The Draft Comes to Richland
Young men register for wartime service as local school principal resigns to manage family farm.
All the citizens of the district between the ages of 21 and 30 spent considerable time Tuesday registering under the draft ruling. Some of them didn’t go very willingly, however, but most of the Richland men who have not volunteered to date have a pretty good reason for such negligence. At the school meeting Saturday evening F. A. Friermood, recently elected principal of the Richland high school, tendered his resignation to the board for the reason that illness in the family made it imperative that he devote his entire time to the large ranches owned by the Friermood and Nelson families north of Richland.
“Some of them didn’t go very willingly, however, but most of the Richland men who have not volunteered to date have a pretty good reason for such negligence.”
This reflects the immediate, quiet tension of 1917 as the U.S. entered World War I. Richland, now famous for its role in the Manhattan Project, was once a collection of small farms where the 'draft' was a point of local debate and the community was inextricably tied to agricultural production.
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