The Numbers Are Drawn

By mid-July, cavalryman Fred Bowlby was stationed at Fort Ethan Allen in Vermont; President Wilson had issued an order drafting members of the National Guard and National Guard reserve into the regular army; and across the national, the ten million young men who had registered waited for the first draft to take place.

President Wilson's formal draft order set the goal of a military force totaling 1,262,985 men. The first draft would bring in 687,000 men. Indiana's quota was 17,510. On the morning of July 20, the drawing of numbers began in Washington.

The following week the News printed lists of the draft numbers for Hobart and Ross Township conscripts.


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The day after this list appeared, the Gazette reported that 21-year-old Clarence Goodrich had volunteered, not waiting to be drafted. So had his 19-year-old brother Harold. Both joined Company F of the Indiana National Guard at Gary. Although these young men came from Ross Township — their family's farm was southwest of Ainsworth — the Gazette promised to include them in the Hobart Roll of Honor.

And as for George Severance, Jr., who had joined the army in March 1916, word now came that since the declaration of war he had spent his time learning the young and dangerous art of aviation, and had been promoted to the rank of corporal in a flying squad.


Sources:
♦ 1891 Plat Book.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1926 Plat Book.
♦ "Additional Local News." Hobart Gazette 27 July 1917; 3 Aug. 1917.
♦ "Draft Great American Army." Hobart Gazette 27 July 1917.
♦ "Formal Draft Orders Issued by President." Hobart News 19 July 1917.
♦ "General News." Hobart Gazette 20 July 1917.
♦ "Hobart and Ross Township Conscripts in the Order in Which They Will Be Called." Hobart News 26 July 1917.
♦ "National Guard Is Ordered Into Federal Service." Hobart News 12 July 1917.
♦ "Selective Draft Drawing Takes Place on Schedule Time." Hobart News 26 July 1917.
♦ Untitled social column. Hobart News 5 July 1917.

The Draft

In early May 1917, Hobart's "Roll of Honor" was augmented by the name of Fred Bowlby. The 18-year-old who had lately been playing penguin was now to be a cavalryman, and there was no play about this business.

Those who did not volunteer would soon face the draft. On April 30 Congress had passed a conscription bill. The War Department set about working out the details, and by mid-May the Hobart News was able to print this explanatory summary:


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The exemption available for agricultural workers was relevant to this rural area. Food production had become a matter of vital importance to the support of the U.S. military and of the allies, both military and civilian.

(The "social evil" to be suppressed was, I believe, prostitution. The federal policy of protecting servicemen from prostitution led the city government of New Orleans, under threat of force by Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, to close down its notorious Storyville district in November 1917 — but that's another story.)

On May 21 President Woodrow Wilson signed the draft bill and set June 5 as the date for registration.


Sources:
♦ "Details of New Conscription Law." Hobart News 17 May 1917.
♦ "Draft Wins By Big Majority in Both Houses." Hobart News 3 May 1917.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 4 May 1917.
♦ "President Signs Draft Measure; Troops to Front." Hobart News 24 May 1917.
♦ Rose, Al. Storyville, New Orleans: Being an Authentic, Illustrated Account of the Notorious Red-Light District. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1974.

Playing Penguin

A cold snap froze up Lake County in mid-January 1917. On the 14th, temperatures dropped to 10 or 15 below zero, and on that Sunday afternoon, with nothing better to do, young daredevils found the frozen Deep River and Lake George irresistible. Ben Bodamer and H.D. Green took their motorcycles out onto the ice and performed every stunt they could think of.

Everett Newman (Paul Newman's son) took his small, light Ford and loaded it up with three of his friends: another young Hobartite named Fred Bowlby, and from Ainsworth, Will Wollenberg, Jr. and Will's younger brother Eddie. The four of them rode the car out onto the frozen river. They went racing and spinning around Lake George for awhile, and then drove upstream as far as the E.J.& E. bridge and back, about a mile's trip. It was great fun, but in that unheated car, with the bitter wind blowing freely over the ice, the boys couldn't last too long. Everett decided to land his craft. From the lake, he drove under the Third Street bridge and toward the riverbank near the streetcar barns (where today there is a tiny riverfront park).

Just as he braked near the shore, the ice gave way beneath them. The car and the four boys plunged into six feet of icy water. The car apparently capsized, as the Gazette described the scene: "In scrambling to get out, the boys would catch hold of a wheel, and it would turn and give them another plunge, so by the time the boys reached safety they had been thoroughly wet through several times."

They had to leave the car to fend for itself — they were soaked and in danger of frostbite or hypothermia in that bitterly cold air. Everett went home; the other three boys went to Fred's house; they all got dried off and warmed up, and fortunately none suffered any ill effects. Someone eventually hauled the car out of the river using a rope and pulley. The Gazette described the car as "uninjured" but I find that hard to believe. It was taken to the Newman garage to be thawed out.


Sources:
♦ "Auto Fell Through Ice." Hobart Gazette 19 Jan. 1917.
♦ "Four Boys Get Cold Bath in Deep River Sunday Afternoon." Hobart News 18 Jan. 1917.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 19 Jan. 1917.