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Nebraska’s most most decorated World War I veteran was killed in a fiery car crash south of Coleridge on January 24, 1944. Carl M. Lange of Hartington enlisted in the army at the age of 17.On November 3, 1917, he participated in a battle near Bathelmont, France, where the first American soldiers were killed.
Lange helped carry the body of Merle Hay of Glidden, Iowa, back to U.S. lines. Hay was one of the first three American soldiers killed in the war and the first from Iowa. Later, Lange and another soldier, armed only with revolvers, captured three German machine gun nests and returned with twenty enemy prisoners. After the fighting ended on November 11, 1918, Lange served an additional nine months with the army of occupation before returning to Hartington.
Lange’s decorations included the American Distinguished Service Medal, two French Militaire medals (the highest honor awarded to enlisted men), the French Croix de Guerre, the U.S. Victory Medal with five clasps, and the U.S. First Division Victory Medal.
Lange was heading for Sioux City when the car he was driving missed the curve on Highway 15 south of Coleridge. The car continued south on the Belden gravel where it struck a bridge and rolled over several times before landing on its top and bursting into flames. It could not be determined if Lange burned to death or was killed outright.
Incidentally, one of Lange’s brothers was briefly married to one of this writer’s great aunts.Ed Lorang died in July 1953. His widow Dora Dirks Lorang married Emil Lange in February 1955. He died less than a year later. She then married Floyd “Slim” Spangenberg, also of Hartington. He died in 1968; she lived until 1991.
One of Laurel’s earliest pioneers also passed away in January. Marcus “Mark” Senor, 74, was found dead in his room in the Laurel Hotel (where Security Bank now stands). Senior came to Laurel right after the town was founded in 1892 and claimed to have conducted the first livery barn, dug the town’s first well, and dug the first grave in the cemetery. Because he had no money and no known relatives at the time of his death, Senor was buried in the potter’s field section of the Laurel cemetery. Mrs. Hillevi Stalder, who ran the hotel and who had been taking care of Senor, took up a collection to place a small marker on his grave.
The Advocate reported that Earl H. Sutherland, a former Laurel banker, had sold his interest in the Coleridge National Bank to George Gray who founded the bank in 1902 but had recently decided to retire. A nearly identical story appeared in the Coleridge Blade.
The Cedar County News had a slightly different take, however. According to The News, Gray was forced out in 1943 when Sutherland obtained control of 330 shares of Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) stock held by the bank. Gray somehow managed to regain control of the stock and then went to the bank to discuss the matter. He found the doors locked and President Sutherland nowhere to be found.
Gray and his supporters then conveyed a meeting on the sidewalk in front of the bank and selected a new board of directors. With the RFC stock wrested from his control, Sutherland was forced to sell the bank back to Gray. Following Gray’s death in 1948, control of the bank passed to his son James Gray.
Immigration was in the news in January 1944. Congressman Karl Stefan noted that only 23,725 immigrants had been admitted to the United States in 1943. This was the lowest number since 1831. Stefan said that both before and after World War I the U.S. was being flooded with immigrants – more than a million in some years.
The fear that Americans were not yet ready to celebrate that much diversity led to Immigration Act of 1924. Passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and signed into law by Republican PresidentCalvin Coolidge, the Act banned immigration from Asia,severely restricted immigration from the rest of the world, and created the U.S. Border Patrol.
“It begins to look as though further restrictions on immigration may be necessary to take care of the situation created by World War II,” said Stefan. As we now know, that did not happen and most of the restrictions on immigration either have been lifted or are no longer enforced. More cultural enrichment is likely on the way.
The War Department had been releasing very little information about the impending invasion of Europe. Senator Edwin C. Johnson of Colorado inadvertently let it slip that 73 percent of the invading forces would be American while Britain and her Empire would furnish the remaining 27 per cent. Meanwhile, Soviet forces were gaining the upper hand on the ground while U.S. and British bombers were pounding German cities from the air. “The Germans are whimpering about how inhuman the air raids are,“ said the Advocate. “City after city is being methodically reduced to destruction and the end is not in sight.” Until World War II, attacking civilians and reducing cities to rubble would have been considered war crimes.
In news more earthshaking than heavy bombs:“One gal confided in us that it was a bad situation when a gal had to go about the street splashing mud on her bare legs. ‘My legs are ugly enough without encasing them in those blankety-blank cotton socks.’ First time any femme ever owned up that she had ugly legs. Most of them are ready to enter a leg show any timeor any place,” said the editor.
Thankfully, the January thaw brought out the “Sit and Spitters,” a group of old geezers who congregated on the benches along Main Street to solve the great problems of the day. These days it’s done mostly over morning coffee.
“We came across one group in our travels,” said Editor Allison. “They had the war won,the depression over, gasoline flowing down the streets, and everyone making money in spite of the government.
“We suggested they turn their great minds to a problem that has been bothering us for some time:That is which gal has the best crop of goose pimples in this bare-legged season of winter. There was a great difference of opinion, but by the time we left, the contest had been narrowed to two.“ The editor did not identify either the winner or the runner up.
