The scrap drives of 1942 really took the country by storm. America had been attacked at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 with the Philippine Islands suffering the same fate the next day. Prior to these events, America had been reluctant to involve itself in yet another foreign entanglement. The devastation in Perl Harbor was too much to bear however, President Rosevelt gave his famous “Day of Infamy speech” and for America there was no turning back. 

Scrap drives sprung up everywhere and York was no exception with two of our cast off, 10,000-pound iron Naval cannons being remembered and donated to the drive. 

Glass, rubber and paper were also included in these drives which leads us down another path. Why does York have so few of our early newspapers? Our collection of The York Current and The Old York Transcript is very sparce and here is one plausible explanation that involves Jeffords Tavern. That building was purchased by Elizabeth Perkins and moved from Wells to York, stored for a time in a barn and then reconstructed in 1941 on land at the York Street end of Radon Road which Perkins had purchased for this purpose. There the building served as, among other things a storage area for York’s historic newspapers. I once asked Old York Historic Librarian Emeritus Virginia “Ginny” Spiller (1936-2022) about those missing newspapers, and she surmised that one day a scrap drive truck backed up to the front door of the tavern and drove away with all that York History to serve in WWII.  

Portsmouth Herald September 8, 1942

Portsmouth Herald September 18, 1942

Mrs. Lucian B. Horton was Roberta Stockton (Benton) Horton (1886-1971). She was a summer resident of York, friend of Elizabeth Bishop Perkins (1869-1952) and she was the first director of the Elizabeth Perkins House.

Russell Perkins (1897-1980) was a WWI Army veteran and owned a Ford dealership on York Corner which was known as Perkins Motor Sales. He was also the treasurer of the York Water District for 25 years. 

Portland Press Herald October 5, 1942