At 5:36 p.m. November 29, 1040, the first four draftees boarded the train of the Chicago Great Western in Sycamore. It was a dark and cold evening. There to see them off were two newspapermen and G.N. Blackman, chief clerk of draft board number 2.
The four draftees were: Robert Blair of Clare; Wilbur Matson, DeKalb; Reuel Hovland, Waterman; and Clyde Mischler, who got his mail in Elburn rural mail delivery but resided in DeKalb County.
Only Blair was a native of DeKalb County. Matson a former Galva resident working in DeKalb, Hovland from Maddock, N.D. and working in Waterman, Mischler from from Udel, Iowa.
"There was no music, no doughnuts nor any other farewell ceremony. There was no crowd. There were war clouds in the air hovering near the United States but for the most part the guns were roaring only in Europe."
Off to Train for War. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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