The Effects of World War II on Edwards County, Kansas
Kansans Tell Their Stories Community Heritage Grant
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- Robert Lippoldt, Virginia’s Brother
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- Bob Stach, Waiblingen, Germany, October, 1944
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- Howard Rapp & Virginia Lippoldt Rapp, May 1,1940
The wounds of the Great Depression with its failed banks and foreclosed farms were still open in Edwards County as the country entered World War II. The war helped the economy recover while demanding many sacrifices which made the people and communities more dependent on one another. It was a time when the people in small rural towns came together to support each other and the war effort. Edwards County was a patchwork of seven communities: Belpre, Centerview, Fellsburg, Offerle, Kinsley, Lewis and Trousdale. The economy was based on agriculture, small business, and the railroad. The role of Edwards County citizens during the war is a story worth preserving.
Patchwork of Dependency records twenty-nine stories of not only the veterans, but also the farmers with agricultural deferments, the women who stayed home and those who left to work in war plants, the children, and the minority Black and Hispanic communities.
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- Ralph Woolard in the center in San Francisco
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- P.F.C. Jeff Mead, June, 1951, Lackland A.F.B, taken in front of a B-17 on the parade grounds
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- “Edwards County Draftees” 1942 Camp Walters, Texas Jack Miller, George Mathews, Art Polson, Vernon Nystrom, Carl Thumel, Lee Thorp, Sam Brown, Harold Feldman
Related Links:
- Veterans History Projects
submitted to the Library of Congress
by Dr. Galen Boehme’s Kinsley-Offerle High School English 12 Classes. - World War II Casualties from Edwards County
- Edwards County World War II Veteran Pictures
(All Edwards County Veterans may bring their photos to the library to be included on this page.) - Edwards County, World War II Selective Service Records, 1940-1946
Excerpts about World War II from:
- Belpre, Kansas: The Story of a Small Town by David M. Kearney, Chapter Nine: The 1940’s: A Struggle for Survival
- Centennial Celebration: St. Bernard’s Catholic Church, Belpre, Kansas, 1901-2001 by David Kearney
- THE WAR YEARS: Information gleaned from:
- KINSLEY HIGH SCHOOL CLASS of 1940 Twentieth Reunion Book
- KINSLEY HIGH SCHOOL Class of 1943 Twentieth Reunion Book
- Letters from Service Men Published in the Kinsley Mercury, 1941-1945
This project is the result of a 2009 Kansas Humanities Council “Kansans Tell Their Stories Community Heritage” grant in support of an oral history project to collect and preserve 20 interviews of citizens who lived in Edwards County between 1939-1948. (Grant Application), (Release), (Evaluation), (Invitation), (Display). This project was also sponsored in part by the Edwards County Historical Society.
Principal funding for this project was provided by the Kansas Humanities Council, a nonprofit cultural organization promoting understanding of the history, traditions, and ideas that shape our lives and build community.
