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Show Mike Erown- JusiV.,:. Liberty Loans in Uintah County One form of investment in America that is encouraged widely is the purchase pur-chase of U.S. Savings Bonds. This is not a recent idea, but dates back quite a ways in our history. When the United States was at war, the savings bonds were called Liberty Bonds or Victory Bonds. People would buy the bonds and the government would be able to use the cash immediately for the war effort. Normally these certificates would be redeemed at some time after hostilities had ceased. Purchasing bonds was what the people on the home front did to support the boys overseas. During World War I here in Uintah County, there were several Liberty Loan Drives. The second Liberty Loan Drive was unique in Utah and probably one of the shortest on record in all the United States. On Friday night, October 12, 1917, the chairman of the Liberty Loan Committee Com-mittee in Uintah County Mr. L.W. Curry, received word that the county was apportioned $85,000 to raise. Quite a sizable sum of money even today. The committee immediately called for a mass public meeting the next evening-Saturday evening-Saturday night to be held in the tabernacle for the purpose of raising the cash. Between Friday night and the start of the tabernacle meeting less than 24 hours later, $56,000 was raised. During the course of the meeting, citizens of Uintah County who jammed the building's every nook and cranny, pledged another $21,000. At the end of the meeting, a few of the county's prominent men on the speaker's stand pledged the remaining $8,000. Thus in less than one day from receiving word, Uintah County patriots had come up with the entire allotment. Quite a feat that was never duplicated. |