Trumbull – Boiling Politics and Grandpa’s Birthday Money – Sept, 1940

1934 – 1940 Timeline

This is the second installment of a very long letter Grandpa writes to his sons, Dan and Ced in Alaska and Lad in Venezuela, following his birthday. Yesterday’s post covered all of the happenings involving Grandpa’s birthday – September 11 – when he turned 56. He has followed the strange custom of sending presents to his sons on HIS birthday, maybe his way of giving back.  The letter continues in this post with local politics and what he plans to do with his birthday money.

Alfred Duryee Guion

Locally, things are beginning to boil politically. The new town committee, now under Ellwood Stanley’s leadership since Mr. Woods declined to accept reelection, is composed of people not now holding any political office in the town. One of the first things they did was to put Mr. Sexton, of all people, on the Committee, thinking, I suppose, that they could thus keep close tabs on him, and being only one among many others, could render him innocuous. But the way it is working out, as far as I can learn, is not so good. The rumor is that when it came to recommendations from the Town Committee to be submitted as recommendations to the caucus, which in previous years has been practically an assurance of nomination, none of the conservative members could find any decent people who would accept the nomination of First Selectman, and as one name after another was suggested and refused, Sexton came through with suggestions of names here and there who would accept, and that resulted in the final draft of names being largely Sexton man. There is a man named Northam in Long Hill who was named, both Les Whitney and myself were not included as Second Selectman, and for this job, Dave Wakely of Chestnut Hill was Sexton’s suggestion. Mr. Hughes, who has been suggested as a possibility for the Board of Finance by Mr. Plumb, to replace himself, was ignored, and in consequence, many of the old time loyal Republicans who always voted for the town committee’s recommendations are considerably dissatisfied and at the caucus tomorrow night there is liable to be considerably less harmony then has hither to characterized the Republican caucus meetings. Mr. Woods told me himself he was personally far from satisfied with the way things were going. So we will probably see some fireworks tomorrow. It is ridiculous and disgusting the way this fellow Sexton seems to be edging in. As far as I am concerned, and I seldom feel this way about anyone, he is the towns combined Hitler, Stalin and fifth columnist all rolled into one. As you probably know, Mr. Plumb has been retired on a nice pension by the bank and is dropping his various town activities. I don’t blame him, the way things have been going lately. The Democrats have again put up Davis as First Selectman and Burr Beach as second. As the town has passed the 5000 mark in population, we are now entitled to two representatives in the state legislature and both Bradley and Nothnagle are after the job. I hear that the Democrats are thinking of putting up Danny Wheeler, and I believe if they do so, he will have a very good chance of winning.

I suppose you donors would like to know how I am going to spend all my birthday money. Well, I need a new pair of house slippers, a new electric stove for my bathroom that won’t blacken the walls, a new pair of shoes and a raincoat. (I think I can get along without a new suit although this will be the second year I haven’t bought a suit  – last September I bought a new overcoat as Lad’s gift) and I would like to get some clothes suitable for taking walks in the woods that will keep me warm and dry during fall and winter. I am certainly grateful to you boys, that with all your young plans and hopes and ambitions, still have a thought for the old man’s comfort. The spirit is all the more appreciated because I have not done half the things for you youngsters I would like to have done, if things had been different.

Lad in Venezuela

And you, Lad, I don’t really feel right about using any of the funds you sent home for myself. The several hundreds of dollars you gave last year for my use and the house and the $50 you send every month is, in all fairness, enough. It is really your contribution that has been keeping us going this last year. That, and Ced’s payments, were the only things that made it possible for me to make the grade. I hope business will pick up next year so things will be better — enough at least to make up for the $10 a month I will forfeit with the loss of the Second Selectman’s job. So, if you don’t mind, I’ll take the will for the deed and not take advantage of your generous offer. My

Dan and Ced in Alaska

conscience would be clearer. And, Ced, that’s much the way I feel about you. I certainly would feel mighty cheap if you had sent any of last month’s check home under the circumstances. You did just the right thing in keeping it for flying club expenses. You, Dan, haven’t told me what your future plans, if you have yet formulated any, are; but if you were going to the University of Alaska you’ll need to save for that, which makes your generous remittance doubly unselfish. All in all, I’ve got a pretty fine bunch of boys and I’m just a wee bit proud of them.

Tomorrow, the third and final portion of the letter Grandpa wrote to his sons following his 56th birthday. It includes local news, information about his office move and a letter from the Town Clerk, urging the boys to vote in the Presidential Election and the cover of an absentee ballot sent to Lad in Venezuela. Did he vote? I don’t know.

Please share your comments on this letter. I love to read your stories and memories.

Judy Guion

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Random Memories of Cedric Duryee Guion – Rusty Huerlin

After my Uncle Dan passed away, I realized that if I was going to record the memories of his siblings, I’d better get busy. Aunt Biss was the first. She joined my late husband Don and me on a cruise on the Erie Canal and I spent three days recording her stories. I was able to interview my father (Lad) and Uncle Ced on two occasions each and Uncle Dick and Uncle Dave, once each. This is the fourth installment of Uncle Ced’s memories.

The final installment of the Random Memories of Cedric Duryee Guion is all about a very close family friend who became a rather famous painter of Alaskan Life. Colcord (Rusty) Heurlin was brought into the family fold by Fred Stanley, another artist who had married Anne Peabody, sister of Grandpa’s wife Arla and the Aunt Anne that Bissie lived with in St Petersburg. Rusty’s name has come up over and over throughout the random memories of the children and in grandpa’s letters. I believe it was Rusty who originally wanted to go to Alaska and convinced Dan and Ced that they ought to go there also and make their fortune. They all planned to go to Alaska in mid-1940, but unfortunately, when Dan and Ced were ready to go, Rusty didn’t have the money. I know that Uncle Ced was in Alaska for about six and a half years and he lived with Rusty for some of that time.

 

The Island belonged to the Heurlin’s and they let us use it. We used it long before we bought it. Through Rusty, we met his family. His mother and father came over from Sweden, his father spoke with a strong accent. He was a Custom’s Agent in Boston. They were a nice couple, they lived in Wakefield, Massachusetts in a nice house.

Rusty Heurlin gave my mother a painting – it was a rather famous one – he was very fond of her. He was younger than my mother and father by a little. We did a lot with him – we’d go hiking with him. He made quite a name for himself. All his life he lived by sponging. He was so charismatic that he could get away with it. He walked out of school, he took art lessons, he was a hobo for a while. The only thing that really interested him was painting. He spent all his life painting beautiful pictures. He was a good artist but he didn’t make any money at it. He knew all the artists in Westport – Red Heurlin – they knew Red Heurlin and they loved him. He loved dogs, oh, he loved dogs with a passion. There are a lot of his paintings around Fairbanks, Alaska, at the University of Alaska, in banks, in hospitals, they’re mostly outdoor scenes, some have to do with the early settlers, the Russians. Colcord Heurlin – he always signed C. Heurlin.

One painting did more to make him famous than anything else he did. Rusty made friends, he lived with me for a time in Anchorage. He made pictures. He made a mural, he

Cedric (Ced) Duryee Guion

filled the whole wall with it, for one of the bars in town, a whole Hawaiian scene. He used to drink quite heavily at times. I come home at three or four o’clock in the morning and he’d be painting. We lived with an old Norwegian guy, he slept in the upstairs bedroom, you had to climb up a ladder. I worked for the airline there, mostly Bush piloting – scheduled passenger service came later – but most of the time I was there, it was all Bush pilot. Rusty and I would go down to George’s living room, George was a bachelor. Rusty would paint in that living room until three or four in the morning. During the day he’d go out partying up and down the street. They called it the longest bar in Alaska – that was Main Street in Anchorage.

About 1940-41, things were getting red-hot. Major Marston was up there in charge of the Alaskan defense command. He was based in Anchorage. Rusty made friends with him – he made friends with everyone he talked to. He met the Governor of Alaska through Major Marston. Rusty came home one night and he said, “Know what they’re going to do? Major Marston says that the Governor wants to go around the whole perimeter of Alaska and try to develop a reasonable defense system for Alaska. I guess it was Major Marston’s idea. Major Marston said, ’None of us know anything about Alaska, the Eskimos, the Indians. We should go around and meet these native people. They know the land and if any problems develop with the days coming, we’d be lost. We wouldn’t know what to do.’ He said, ‘We want to get an Alaskan defense going with native people.’ Governor Gruening says, ’Well you know what? I don’t know any. I’m the Governor of this territory and I’d like to go around with you and meet these people that I’m supposed to be Governor of.’ “ So, Rusty sat and listened to all this talk and he said, ”You wouldn’t want to take me along, would you? I’ve had this in the back of my mind for years, that I would like to do a series of pictures on the discovery of Alaska.” His whole goal, idea and the love of his life was Alaska. He said, ”I’d like to have a chance to go around to all those places, and make sketches.” “OK, come on along.” they said. That’s where he got this series of 18 pictures, starting with the fellow who came from Russia, sailed to Alaska and took it for the Russians. That was the first painting, he did the Gold Rush and 16 others. This was after he moved to Fairbanks.

Rusty moved to Fairbanks and got married. He was probably in his sixties, and he married a girl from the Fairbanks News. At this point he decided that he would teach art so he got a job teaching art at the University. He did that for quite a while. After he got these pictures done, the University said to him ”Why don’t we set up ta building for you and fix it with the huge rotating platform and you could put these 18 pictures all the way around the building.” They talked it over and they got the Poet Laureate of Alaska to narrate the story. He did a beautiful job and that’s up there. If you ever get to Alaska, you should see it in Fairbanks. Alaska is different than any other state. They have a huge boat there that they have on display, probably like the boats they used up there. This one building is all Rusty’s pictures. They also have a Museum and other historic stuff.

Rusty was an amazing person. He did posters during the war with ”Uncle Sam Needs You!” on them. My wife and I planned a trip to Alaska to visit Rusty and I called him a few weeks before we left. He said,”I hope I’ll see you when you get here.” He passed away a week later. We went to the University of Alaska, we told them what we were looking for and they took us down to the basement and showed us some of his work.

Tomorrow, I’ll start posting a few letters written during 1940, the first year that Dan and Ced are in Alaska.

Judy Guion