Harry Meier
World War II
Harry Meier was born May 10, 1913, in Minnesota to Karl and Catherine Meier. He was the sixth of nine children, with three sisters and five brothers. When he was two years old, his family moved to Osmond, where his youngest two brothers were born.
His father died in 1924, when Harry was 11 years old. Much of the rest of the family, including Harry, moved to the Randolph community in 1937, when he was about 24 years old. In the 1940 census, he was living with his brother Charles and wife Fern west of Randolph, as partners in a farming operation.
In 1942, when he was about 29 years old, Harry was inducted into the military and served in the Air Corps ground crew in Australia and New Guinea.
During the war, the Air Corps — later called theArmyAir Force — used Australia as a critical base for Pacific operations, specifically targeting Japanese forces. The ground crews were essential for operational success, with a ratio of up to seven support personnel for every pilot. These highly-trained specialists worked around the clock — often outdoors in harsh conditions — to repair battle damage, maintain engines and loan ammunition to "keep 'em flying."
Harry was discharged in 1945.
After he was discharged, Harry went into the carpenter business, then purchased a service station and tavern west of Randolph in 1947. When Highway 20 was relocated in 1956, he moved his station and café to the location one-half mile south of the highways 20 and 81 junction (currently Jerry’s Hilltop, owned by grandniece Alice "Toots" Albers).
On July 11, 1957, Harry was injured in a pickup truck accident. He and Stanley Dias, an employee at the station, were headed north of Pierce on Highway 98 when the truck veered to the left side of the road, then swung back to the right, where it plunged over the end of a culvert into a gulley reported variously as 13, 15 or 20 feet deep.
Both men were taken to a Norfolk hospital and Harry immediately underwent surgery. It was found that he had a badly torn liver as well as severe lacerations. He died two days later on July 13, at 44 years old. According to the news report, this was the first traffic fatality in Pierce County that year.
Harry was buried in St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery, along with his parents and several of his siblings.
Sadly, his youngest brother, Ferdinand or "Ferdie," also died young, when he passed a little over a year later of a heart attack at the age of 37.
Thank you to Pam Libra, greatniece of Harry, for the picture.
