Water Rails & Oil - Historic Mid & South Jefferson County

presentations by Texas Governor James V. Allred
and Louisiana Attorney General Gaston
Poerterie; each held one end of the ribbon so
Miss Mary Elizabeth Mills, daughter of a
Jefferson County Commissioner H. O. Mills,
could cut the ribbon.
Bert L. Barrett of Beaumont became a typical
user of the Rainbow Bridge after he went to work
at Dupont’s Sabine River plant in Orange late in
the 1940s. Barrett and three others in his car pool
crossed the Rainbow Bridge twice daily, going to
and from the Dupont plant every working day for
twenty-seven years. The bridge shortened transit
time considerably because commuters did not
have to wait for the ferry or drive to Orange via
Beaumont, almost twice the distance between
South Jefferson County and Orange.
The world returned to war in the 1930s
because of the aggression of Germany and Italy,
led by Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini, and
Japan, where the emperor had become a
figurehead in a country then in the hands of
militarists. England and France went to war
with Germany in 1938 over the German
invasion of Poland, and increased demand for
petroleum products stimulated the refining and
shipping industries located in Port Neches and
Port Arthur. The Burke-Wadsworth Act
instituted the first peacetime military draft in
American history, drawing several young men
into military assignments. War found the United
States on December 7, 1941, when Japanese
aerial forces launched from aircraft carriers,
“suddenly and deliberately” attacked the
American Navy, Marine, Army, and Army Air
Corps in Hawaii, especially in Pearl Harbor,
while the majority of the nation’s Pacific Fleet,
moored there, awoke on what had been, until
the attack, a leisurely Sunday morning.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounced
Japan’s attack, saying the day would live in
“infamy.” Congress declared war on Japan on
December 8, and two days later on Germany
and Italy because those nations honored their
Axis Powers agreement and declared war on the
United States.
Because of the draft and Roosevelt’s efforts to
aid England and France since 1938, America
was slightly more prepared for war than the
nation had been in 1917. The Army and Navy
already had begun the expansion that ultimately
grew into a thirteen-million person force; the
industrial base had matured, and the people
knew instantly, on December 7, what was at
stake in the war. Like Americans everywhere,
residents of south Jefferson County made
sacrifices because “there’s a war on, don’t you
know?” The Office of Price Administration
administered rationing of such staples as sugar
and coffee, which required ration stamps as well
as money to purchase, and meat, which
required “red points,” or dime-sized plastic
disks. Gasoline and shoes, also joined the ration
list. No autos were manufactured for civilians;
instead, car makers concentrated on jeeps and
tanks and semi trucks and airplanes. Victory
gardens appeared in many back yards, and
hordes of men—then women—not in a military
service, flocked to jobs in coastal shipyards,
refineries, and chemical plants, such as those
that produced synthetic rubber. Banners with
stars appeared in windows with each star
representing a household member in the
service; a gold star meant that soldier or sailor
from that home had been a casualty of the war.
Housing was as scarce as new tires, and many
wartime romances resulted in hasty marriages.
The reality of war came home with news that
sailor Joseph George Koenig of Port Arthur, aged
nineteen, had been killed in the attack on Pearl
Harbor. Over 1,000 men and a few women from
Port Arthur joined military services after Pearl
Harbor, many more were drafted, and Port
Arthur’s mayor, Dr. L. C. Heare, resigned to
accept a commission in the Army. The first
synthetic rubber was produced by B. F. Goodrich
with products supplied by Neches Butane
Company. Communities staged “black outs,” or
❖
The Port Arthur Traction Company
ran trollies from Woodworth
Boulevard, down Procter Street and
down Houston Avenue to The Texas
Company, and down West 7th Street
to the Gulf Oil refinery. They began
service in 1913 and ran until the
Interurban stopped service through
north Jefferson County and into
Beaumont. Service was discontinued
in 1937 due to the popularity of buses
and personal cars.
COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM OF THE GULF COAST,
PORT ARTHUR, TEXAS.
Chapter IV ✦ 35