June 04, 2009

Arthur Strawn, personal recollections

Compiled by Betty Jane Wilson, historical society president

The late Arthur Strawn, historian, graduated from Valley Falls High School May 26, 1943. He reached his 18th birthday March 13, 1943, was classified 1A (subject to military draft) and faced the possibility of induction into service prior to completion of his senior high school year. His high school principal and a draft board member obtained deferent from service, since he had only 3 months remaining to graduate with his class. Following graduation, he found work and following are excerpts from his personal history:

“I did go to work for a local farmer, doing as I had for the last three summers, helping with field work, mainly putting up hay and shocking wheat. I went to work for George Tucking for one dollar a day and room and board. I shocked all his wheat and did chores morning and night. I could not have worked for a better person. Mrs. Tucking provided the best food I had ever enjoyed up to that time and I felt very much like I belonged there. Even their two little girls treated me like I was one of the family.

When it was threshing time, I worked in the fields pitching bundles (unloading shocks of wheat on the wagon) I was the only one working in the field except Don Marsh who was working for the Valley Falls Vindicator, our local weekly newspaper. It was our job to load the hay wagon fast enough to keep the threshing machine running. Hot and heavy work, but I was young and strong.”

Arthur learned wages were better in Central Kansas and with help of friends, left his dollar-a-day job, without notice, and worked near Newton, Kan., for $5 for an eight-hour day. In return for his board and room, he baby sat for his employers’ children. He wrote:

“I only worked a short time before I received my draft notice to report for induction on June 28th. I quit my job and they (friends) took me to Newton where I bought some new clothes and more important, a new linoleum for our living room at home. I took the bus to Valley Falls with $35 in my pocket. I was a rich man, I thought. The new linoleum they promised to deliver the next time they came east. . . On June 28th, Wayne Green (friend) and I reported to the draft board at Oskaloosa.”

The Valley Falls Historical Society Museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, May 23, and Sunday, May 24, immediately following the 123rd Valley Falls High School alumni covered dish dinner at noon at the Delaware Township Hall, and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday, May 25. Saturday’s hosts will be Anna Irwin, Lucile Smerchek, and Dalene Senn.

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