February 21, 1942
Lone Mountain
Saturday, February 21, 1942
2:30 Jap-slaying time
Dear Ann and family,
I met the mail this afternoon and was disappointed in a sense and in another I was glad. I am expecting my call anytime to go to the air Corps
The reason I am still here is that when I went to the recruiting office February 9th they had had orders not to take any more into the air cadets until further orders. So they gave me a few more examinations which so far I have passed, and told me that they would notify me at the nearest date. So I am patiently waiting. And am going to have to say good-bye all over again.
Well the weather here is beginning to look like springtime and for the first time in a week the sun is shining and is warm. I am up at the store and from here I can see Pos Hopson, Cube Jordan, and Will Whitehead all leaning hopelessly on the south side of Aunt Matt’s stone garage.
You were asking about Frank Ault, well he writes home regularly and seems to be liking Annapolis very well. He has written about how hard they have to work. They have a scheduled 5 minutes per day for recreation and in one of his letters he told how many times he had changed uniforms during one day – he had counted them as 12 times in one day! His letters have all had the “jist” that he was getting on fine.
The California Aults are having a time. Runt says the only trouble is that they are broke from one payday to the next.
His wife is taking some kind of course in a night school and she is going to work soon I think. Also Junior is going to the gov’t sponsored trade schools three nights a week – It seems to me that with Jr. working six days per week and both going to school at night their only trouble would be that they would hardly get to see each other –.
Junior sent Irene a picture of her and from the photo she is good-looking.
I haven’t written Kenneth as yet about my not getting to go to Jefferson Barracks. I read a letter (the last) from Ken (Irene lets me read all the boys letters) and he seems well satisfied with his job which is getting to be awfully easy on him. He said he was looking forward to my coming to Jeff. B. and all. I am as disappointed as he is though I guess.
Minnie came up on the mail truck this afternoon and she had finally heard from Frank whom she thought was on his way to Pearl Harbor as his address was “c/o the Postmaster, San Francisco.” Everybody thought he was on a ship between the United States and Hawaii. Instead he was en route to Panama where he is now. The card had been prepared and sent by the US government it said:
I have safely reached my destination.
My address is (still in care of San Francisco Postmaster)
signed – “Preacher.”
That was all it said. The postmark was Panama’s.
Ethel just said that Barbara Regan is now Mrs. Frank Maynard Carter, Jr. It’s news to me.
Also Ben Campbell married a girl from Alcoa – he had known her 6 weeks. Everybody likes her though. His family was surprised but thought it was his own idea – and that it was perfectly all right with them.
Two weeks ago Sally spent the weekend with Margaret and said she had a wonderful time. Marg got Sally a date and they went up in the Smokies to the Ski Run. Sally said it was like a fairyland, but too cold for her.
David and Betsy are fine except for stagnated noses and occasional quarrels. David’s train keeps me busy and occupied during my period of vacation. I bought all the track Deaver Dry Goods Co. had and boy it goes all over the living room and under all the furniture. I tried to get some switches and cross overs but they didn’t have any.
Mamma is feeling as usual. I guess anyone who has done as much work as she, and has raised so many unappreciative brats couldn’t feel so well even if she didn’t do anything now. But I guess she wouldn’t be happy if she couldn’t do her work and, you know, it is better to be able to have a healthful mind than body any time. She has been attending the Revival which ends this Sunday. She enjoys that a lot.
Jim is as usual. Stays out late at nights and stays in late in the mornings. He is about to quit his job for a better one with the TVA.
Sally and David just came in and I gave her your letter to Mamma. She said I shouldn’t open other people’s mail. I said I’d bet you would be glad that I did as I answered it.
Bill Breeding has been reclassified for the Draft. They put him in 1-A and then classified him again to 3-A. So I guess he is pretty safe. Ray Hodges left for the Army Thursday of last week. Everybody hated to see him go. His mother told him not to “shoot any of them Japs, they can’t help it,” she says.
Jim is still in 3-A. And is not worried that he may be reclassified.
In spite of all my efforts to get into the Army two months ago which were solely to avoid registering, I had to register last Monday anyway. I am afraid I will be drafted before I can enlist.
The Saturday, a week before I was to have my job, I decided to take the night and go with my roommate to the President’s Birthday Ball and stay all night with him at Andersonville. Well, I told Herb, my boss, that I was going to take the night off and he told me that if I did I would have to take off from now on.
Well-being as I was going to the Army (I thought I would go eight days from then) I didn’t give a hoot whether I worked another week or not so I just told him that if that was the way he felt about it well OK. So off I went so mad I could have bitten a nail in two. The first time, by the way, that I have been mad, really mad, since I was a sophomore in High School.
But that Saturday night at Norris will always be one of the highlights in my life because I really got high and had a great big time.
I danced, and introduced myself, and broke in on every couple there and the Comm. Center Bldg. was full. They were from Knoxville, Clinton, LaFollette, Lake City, and about everywhere. It was quite embarrassing to be spoken to and called by name by people I could not remember.
All the time, I thought I was fired from the Tele. Co.. But I stayed around the house all day Monday expecting to be called back to work, but no call came. So the next day I packed my things and came home. That was Tuesday. That Wednesday then about 2:30 I got a call from Herb to come to Knoxville. So I rented a car and went. When I got there I signed a paper and they gave me a check for a week’s pay, a leave of absence and three months pay in semi-monthly installments when I get into the Army. And all the time I thought I was fired!
I apologized to my supervisors and right now I feel like a spring chicken, thinking that the tele.-co. thought I was that important.
Between now and the time I leave for the Army I have absolutely nothing to do. It would please me very much to get up to see you all before I leave but I am afraid I wouldn’t get my call if I did.
Write me a letter and tell me about how Maury and the Army are getting on, and Cynthia, tell her that uncle loves her a lot. And you take care of yourself and if I don’t get to see you all before I’ll see you after.
Ethel wants to add a line
Love and So long
Rogers
Anne, would you try to find Noritake China pattern Juno and send the prices on dinner plates cups and saucers – I think I should buy a few more if possible –
thanks
Ethel
Roger is writing this letter to his sister Anne and her family, which at that time included her husband Maury Kite and their toddler daughter, Cynthia.
Roger had lived with the Kites while he attended the University of Tennessee – Chattanooga from fall of 1939 through spring of 1940, but by the time he wrote this letter to Anne, they were living in Detroit.
Cecil Paul “Pos” Hopson (1920-1994) was a year older than Roger, but married young and at the time of this letter was married with two small daughters. He was the son of Rubin Hopson, a sharecropper who had lived on Bear Creek. Not wealthy to begin with, Pos’s family had been driven into poverty by the Great Depression, and then driven off the land they rented by the creation of Norris Lake when Pos was 15. The Hopsons relocated to Roger’s neighborhood, and rented land owned by RW Payne, Roger’s “Uncle Bob.”
When the war broke out in late 1941, Pos was working for the WPA (Works Projects Administration, a New Deal program implemented by FDR). Pos was drafted by the Army in the fall of 1944.
Pos was one of countless poor Americans for whom military service was a stepping stone to a better life. After the war Pos hauled lumber for the sawmill in Lone Mountain where he and his wife had five children before the family relocated to Knoxville after 1950. Pos and his wife, Nell Stansberry, are both buried at the Jackson Cemetery which is on the road leading to the Lone Mountain Boat Dock.
Though Roger and Pos grew up together, they probably had no idea there had been a very interesting connection between their earliest Lone Mountain ancestors, Harrod Hopson and Anderson Jennings.
Cuba “Cube” Jordan lived in Lone Mountain near Roger’s Aunt Matt Fate. He was over twenty years older than Roger, and raised eight sons and one daughter in Lone Mountain.
Cuba’s wife, Mary, was a good friend of Roger’s older sisters and his cousins, the daughters of Aunt Matt.
Interestingly, Cuba’s claim to fame in the area was finding a 4 1/2 pound Mastodon tooth near Tazewell!
Will Whitehead, 44 at the time of this letter, was a farm laborer who lived in the household of RW Payne, Roger’s Uncle Bob. He first began working in Uncle Bob’s stables, but became an essential right-hand-man working for the family around the house and on the farm.
Will never married and had no children, but he was the uncle of Hazel Whitehead who worked for Roger’s mother, A, during the war years and, later, was both housekeeper and companion to Tip Payne.
Roger had twin uncles in Lone Mountain – Uncle Fate, who lived directly across from the Payne Brothers’ store, and Uncle Bob, who lived down the road toward the graveyard. They both married women named “Mattie” so the family called them “Aunt Matt Fate” and “Aunt Matt Bob.”
The one Roger refers to in this letter is Aunt Matt Fate, Mattie Livesay Payne.
Irene is Roger’s oldest sister, married to Lawrence Carroll Ault. They lived next door to Byrd and A when their first child was born, but then moved to New Tazewell, where Lawrence was the Depot Agent for the Southern Railroad. Irene and Lawrence were pillars of their community, both in civic and in church affairs.
Kenneth, Frank and Larry were their sons, and Roger’s nephews.
Frank, the middle of the Ault boys, graduated from Carson-Newman College in early 1941 and, as he later wrote in his book, Claiborne and Beyond: “…I was faced with the same problems facing graduates all over the country: go to graduate school (with draft deferment), joining military, or go to work.”
Though he was accepted into medical school, Frank felt he could not afford it. Instead, he applied for an officers training program in the Army, and was accepted. He had to work as he awaited his orders, however. Those orders came almost immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, instructing Frank to report to Annapolis for Officers Candidate School on January 1, 1942, which is where he was at the writing of this letter.
Larry Ault, Jr. was Irene’s youngest son. He was not interested in attending college, so he went out to California to get a job with the Douglass Corporation. While in California, Larry met and married Helen Moore. Roger mentions having seen this picture of Helen, and remarks that she is very nice looking:
This is Minnie Witt Jennings, a favorite of Roger. Minnie was related to Roger by marriage in two different ways – first on the Payne side to Burn Jennings, Roger’s double-first cousin. Several years after Burn’s untimely death, she married Roger’s first cousin once-removed, Jeff Jennings, from the Jennings side of the family.
“Preacher” was Frank Jennings, oldest son of Minnie Jennings. Preacher had already enlisted in the Army before Pearl Harbor.
His nickname kept Preacher from being confused with his grandfather, Frank Jennings, for whom he was named.
Almost every one of Roger’s letters include hugs, kisses, and love to Betsy and David, his young niece and nephew. Betsy was eight and David was four at the writing of this letter. They were the children of Roger’s sister, Sally, and her husband, Cawood Rose, who was tragically killed two years prior.
Sally and the children had been living with Byrd and A at Lone Mountain since Cawood’s death.
Kenneth is the oldest of the Ault boys. He was probably Roger’s favorite of the three, probably because they both married late. They had enjoyed many years of bachelorhood together.
After the first peacetime draft in the US took effect in October of 1940, Kenneth was drafted in 1941. He was working as a mail carrier at the time, and his mother, Irene, took over his route so he would not lose the job.
Kenneth was stationed at Jefferson Barracks, in LeMay, Missouri, just south of St. Louis. It is the oldest military facility west of the Mississippi River. Once inducted into the army, Roger had apparently hoped to visit Kenneth there, but it did not work out.
As the youngest of Roger’s three Ault Boys, Lawrence Carroll Ault, Jr., had three nicknames: “Larry,” “Runt,” and “Junior.” Larry had forgone college to take a job with Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach California where Larry met and married a lovely young woman named Helen Moore the previous October; thus, Larry and Helen became the “California Aults.”
This is Ethel Greer, Roger’s first cousin. Daughter of his Uncle Robert Payne, she was a close neighbor and friend of Roger’s older sisters. Ethel married Doc Greer, and they built the log house across from the Payne Cemetery. Ethel’s daughter Joann, was the mother of Brent and Bruce Myers who live next door to our Lone Mountain House today.
Barbara Jean Reagan was the daughter of Roger’s first cousin Mattie Hodges Reagan. Mattie’s mother, Mollie Payne was Byrd’s oldest full sister. (Byrd had two half-sisters older than Mollie.)
Ben Earl Campbell was one year younger than Roger, and was one of his good friends. Roger was twenty as he wrote this letter, and Ben was nineteen.
Ben and Roger’s sister-in-law, Bertha Campbell Payne, were both descended from Barnett “Barney” Campbell, one of the earliest settlers in Claiborne County before it even was a county.
Roger , keeping Anne abreast of all the latest news, observes that his friend, Ben had married a girl from Alcoa a month earlier. They had known each other only six weeks. She was Patricia Lewallen, and Roger understood that Ben’s family liked her.
Better known to our family as “Uncle Eli,” Bill Breeding was Roger’s first cousin on the Jennings side of his family. He was the only son of Frank Breeding and his second wife, “Doll” Jennings. Doll was two years older than Roger’s mother A, and they were very close throughout life.
So were Roger and Eli.
At the time of this letter, Eli was worried about his draft status as were young men from all around the country.
Margaret is one of Roger’s older sisters. She was a nurse and was living in Knoxville at this time. Margaret, was also making plans join the Army as a nurse.
Ray Hodges was Roger’s second cousin through both of his maternal lines: Jennings and Hodges. He was one year older than Roger, so they grew up and went to school together.
As mentioned in the letter, Ray had left for the Army the week before. His mother told him,”Don’t shoot any Japs, they can’t help it.”
President Franklin Roosevelt was, of course, a victim of Polio. Beginning on his first birthday as president, January 30, 1934, the President’s Birthday Ball was begun as a fundraiser for the March of Dimes, the primary charity that funded polio research. These balls were held all over the country. They not only raised millions for the cause, but were major social events as well.
US and Allies
While December of 1941 had been the month of war declarations, January of 1942 began with the gathering of Allies.
On January 1, The Declaration of United Nations was signed by twenty-six nations. It would be the precursor of the current United Nations, which did not exist at that time.
January 21, 1942 – The Claiborne Progress
Japan
January and February saw one successful Japanese attack or invasion after another in an effort to consolidate its control in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Theater. British, Australian, and Dutch armies were routed everywhere. General Douglas MacArthur, who had been tasked months earlier to defend the Philippines, had been pushed further and further back, until FDR ordered him to leave in mid-February.
The first US offensive actions in the North Pacific did not succeed. At this point in the war, the Allies were proving to be largely ineffective.
In short, during the time between Roger’s enlisting and his call to service, the Empire of Japan was pretty much having its way in Southeast Asia as its forces were earning a reputation of being cruel and ruthless barbarians.
Germany
Germany had spent the last seven-months invading Russia (Operation Barbarossa), but an unusually frigid winter saved the day for Moscow, as countless German soldiers died from starvation and exposure. The Russians began a counter-offensive in January, gradually pushing Germany back toward the west.
Also in January, as the Germans tested the first aircraft ejection seat that would save the lives of so many in the future, they continued laying the groundwork for the extermination of the Jews that would, ultimately, kill millions. At the Wannsee Conference on January 20, top German officials met with the architect of “Final Solution to the Jewish Question,” Reinhard Heydrich (remember that name) to discuss how to implement his diabolical plan.
Five days later, the first US Forces arrived in Europe, landing in Northern Ireland.
From the pages of the Progress
Within a few days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the FBI arrested a ring of German spies called, “On February 19, 1942, two days before Roger wrote this letter, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the forced removal of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to “relocation centers” further inland—resulting in the incarceration of Japanese Americans.”
Two-thirds of them were U.S. citizens, born and raised in the United States.
Within two weeks of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the nation began actively preparing those on the homefront to support the war effort overseas. The Red Cross in Claiborne county organized local women to sew bedclothes, robes and nightshirts for military hospitals. An immediate ban on the tubes and tires was put in place to conserve rubber for planes and other military vehicles. Scrap iron of all kinds was at a premium and was being collected everywhere.
The first baby of the New Year in Claiborne County was Churchill Love, named after Winston Churchill.
The Homefolks and the War
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