead he sold the Belden subscription list to R.R. Allison and went to work for the Advocate. Thus Belden joined Dixon and Concord on the list of towns without newspapers.

The Progress had been published for the past 48 years. In September the Advocate began running a column called “The Belden Advocate.” It was edited by Miss Marie Rumsey, daughter of the Belden editor. Due to failing health, the Rumsey family returned to Geneva, NE, in 1945. Shortly before the end of the war their son Judson died in a German prison camp. The Advocate seemed to be doing ok. The paper often ran 10-12 pages each week. But even then, Allison was being pinched by higher costs. There were three things that could be done, he said. Some news and features could be deleted to cut the size of the paper, raise the subscription price, or require subscribers to pay in advance. Allison said he would try the third option. Beginning Oct. 1, subscribers would have to pay cash in advance.

Sept. 1, brought a new mail schedule to Laurel. On Monday, Aug. 31, the Burlington passenger train made its last run on the Sioux City-O’Neill branch. That also was the end of railroad mail service on the line. On Tuesday, the mail that formerly arrived on the train was delivered by truck.

Things did not go well in the beginning. “Folks in Laurel might as well make up their minds that we are through getting any reliable mail service. With the present star route set up we will get the mail when it arrives. If it is two or three hours late there is nothing we can do about it,” commented Editor Allison A couple of weeks later, Allison came up with a plan: “We suggest that Postmaster O’Gara install a siren at the post office and blow it whenever the mail arrives. You go to the post office when it’s mail time and there’s no mail. You go back in 30 minutes and still no mail.

At the hour you make another trip and still no mail. Maybe an hour or so later there it is. In the interest of conserving shoe leather we suggest that Uncle Sam furnish a fire whistle for the postmaster to notify us when the mail arrives.”

September brought more bad news for the Andrew Paulsen family.

Daughter Vera June was supposed to be married in California on Aug. 15. On her way to Omaha to catch the train, she learned that her fiancee had died following a traffic accident. In September her brother Leslie Paulsen, suffered a severe head injury in a motorcycle accident. Paulsen had enlisted in the Army Air Corps. While awaiting his call to duty, he had been employed by an oil company in California.

One afternoon the Belden Fire Department received an urgent call from Victor Seyl. A truck was dispatched to the Seyl farm but the firemen found no smoke and no fire just the most unearthly screeching they had ever heard. No, the family cat hadn’t got its tail caught in a washing machine wringer. The screech was coming from the family car. Somehow the horn had gotten stuck and for some reason Seyl dialed the fire department to come and fix it.

A quick yank on the wires silenced the horn and the firemen headed back to Belden. “Such is the life of a fireman,” said the Advocate.