Tidbits of Grant County History
This category, which will be under Columns>Personal, will include items attributed to other publications as well as from those who wish to provide tidbits of their interesting history in Grant County. The first one comes from the Mimbres Messenger, a monthly publication, that comes out in digital and print form.
World War II - Pride, Sacrifices and Efforts
- Category: Tidbits of Grant County History Tidbits of Grant County History
- Published: 04 November 2021 04 November 2021
[Editor's Note: This first appeared in the Mimbres Messenger}
By Gene Stailey
I have lived through three major events in my lifetime: the Great Depression, World War II, and now, the Covid-19 pandemic. The one that I wish to talk about is World War II, not about what those of us in the military were going through, but to give credit to the ones who stayed home, what the hard-working citizens of this great nation did, the sacrifices they made, all their hard work and what they went through for us to come out of the conflict as we did.
Little did we know (or give any thought to) back in the '30s that all of the "scrap iron" we sold and sent to Japan would be converted into war weapons that would be used against us in the future. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and knocked us to our knees, after the shock and worry of it became a reality, we realized what we had to do. It is unbelievable how fast the people rolled up their sleeves and went to work. Organizing and planning had to start immediately.
One of the first things to occur was the rationing of many items. Ration Board Agencies were set up all over the nation, resulting in the rationing of many items such as sugar, coffee, meat, shoes, tires, and gasoline, to name a few.
Old Acklin Store in Mimbres is 100 years old
- Category: Tidbits of Grant County History Tidbits of Grant County History
- Published: 03 October 2021 03 October 2021
This article by Gene Stailey was previously published in the Mimbres Messenger, a monthly print and digital publication, which can be found at https://mvhal.org/mm/
Many of you are familiar with Acklin Hill (or Acklin Road), and I know that many of you old-timers are familiar with and have used the Acklin Store. It is the big two-story white building with green trim, just after passing the Round Up Lodge. It is owned and occupied by Cindy Lee, who was a long-time teacher at Snell Middle School in Bayard. She retired this year after winning all sorts of awards, not only local, but regional, state and national. She is now devoting her time to the museum in the store part of the building. I will get to that later.
The store was built and started in 1921 and was operated by William Henry Acklin and his wife, Mary, until his death in 1969. Mrs. Acklin ran it for a short time, and then it closed for good.