The Nut Club
The year 1941 was a year that lived in "infamy." President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. Congress didn't bicker, and war was declared six and a half minutes later. The Senate vote was unanimous and only one dissenting vote was cast in the House of Representatives.
War had been hinted during the year and tensions were running high. Men were being sent to far off places in the world and the women who were left behind "had to make their own existence," Jessie Fine Whitenight told us.
We had set down with Jessie for a cranberry and ginger and she told us about the way things were during the war years for nine Benton women. We have followed their lives to the present day. Take the time to pour yourself a cup of coffee, shake out some unsalted cashews to get into the mood of things and we'll tell you the story of the Benton Nut Club.
In the early 1940s, nine high school girls formed a club which they called the "Nut Club," not a social organization that required its members to conceal certain activities like initiation or club ceremonies from outsiders, but an open and up-front true-blue group of friends united by survival Back Home in Benton, PA, during the war years whenbrothers, boyfriends and husbands were scattered around the world, several in harm's way. It was a very positive support group. The girls got together often, since the group was made up of "town" girls and "country" girls. The girls who lived in the country would catch rides to Benton and stay with their sisters in their organization and have slumber parties and camping trips and visits together to places like the Bloomsburg Fair and picnic groves and midnight shows at the Ritz Theater. The club was somewhat of a version of the ladies of the Joy Luck Club in the friendship of mothers, daughters and friends.
The girls made their own outfits unique to the club--brown and white check gingham with green rick-rack names. The trim was green rickrack with 2 rows around the bottom of the skirt and one row around the U shaped neckline.The respective nut name was spelled across the bodice.
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The girls also each had a necklace made with the nuts they represented. One of the members of the Nut Club, Jennie Warren, still has hers, in fact! Dorothy Burlew has her cashew necklace, still perfectly preserved with clear nail polish and it is shown on the left. |
The Nut Club even had their own special walk: " #1 left foot then right foot. Repeat this moving forward through count 2, 3, and 4. #5 left foot backwards, #6 right foot backwards, #7 left foot forward, #8 right foot forward. Then start all over again." Jennie Warren remembers that "We actually hiked over cemetery hill to the Cleaver Hess farm doing 'Our Walk.' "
As the years went on, the girls graduated from high school, went off to college or nursing school or the U.S. Nurse Cadet corps, married, had children--but always maintained their loyalty and friendship to each other.
Before we go on, perhaps it would be best to introduce you to the ladies who made up the Nut Club. You may recognize several names...
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Members of the Benton Nut Club in a picture taken two years after the group formed. The picture was taken at the farm of Mr. and Mrs. Cleaver Hess. |
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Members shown in the top row, left to right: Betty Sieg Brewington, Jennie Brewington Warren, Dorothy Hess Burlew, Betty Hess Shultz. In the bottom row, left to right: Jessie Fine Whitenight, Jerrie Hartman Appleman, Betty Rabb Helwig, Lois Fine McHenry, Sara Freedly Hall |
During the years following the club's organization, boyfriends, fathers and husbands shipped out and headed off to fight in far-off corners of the world. For example, Jessie Fine graduated from Sugarloaf High School in 1942. Classmates included William Ball, Darwood Snyder and Charles Hilley. These three boys enlisted after graduating 10th grade, went off to support the United States in war and all died in action.
Pvt. William Ball was the son of William and Sarah Ball, of R.D.#2 (Jamison City), Benton. He was in action in the Italian theatre and reported missing May 25, 1943.
S/Sgt Joseph D. (Spike) Snyder, R.D.#2 (Grassmere), Benton died from injuries incurred in a vehicle accident in Munich, Germany, on August 25 in either 1944 or 1945.
Pvt. Charles Reese Hilley was the son of Bruce and Leatha Hilley of R.D.#2 (Jamison City), Benton. He was killed instantly while advancing near the town of Gourbesville, Normandy, in hedgerow fighting on June 13, 1944. He was 18 years old and would have been 19 in July. He was the first reported casualty in the north end of the county. A brother, Keith Hilley, survives.
The ladies of the Nut Club banded together for security and companionship. Each day, word came back from the war effort about men wounded in action.
We can't mention everyone who was wounded, but names come to mind like William Drabot, wounded in North Africa, Private William J. Ball went missing in Italy, Private Robert O. Diltz was wounded in action in France, Private Lawrence Savage was wounded in Italy, Lt. Wayne Hartman received both the Silver Star and the Purple Heart for "gallantry in action" in the Australian theatre. Private Charles Hilley was killed in action in France. Corporal Joseph Robert Sands was injured in action in Germany. T-5 Harold Botsford was injured twice while serving with the U.S. Forces in the European Theatre. Lt. Arthur Wenner was returned from active duty with the U.S. Army because of physical disabilities. SSgt. James S. Kline was reported missing in Yugoslavia and then was held prisoner by the Germans for seven months during which time he was not allowed to receive a single piece of mail. Pfc. Harold Steinruck and Pfc. Willard Van Horn were killed in action in France. Lt. Jack McHenry was reported missing in action in the Pacific Theatre. Cpl. William Davis was wounded during the African and Sicilian campaigns. Pvt. Harold Coleman was wounded in the battle of Luxembourg and he later received the Purple Heart. Pvt. Royal Conrad was injured in action in Germany. Staff Sgt. Donald Fritz was wounded in France. T-5 Simon Pavalonis, one of five brothers serving, was wounded. Technical third Grade Joseph Snyder died in Munich. There were many others from the community killed or wounded in the war years. The Nut Club banded closer together with each report from the war front.
The girls did what they could to entertain themselves during the war years. They "fried" peanuts and sold them to make a little money, they went together to the Ritz Theater to see shows, including the New Year's Eve show in 1943. They often prepared food for their mothers, all of whom were simply called "Mrs. Nuts."
Jennie Brewington recalled the " saga of killing the chicken." We'll let Jennie tell you the story in her own words. "We were planning to prepare and serve a holiday dinner for our mothers. This involved killing a live chicken and Jessie volunteered to do that job. We all gathered in Jay McHenry's back yard where Jessie wielded the axe.However.her efforts left the chicken maimed but not yet dead. We had an audience of the men at the milk plant who, when they stopped laughing, came over and finished the job. Our mothers, the Mrs. .Nuts, really enjoyed the meal {or so they said}."
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Picture taken during a picnic at the Cleaver Hess' home |
Starting from the lower left, the names of the girls in 1941 and the "nut" names associated with them...
Top row: Betty Rabb Helwig - Chestnut; Betty Sieg Brewington - Peanut
Middle row: Jessie Fine Whitenight - Walnut; Betty Hess Schultz - Niggertoe¹; Sarah Friedly Hall - Butternut
Bottom row: Jennie Brewington Warren - Hickory Nut;
Jerrie Hartman Appleman - Acorn; Lois Fine McHenry - Hazel Nut; Dorothy Hess Burlew - Cashew
¹ Brazil nuts were sometimes referred to as "nigger toes," a term used in the past, but no longer considered acceptable since the Civil Rights movement.
Lois McHenry remembers a weekend sleep over at the cabin on Fishing creek in back of Herman and Jessie Hess’ place (Lois and Jessie’s mom and step dad’s farm in Grassmere). The neighbor farmer reported to Herman that he thought that he observed the girls skinny dipping in the creek, which got sisters Jessie and Lois in the most trouble. Lois also remembers experimenting with smoking cigarettes and everyone got so sick that they never smoked again!
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The Nut Club assembled at the wedding of Sara Freedly to Glen Hall,
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.Sarah Louise Freedly married Glen Hall, West Hartford, Connecticut, in June, 1954, at the Benton Christian Church with the Rev. Harry McGowan of the Benton Church and Rev. Calvin Buchannan of the First Presbyterian Church, Hartford, performing the double ring ceremony. |
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| Ira McHenry and Lois Fine met on a neighborhood dance floor in Benton. and they later married. | |||
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Ira, like a number of other husbands of women in the Nut Club, was shipped off during the war. He served in the Armed Forces for two years in Africa and England. | ||
From there, Ira landed with the American troops at Salerno, Italy, and was near the battle zones of Naples and Cisterna. Ira returned to Benton where he rejoined his wife, Lois, then the couple moved to York, PA. Ira passed away November 24, 2005. |
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| T-Sgt John Brewington served with the Persian Gulf Command in Iran for thirty months. John entered the service in August, 1941. John was eventually discharged from the Army at Camp Beale, California, in November, 1945. | |||
| Jessie M. Fine married Leonard Wenner, Stillwater, December 19, 1945 in Sonestown. Rev. Jonathan Corle performed the service. Jessie graduated from Benton High School in the class of 1944. she participated in the Cadet Nursing Corps, class of 1947, at Geisinger Memorial Hospital. Leonard was a graduate of the Benton High School class of 1943. He was a farmer. After the ceremony, the couple left on a wedding trip to York, PA, where they visited with Lois and Ira McHenry. | |||
| Betty Janette Sieg, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Sieg, Third Street, married Warren B. Ward, son of Rev. Harry S. Ward, a former Benton pastor, later of Catawissa and Edgewater, Maryland. They were married at the Memorial Methodist Church in Mayo, Maryland, Betty graduated from Benton High School and the Empire Beauty College, Wilkes-Barre, and operated a beauty shop in Benton. Ward was a graduate of South Williamsport High School and was discharged from the Army after 35 months of service. He was stationed in the Pacific area for 27 months. The couple resided in Edgewater, Maryland, after marriage. In 1961, Betty married John Brewington at the Benton Methodist church. The Rev. Samuel Kissiel performed the service. Mrs. Brewington operated Betty's Beauty Shop and John was associated with the Argus. | |||
| Betty Kareen Rabb, daughter of Robert and Lola Rabb, married Joe Helwig, Catawissa, at the Benton Presbyterian Church in 1948. Betty was an RN, a Cadet Nurse, a roommate of fellow Nut Club member Dorothy Hess, a 1948 graduate of the Presbyterian Hospital, Philadelphia. | |||
| Jerrie Appleman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A.J. Hartman married Martin Appleman, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Burr Appleman, in a double ring ceremony by Rev. Sidney Bliss in the Benton Christian Church. | |||
| Betty Hess, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Cleaver Hess, married Ensign Carl Shultz, son of Mr.and Mrs. Guy Shultz. Betty was a graduate of the Benton High School, class of 1943, and was a sophomore at the Bloomsburg State Teachers College at the time. Ensign Shultz graduated from Benton High School with the class of 1942 and was stationed at Miami. | |||
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Members of the Nut Club meeting at Chimney Stack Hunting Club,
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John and Betty Brewington hosted the group at Chimney Stack, near Red Rock. Attending were Dr. and Mrs. William Warren, Paoli (Mrs. Warren was the former Jennie Brewington); Mr. and Mrs. Carl Shultz, Warminister (Mrs. Shultz was the former Betty Hess); Mr. and Mrs. Hobart Whitenight ( Mrs. Whitenight was the former Jessie Fine); Mr. and Mrs. Ira McHenry, York (Mrs. McHenry was the former Lois Fine); Mrs. Martin Appleman, the former Jerrie Hartman; Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Helwig, Springfield (Mrs. Helwig was the former Betty Rabb); Mr. and Mrs. Glen Hall, Wykoff, NJ (Mrs. Hall was the former Sara Freedly); Dr. and Mrs. Robert Burlew, Fair Haven, NJ (Mrs. Burlew was the former Dorothy Hess); Mr. and Mrs. John Brewington (Mrs. Brewington was the former Betty Sieg). At the time of the Chimney Stack reunion, the "girls" had 22 children. There were fourteen married children and eleven grandchildren. |
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Another picture from the Chimney Stack Reunion in 1968 during their 27th anniversary |
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Members pictured are: |
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| bottom row: Jessie Fine, Betty Rabb, Lois Fine, Sara Freedly | ||
| top row: Betty Sieg, Jerrie Appleman, Jennie Brewington, Dorothy Hess, Betty Shultz | ||
Where are the "girls" today, you ask?
. Jessie Fine spent much of her life as a LPN. She married Leonard Wenner in 1945. Leonard passed away in 1975. Jessie then married Hobe Whitenight in 1978. Jessie and Hobe have four children, three for Jessie and one for Hobe.
. Jerrie Appleman was a beautician in Benton, lived much of her married life in the house at the corner of Center and Main Streets, then known as the Burr Appleman house. She married Martin Appleman, and they had two daughters.
. Lois Fine married Ira McHenry, who passed away November 24, 2005. Lois worked at the former Ross Harrison IGA Store on Market Street and sold AVON products for over 25 years. There are two children, Irene and John. In January, 2005, Lois moved into the Masonic Village, Elizabethtown, PA, where Lois currently lives.
. Sara Freedly married Glen Hall and had a son and a daughter. She was a teacher during her working career. The Halls live in Rolling Green Village, Greenville, SC.
. Betty Brewington was a beautician for much of her working career, with an office on Church Street, in a building that has now been incorporated into the Benton Christian Church. She has three sons: Don, David and Rick. She lives in Indiantown, FL.
. Jennie Brewington married Dr. William Warren, a dermatologist. Jennie was an RN, a Cadet Nurse Corps and graduated from Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia, in 1947. She and Dr. Warren have four children and live in Malvern, PA.
. Dorothy Hess married Dr. Robert Burlew. The couple have three daughters and one son. Dorothy graduated from Presbyterian Hospital, Philadelphia, in 1948, was a cadet nurse, and worked as an RN until the last few years. Dorothy lives in Fairhaven, NJ. Mr. Burlew died in 1991 after serving in the Korean War. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and interned in Red Bank, NJ.
. Betty Hess married Carl Shultz. She was a teacher for much of her working career. She passed away in 2005. The couple had one son, Scott. They resided in Warminster, PA.• Betty Rabb Helwig lived with her husband, Joe, in Springfield, PA, for 52 years before moving to Riddle Village in 2004. The couple have two sons and two grandchildren. Betty did a lot of volunteer work and was an EMT with Springfield Ambulance Corps for many years. She gave thirty years to the Red Cross as a First Aid Instructor and Blood Mobile History nurse.
Ruth Vance remembers that she and other Benton girls formed a Nut Club for themselves a number of years after the original club was formed. There were about 13 girls in the one to which Ruth belonged. Ruth recalls that "Linda Wenner Morris, daughter of Jesse Fine Whitenight, was one of the girls and maybe was the one with the idea." Sue Karns Thursby and Judy Houseweart Wenner were also in the club, as were Cheryl Yaple Levalley, Mary Ann Klementik Moore, and Marie Posey Roberts.The second Nut Club was not very structured and as Ruth told us "We just had fun and went to each others homes for meetings and just goofed off. The original Nut Club was much more productive." The girls did have a neat theme sone, which went like this...
A Rootie, toot, toot,
A rootie, toot, toot
We are the girls
From the Nut Club Troop.
We don't smoke
And we don't chew
And we don't go
With the boys who do!
The Nut club had a sister club made up of 8 to 12 year-old members. The group was called "the Hiking and Biking Club," and was patterned after "The Four Flat Tires and A Spare," Betty Jane Yost and friend's club. Members included Barbara Sherman, Elaine Taylor, Geraldine Yost, Barbara Long and Joselle Confair. Joselle Confair remembers that "Jesse Fine, Lillian Yost and Betty Rabb were our role models and we too have stories to tell."
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Elaine Taylor Hartman has "happy memories of the Hiking and Biking Club," including "cleaning out the Yost chicken coop on Market street" and putting on a play that Dr. Confair wrote for the girls. The girls "put on a circus at the lumber piles." Elaine Taylor was the "tight-rope walker and walked on a plank that was about six inches off the ground.
The girls--now grown-up ladies--were specific on some details, but vague on other details. One of the "girls" in the club mischievously said to another one of the former club members, "We also had some experiences down in the woods below the lumber yard. Do you remember one particular day?" We immediately realized that we were going to get no further details on that particular subject.
Geraldine Yost was always one of the most popular members of the group, since "it was always make your own sundae at the Yost restaurant.
During one camping trip that Dottie and Betty Rabb took the group on near the Rock Hole on the Cole farm, a hired man left the bull out in the pasture not realizing the girls were camping there and he played havoc with their food and tent. But this, too, is a story for another day.
