A butcher, a baker, a Chinese laundry?

By SUSAN DOAK

SW Nebraska Genealogy Society

I am going to revisit one of the hints I printed in an early article.

When I am doing a "wildcard" search, I try to always remember to use my security safe bar. I use quotation marks to insure that I don't get a bunch of garbage so as an example if I was searching for a Civil War Record for John Doe it would look like this: "John Doe" + "Civil War Service Records" or "John Doe + Civil War Service Records". What you are trying to do is eliminate search results that pull up every time the word DOE or JOHN shows up on the Internet. You'll get a lot of deer articles or miscellaneous Johns if you don't.

Now, returning to World War I and the draft registrations located on the SWNGS website. McCook was definitely a railroad town, but some familiar businesses were started by 1917. What catches my eye are the unusual ones such as: Yee (Jee?) Show, living at 220 West B Street which was also the site of his laundry! Yee was 38 years old, China born, and indicates that he is married but that his wife remained in China.

The draft registration provides an even more complete picture of the men in Red Willow County than the census due to the fact that it lists their addresses, the names and addresses of their closest relative, what they do for a living and for whom they work. They also had to indicate if they had prior military service and if they were US Citizens.

As an example: Gurt Hokenson, a Swedish born declarant (had filed to obtain citizenship) worked as a tailor for Lineburg and Haarde in McCook. He had a prior military service of 10 months in the Swedish Navy.

Here's an old memory: Stanley Fallick (Fallick's Bakery) was a baker who lived at 508 East 1st. He was a declarant for citizenship and was born in Godshill, Isle of Wright, England.

Howard Ruby of Danbury did motor sales for International Harvestor and Harley Edgar Woods was Danbury's Town Marshall!

Dare Woodruff was 35 years old, a medical doctor and he lived at 607 East 4th, McCook

Bradley Duckworth, (22), was a pharmacist for Allen Drug in Indianola. (Allen Drug was a wonderful store to visit but my best memories are of Miss Clarrisa Allen who taught grade school in Indianola). The Havana Telephone Co., Indianola, employed both Edd Dunbar (29) and Jesse Vandervort (24) as linemen.

William Jones (44) lived at 311 East 2nd, a veterinarian and the Mayor of McCook. Francis Moses Colfer (35) was the Red Willow County Judge and resided at 403 East 1st.

McArthur C. Lord (27) was a merchant in Indianola. Is that a precursor to Lord's Hardware, still providing a huge selection of merchandise for SW Nebraska?

Niels Christian Nielson was 37, born in Denmark, was a florist apparently from his home at 807 East 4th. Joseph Nelms worked as a plumber for M P Wrightstone. Clarence Anton (22) was a meat cutter for H.C. Edwards of McCook. Percy Bell was the Red Willow County surveyor; Edward Joseph Brady the US Postmaster; Mark Scott did merchandising for the J.C. Penny Company and William Sommerville was the Deputy County Attorney.

You might wonder how this could help you find a female relative. Several of these men listed wives, daughters, mothers or sisters as closest relatives including where they resided. The free portion of SWNGS web site has the complete alphabetical listing of the World War I registry.